Greg Cicchino

The last Vayera

As I said in my last drash, what portion I choose is pretty much random to me. I did my usual einey-meeney miney-mo-not-too-close-to-the-HHD thing. Far enough away and such a lucky day right? Liz looked it all over and said “well Greg, you got Sodom and Gomorrah.”The irony was not lost, we all laughed. See, Liz’s wisdom stays with us even as she is at home with her newborn. But I found her comment actually illuminates a great point. Sure, Vayiera contains one big part that everybody knows and many people have used against gays. Hence the aforementioned irony and laughing.  But so many people talk so much about that, so I’ll talk about something else - kinda. When I actually read the entire parsha, I was shocked – it’s LONG! it is not just Sodom and Gomorrah, it is also about Abraham’s visit from God in the form of three angels, Isaac’s conception, the death of Lot’s wife, the impregnation of Lot’s daughters by Lot, the birth of Isaac, the expulsion of Hagar and God’s big test of Abraham.  I don’t think a lot of people know about the rest of the portion or at least that it is in fact a single portion, linked together for a reason. In all honesty, I’d be willing to bet that the Christians that throw “Sodomite Judgment” around more than anybody else would think Hagar is a Sunday morning comic. (My quick very scientific survey of my Christian friends support that claim.) 

It seems as if so often we focus on one big tree and not so much the forest. How often that happens in real life! We get so fixated on a single point of view that we are able to so effectively ignore all others, or even warp those other points of view to strengthen our own? I think that many would agree that there is in reality quite a bit more wisdom in that parsha than what the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah teach us, (whatever you interpret those sins to be). The thing that really makes me think is, much of what is said in the rest of this portion is hypocritical and seemingly contradictory, at least by today’s standards. Incest is ok but homosexuality is not? There’s a funny thing going around on facebook about how many states a same-sex couple can get married and how many states cousin’s can get married and how gross it is that the latter map is far more
colored in. But, God clearly didn’t agree at the time.

I have heard often from the clergy that the Torah is a living document and not one frozen in time. That the wisdom changes as the eras pass. I completely agree. But I think its also important to look at what God was trying to do at the time. He was building the foundation of a people. Abraham didn’t have a very big family yet! Baby making was definitely a priority so “spilling the seed” as we
learn elsewhere isn’t looked very highly upon. And it was pretty clear that those guys in Sodom weren’t very friendly either. If God was going to choose a father of his people, he better be sure that this guy has what it takes. God allowing Hagar to be exiled probably ended up saving the lives of that branch of the family tree. In short, sometimes choices that those in charge make (no one
being more-so in charge than God) aren’t necessarily fan-favorites. 

This is where the faith comes in. Though something may seem unequal or unfair at the moment, as children for example are so quick to claim, perhaps the decision is being made is being made with information to which we are not privy. But with all of what some may call God’s questionable choices: the people standing and the work we are doing here are the result. Of course this is not a request to become slaves to “the system” or a carte blanch “ends justify the means” this is
not an excuse to not speak up for injustice. Rather, it is an invitation to consider other points of view and motivations before judgment and condemnation.