Vayeira - Avraham, a Paragon of Chessed (16/11/2019)

We are going to play a game.

I will quote a slogan devised by a council or city and see if
you can guess which area I am referring to:

1. 'The County of Opportunity' (Hertfordshire)
2. 'Putting the Community First' (Barnet)
3. 'Building a Better Borough' (Brent)
4. ' Home of the Derby' (Epsom)
5. 'Inspiring Capital’ (Edinburgh)
6. 'It's not quite heaven, but it's better than Devon'/ (Cornwall - also 'where we sell
proper pastys' and other witty examples.)
7. 'Surrey welcomes you to.... Surrey'

‘Public relations’ is key in being able to sell a location to people, who might wish to either
visit an area or live there.

Let's look at how the Torah 'sells' Sodom to anyone who wished to live there (a few choice
verses) ....

Genesis 10:19

The [original] Canaanite territory extended from Sidon as far as Gerar, near Gaza, and
as far as Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, near Lasha.

This first reference denotes the geographical territory of the descendants of the sons of
Noach.

Genesis 13:12-13

Abram remained in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled in the cities of the Plain,
pitching his tents near Sodom.  Now the inhabitants of Sodom were very wicked
sinners against the LORD.

Genesis 18:20

Then the LORD said, “The outrage of Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and their
sin so grave!

Isaiah 3:9

Their partiality in judgment accuses them; They avow their sins like Sodom, They do
 not conceal them. Woe to them! For ill Have they served themselves.

Jeremiah 23:14

 But what I see in the prophets of Jerusalem is something horrifying: Adultery and false
dealing. They encourage evildoers, so that no one turns back from his wickedness. To Me,
they are all like Sodom, and [all] its inhabitants like Gomorrah.

The Bible doesn't popularise Sodom, even in later books.

It's not bad enough that it was destroyed, along with Gomorrah, but the Prophets
continuously use the city as a benchmark for what is considered to be the byword for "evil
and immoral behaviour".

In modern (and ancient) English, the city even lends its name to an
immoral act (that I won't mention here), which is directly derived from the Bible.

So why is Avraham Avinu praying for this cesspit to be saved?

What is going on here? Doesn't he believe the PR?!

We are told in Genesis 18:23-24

Abraham came forward and said, “Will You sweep away the innocent along with the
guilty? What if there should be fifty innocents within the city; will You then wipe out
the place and not forgive it for the sake of the innocent fifty who are in it?

Our Rabbis tell us that the Patriarchs were each endowed with a unique character trait - a
middah (literally, the ‘measure’ of a person).

 Avraham's was Midat Hachessed - a deep and genuine level of kindness towards all fellow
 human beings. Yitzchak's was Gevurah – inner spiritual strength (as witnessed in his response to the Akeida/binding) and Yaakov's was Middat Ha’emet - truth.

Coming back to Avraham, whilst Gd gave him ten tests (ending with the Akeida), he never
flinched from his beliefs and wish to show kindness to anyone - from the hospitality he
showed towards the Angels who visited him at the start of the Parashah, to his humanity
towards Hagar, despite Sarah's wish to drive her away. Avraham was a true mensch.
He lived and breathed chessed, hence his wish to try to do his best to save the people in a
city, who frankly, didn't deserve to be rescued.

 Last Wednesday (13th November), we marked 'Annual World Kindness Day'. The official
  website is called "Random Acts of Kindness" and the movement's slogan is "Making
 kindness the norm".

Ideas to promote the day include:

• Sending an encouraging email to someone you know
• Complimenting drivers on how well they parked their cars
• Finding out something new about a co-worker
• Wheeling out your neighbour's bins
• Using energy efficient lightbulbs
• Avoid jumping to conclusions

At times, when we switch on the TV, radio, computer or even read a newspaper, we get a
sense that there is so much evil out there, that kindness seems to be have been eclipsed by
the darkness of human nature.

The city of Sodom where Lot chose to live, surrounding himself with a society that was
thoroughly immoral, did not deserve any sort of reprieve - yet Avraham did everything he
could to obtain this - and Gd, who had declared his intention to destroy the city, listened and
even agreed to pardon those who were unpardonable - because there was one good man
whose kindness, whose chessed could have tipped the balance.

Had he succeeded, had Sodom possessed ten good men, then the PR it received could have
been upgraded and rebranded and the English language would have had to find another word
to describe the immoral act.

Many years later, the evil people in a city called Nineveh found themselves in a similar
situation and yet, with Teshuvah, with repentance, they managed to avoid such a fate.
Avraham's chessed shows us that, when there is good in the world, it can bring light to even
the most overcast night - with chessed, there is always hope.

The middot that we learn from Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov have been inculcated into
our collective psyche and although the wonderful idea of "Word Kindness Day" is a panacea
to a difficult world situation - we can, if we wish, make each day a 'world kindness' one.

Our fellow citizens look to us to set the example and if we show kindness, courage and
honesty in the way we portray ourselves - could we ever create a better slogan for the Jewish
 people?

Shabbat Shalom.

Lech Lecha- Saving (Private) Lot (09/11/2019)

"In the last Great Invasion of the Last Great War, the Greatest Danger for Eight Men was Saving...One...."

This was part of the tagline for what is arguably one of the greatest war films ever made - 'Saving Private Ryan'.

When it came out 21 years ago, veterans of the D-Day Landings, such as G.I. Frank DeVita, said that the first twenty minutes of the film were accurate. Others said that they represented the closest that non-combatants could get to the horror that faced the soldiers who risked (and in many cases, lost) their lives on 6th June, 75 years ago on Omaha Beach, Dog Green Sector.

Frank was only 19.

If you've seen the film, you know how harrowing some of the scenes are, as the eight soldiers fight their way through France to find the elusive Private Ryan and save him - his parents last remaining child. The only one of the his brothers who hasn't been killed in battle.

The Israeli Army has a dictum that no soldier is ever left out on the field and they will go to extraordinary lengths to rescue our wounded brothers on the field of battle.

So, from where does this noble idea emanate?

Genesis 14:9-12

[The invaders] seized all the wealth of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their provisions and went their way. (12) They also took Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, and his possessions, and departed; for he had settled in Sodom.

Genesis 14:14

(14) When Abram heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he mustered his retainers, born into his household, numbering three hundred and eighteen, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.

Rashi on Genesis 14:14:3

'שמנה עשר וגו THREE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN — Our Rabbis said, “It was Eliezer alone whom he armed and it (318) is the numerical value of his name” (Nedarim 32a).

Genesis 14:15-16

(15) At night, he and his servants deployed against them and defeated them; and he pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus. (16) He brought back all the possessions; he also brought back his kinsman Lot and his possessions, and the women and the rest of the people.

Avram, one man with possibly a single servant (if you follow Rashi's dictum which is how it is accepted) went to war against the four kings - just in order to rescue his nephew. Can you imagine that?

Why did he do it - because he knew that it was the right thing to do.

He knew that he had to save his 'Private Ryan'.

He had no option but to risk his life, putting into jeopardy the future of his progeny, leaving his wife possibly widowed. Losing everything he could aspire to be.

Because.

In that war, the greatest danger for two men was saving one man.

Avram and Eliezer, risked their lives simply to save one man, who had previously preferred to leave his uncle and live in the sin drenched hellhole that was Sodom. A city that would soon be found to be unredeemable by Gd, as we will see next week.

Avram cast his own mortality to the winds because there was something more important to do. He had to rescue Lot, irrespective of how much he did or did not deserve to be saved.

3000 years ago, he established the dictum - you never leave a man out there on the field, whatever the price. 

In Whitehall tomorrow and next week and on Monday at 11.00 am, we will remember those of our nation who made the ultimate sacrifice and paid for it with their lives.

They fought an enemy who knew no mercy, in wars that made little sense and in which millions of people were killed in battle or murdered through a deliberate and state endorsed policy of genocide.

They too engaged in suicidal missions which many knew might not succeed and which would and, in many times, did cost them and their families dearly. Yet, like Avram and his servant, outnumbered, out-gunned, out-witted and out-manoeuvred, they still threw caution to the wind and did what they could to save their own Private Ryans.

And it is for this reason that today, we, the fortunate ones, owe them, the victims of war, our greatest respect and gratitude and we remember them precisely because of what they did - and the victory that their colleagues eventually achieved. 

Every day in many different locations, our Avrams and Eliezers, our Wingates and Montys, our Dayans and Rabins fight the battles that were they to lose, we could not win.

May the memories of every single serviceman and woman who fell for this country be in our minds, hearts and thoughts and may they rest in eternal peace, Amen.

Shabbat Shalom.