Vayeira
Vayeira is a story of violence, trauma and abuse. We see four children in our Parsha and how each of them is the victim of trauma. The trauma is the product of an act of violence unprecedented in magnitude. In the beginning of our Parsha G-d judges, sentences and executes judgment against Sodom. The obliteration of Sodom, though righteous and justified, create waves of trauma that nearly drown out the newly emerging nation of Israel.
Just before raining fire and phosphorus on Sodom, G-d delivers Lot and his two daughters from the doomed city. They end up in a cave in the mountains, certain that the whole world has been destroyed. Alone and terrified but with the purest of intentions the two girls enter into an incestuous relationship with their father, after plying him with alcohol. The Sages while exonerating the young girls for seducing their father condemns Lot for being seduced. The trauma that he experienced in Sodom’s destruction calcified his cynicism into indifference to all, even his daughters. The violence that destroyed Sodom claims two more victims.
Next Hagar and Ishmael are banished from Avraham’s house. She gets lost, rus out of water and abandons her sick son under a tree. Eventually an angles saves her, revealing a well. Hagar deserts her son in the moment of his greatest need, the lesson she internalized from Sodom’s destruction is that G!d abandons the wicked and so she abandons her son. Ishmael lives, but the fatal indifference that his mother showed him become his modis aparendi. He becomes a warrior and hunter, indifferent to the pain of others. The trauma of Sodom’s destruction creates a victim who then becomes a victimizer.
Finally we have Avraham and Yitzak. G!d sends Avraham on a three day journey at the end of which he is to sacrifice his son Yitzhak. After pleading with G!d to save Sodom, and loosing, Avraham learns from Sodom’s destruction that somethimes murder is part of G-d’s plan. The trauma of Sodom’s destruction is about to claim another victim, Yitzak is lying on the altar, when an angel from G-d stops it all. Finally G-d stops the process that he initiated.
Our Parsha contains two essential lessons about violence and trauma. The first is that trauma is the result of all violence, regardless of whether or not it is justified and righteous. No matter the cause the outcome is always destructive. The second is that it is the obligation of every Jew, especially parents, to stop trauma from advancing to the next generation. The crimes committed against the children in our Parsha continue to destroy the lives of children all over the world today. G-d sent his angel to protect Yitzak, now he is sending us.
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Yehoshua Ellis