Vayera 5775

Vayera 5775

First---my favorite joke.
A Rabbi and his wife were waiting out the terrible flood in their town.  The Rabbi prayed for the rain to stop.  As the water rose higher and higher, he and his wife were forced to go up to the highest level of the house.  They looked out the window and a lifeboat came to the house----“Rabbi, you and your wife have to get in.  The levy has broken and you’ll drown.” His wife got in the boat but the Rabbi insisted that his prayers would stop the rain.  The lifeboat left.  The rain continued, the Rabbi prayed, the water rose and the Rabbi fled to the roof.  Another lifeboat came by.  “Rabbi, this is the last lifeboat.  Get in.  You’ll drown.” “No,” said the Rabbi, “My prayers will stop the rain.”  The lifeboat left; the Rabbi prayed, the rain continued and the Rabbi drowned!  When he got to heaven, he demanded an audience with God.  He went before the Almighty and asked why God hadn’t heard his prayers and stopped the rain.  “What’s the matter?” asked God.  “Didn’t you get the 2 lifeboats I sent?”
(With thanks to Rabbi Siegel who told me that joke about 15 years ago.)

Now, let’s talk about the prophet Elisha, the central figure in this week’s Haftarah for Parasha Vayera.  We learn of two women he helps.  In the first story, Elisha’s miracle allows a poor widow to retain her dignity by having her pour oil from her small jug into borrowed vessels---the small jug miraculously holds enough oil to fill many many vessels of oil and the woman can then sell the oil to support her family.  Elisha has helped her to help herself.

In the second story, a wealthy Shunemite woman who has offered Elisha hospitality on numerous occasions becomes pregnant after Elisha tells her she will bear a son. (Like Sarah in this week’s Torah portion, she has an elderly husband and doesn’t believe she will have a child.) She indeed bears a son who, after growing up, takes ill one day and dies.  The woman rushes to find Elisha and will not leave him until he agrees to come home with her since she believes he can heal her son.   Elisha follows her home and does heal the boy.

What are we to learn from all these stories?

These are all stories of faith and hope and that we can have miracles in our everyday life simply by asking for help or accepting help when it is offered.  Elisha won’t be waiting for us around the next corner, but our friends, our family and our community are there---sometimes with vessels to donate that we can fill or sometimes helping us fill those vessels.  We probably won’t see a flaming chariot descend from the heavens but we may get a meal from a caring friend when chemo has left us too drained to move.   Perhaps we will have a chance encounter with a bicyclist who warns us of a treacherous turn in the upcoming path which keeps us from having a terrible accident.  Or we may get an offer of a part time job that will put food on the table, allowing us to maintain our dignity. 

Miracles surround us every day.  We must be open to the possibility that miracles can happen to us and be ready to act. And we have a choice---we can be skeptical and dismiss those who want to help (we can send the lifeboat away) or we can accept their help, their advice, their guidance and get in the boat!! 
The choice is ours.

Shabbat Shalom,
Debby Lewis

Vayera 5773

Vayera 5774

This week’s Torah portion, Vayera tells the story of the three angels who come to visit the tent of Abraham and Sarah. Abraham and Sarah exemplify the mitzvah, the commandment of hachnasat orchim; rushing out to greet the stranger, to welcome them into their tent, to show them hospitality and caring. This stranger relates to this elderly couple that they will have a child together.

The story continues that these angels have another mission. They are enroute to Sodom and Gomorrah and they will destroy these cities. God shares this plan with Abraham and Abraham’s response is well known “will not the judge of the whole world, judge justly?” Abraham has the temerity to challenge God and to question God’s judgment. 

We begin with 50, 40, 30, 20 then 10 souls; if found to be righteous can save Sodom and Gomorrah. The question that one might ask is, why not one? Wouldn’t it be worth saving Sodom and Gomorrah if there was one righteous person that lived there? Why should that one person be destroyed with the entire city? Didn’t God ever hear the famous rabbinic dictum, “if you saved one life, it’s as if you saved the whole world?”   Why wouldn’t that apply here? 

Our tradition weighs this question, and the answer is constructive. Ten people can save the world, one person can not. Ten people can go out and affect other lives, but one person can not save an entire world.  
This is where we have the idea of a minyan, a prayer community. Ten people can bring God into the world; ten people can affect the world and even save it. That is the lesson. Leaders can inspire others, but ten people can save the world.

This is what a synagogue does, I believe. A synagogue is in the business of changing the world for the better.  We invite people in, people are involved, [and] they are affected by what happens here. They are inspired by our tradition that is taught here. But the real test is how people go from here and make a difference outside the doors. And I know of the work of this community.

This past week, I had the privilege of attending The Conversation of the Century. It is the 100th [year] anniversary of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism; the Synagogue Arm of our Movement. And rather than having a convention, they had a conclave of conversations. From morning until night, small sessions took place on a whole variety of topics. All in an effort to energize congregations through out the country to take these conversations back, turn them into action and to change the world for the better. What was especially powerful for me at this gathering was to watch Rabbi David Ackerman, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, Rabbi Daniel Burg, and Rabbi Charles Savenor, who was one of the principals of the event.  Each one of these rabbis who all began their rabbinate here at Anshe Emet, are leading communities. Each one is making a difference. Each one is inspiring more than ten people to be sure to change the world.
What a remarkable lesson our Torah reading offers each of us. We can not do it alone. And so we need to be in a relationship with each other, we need to join together to make a difference in the world that needs our help, needs our caring, needs our voices and our hands. Let us take the lesson of Sodom and Gomorrah, let us join together with others, let us make a difference and perhaps we will do our part to save the world.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Michael Siegel