This week's portion recounts many of the most interesting events in the life of Abraham -- from the visit of the three angels; to the argument with God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah; to the expulsion of Ishmael and Hagar; and to the near-sacrifice of Isaac, the ultimate test of Abraham's faith and love.
It's hard to imagine a man who loves God so much that he is willing to sacrifice the thing he loves the most -- especially when it is his son. It is also, if we are honest with ourselves, hard to image why God would ever ask this of someone.
It seems there is a connection between the argument that Abraham has with God on the one hand, and the test of the sacrifice of Isaac, on the other.
If human beings needed to know that God would deal justly with the world, and had to test him, then perhaps God needed to know that human beings would believe in Him, and had to test Abraham just as Abraham had tested him.
Perhaps God also wanted to show Abraham just how painful it was for Him to sacrifice his own creatures in Sodom and Gomorrah, to show him -- though a similar experience -- that it was not easy for him to kill them, evil as they were.
The additional reading tells a related story from II Kings: the story of the Prophet Elisha and a young boy -- like Isaac, a prophesied gift to a barren couple -- who later died, and was resurrected through healing and prayer.
https://www.chabad.org/parshah/torahreading.asp?aid=2492488&p=complete
This week'd portion begins the book of Numbers. Interestingly, the Hebrew name for the book is "In the Desert," not "Numbers." The portion, which happens to be my bar mitzvah portion, focuses almost as much on the names of the princes of each tribe as the number of soldiers it fielded. It also focuses on the configuration of the tribal camps around the central Tabernacle and the Levites.
So why "Numbers" instead of "Names" or "Places"? The numbers are, to be sure, a unique feature of the opening of this Biblical book -- but they are not the focus of the rest of the narrative. The Hebrew focuses on the place where the events in the book take place, because essentially this is the narrative of the Israelites' wanderings from Egypt to Israel, across 40 years. We move from the giving of the Torah and the construction of the Tabernacle in Exodus and Leviticus, to the final valediction of Moses in Deuteronomy -- Bamidbar is the story of wandering that happened in between.
The question of ...
This week's portion begins with the laws of the Sabbath and the Sabbatical year, and the Jubilee year that restores all land to its original (tribal) owners. It also explores laws of property and labor that will apply in the Land of Israel, and the laws of vows and inheritance.
The Israelites are presented -- not for the last time -- with the essential moral choice that they must face, and the rewards for choosing well, along with the consequences for choosing poorly.
We learn that doing good things will earn God's protection from enemies. That does not mean that victims of terror, God forbid, were sinful. But it does mean that we can respond to evil by committing ourselves to a higher path.
This week's portion describes the major sacrifices that are to be offered by the Jewish people, including those that are offered only by the priestly Kohen class, and physical requirements of the people (men) who serve in that role.
Inter alia, there are interesting commandments -- such as an injection to treat animals with respect and care, first, by letting a mother animal nurse her offspring for a week before being offered in any sacrifice; and second, by refraining from slaughtering an animal and its offspring on the same day.
The commandments regarding animals remind us of the purpose of those regarding human beings: to uphold a divine connection, through ritual.
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/111878/jewish/Rabbi-Isaac-Luria-The-Ari-Hakodosh.htm
