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Date Posted: 11:44:36 11/09/03 Sun
Author: schwabra
Author Host/IP: dialup-67.29.206.224.Dial1.Cincinnati1.Level3.net / 67.29.206.224
Subject: It was the _____ of times

It Was the _____ of Times…

Now pay attention, class, there's a lot to be covered in Lech Lecha.

It begins with G-d's commandment to Abram (not yet Abraham) to go out from his land to another place "that I will show thee." No specific location named.

He sets out with his wife, Sarai, and Lot, his brother-in-law. The text notes that Abram and Lot were rich in gold and silver, had flocks and herds and tents. Upper-middle-class, to say the least. Good news. Yet here they were, like nomads, traveling without benefit of Mapquest or Global Positioning System to an unknown destination.

They eventually meet up with Pharaoh, who takes a fancy to Sarai. Bad news. But this Pharaoh has a sense of integrity and morals; when he finds out that she is already married, he sends the group on its way again. Good news.

Now Abram's herdsmen and Lot's herdsmen begin to battle, because there isn't enough sustenance in the land to care for all their flocks. Bad news. But Abram offers Lot his choice of territory: "Is not the whole land before thee?...if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will take the right; or if thou take the right hand I will go to the left." Good news.

Then there is a little item that future literary critics will call pre-figuring: "Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well-watered everywhere" - good news - "before the L-rd destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah…" Lot doesn't know this yet, of course. But Torah gives us a fast-forward to some more bad news.

And so the story goes, through some conflicts with the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, the birth of Ishmael, the re-naming of Abraham and Sarah, and ultimately to the announcement that Isaac will be born to them.

Good news, bad news, mixed news, omens and blessings. Best of times? Worst of times? At any point, Abraham could have taken a snapshot of his life and been pessimistic or optimistic. But there is no hint that he does either. The patriarch of us all does not seem to give in to the meaning of the moment, never whimpers or boasts, but goes about his business trusting simply and always that he is being treated properly by his G-d.

And that, students, is today's lesson.

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