Vayeira, וַיֵּרָא   "And He Appeared" Genesis 18:1-22:24

Vayera / Where Is Your Wife, Sarah? 5783

Poetic notes on parashat Vayera*

Abraham sat in his weakness after his circumcision

near the oak by the portal of heaven,

where he called out upon the name of the Lord, 

the God of the world

The archangels heard Abraham praying there and trembled

The faithful souls from the end of the ages of suffering

turned and looked back through the fields of time,

to listen carefully to what Abraham prayed there

long before, in the eishel orchard in Be'er-Sheva*

He had pitched his holy tent there,

his tent that was not a tent like any other tent,

but a tower that hung down from heaven

He sat alone in the entrance of that tent, that tower,

And he saw the Presence of Hashem taking hold of that place

The breeze was still 

The sun was everywhere,

but it was as if the sun went unnoticed,

when Abraham lifted his face

and saw three radiant people approaching

They had appeared and were coming near in Hashem's unseen, 

gentle, all powerful Presence

Abraham ran and bowed down on the ground,

praying them to come his way

What was their prophetic mission?

Why had they come this day?

What would their concealed revelation have to say?

They appeared simply as human strangers

Abraham saw them this way

He would insist on showing them his hospitality

He would ask for conversation with his generosity

Holy conversation was the only price

he would ask them to pay

"Please do not refuse my hospitality, my Lord!"

He spoke to the humble, human-like agents of glory

But he addressed their Master

For the Presence of God came as a friend to Abraham 

God came as a Ben Gilu in his time of weakness* 

It was the third day of Abraham’s weakness

and the aura of Hashem strengthend him

He was prepared to show hospitality to his guests 

"Recline in the cool shade of the tree

Allow me to bathe and soothe your feet"

They stopped at Abraham’s holy, world altering tent

He brought water to wash their feet

We will have a little conversation, he hoped quietly

"First, you can have a little bit to eat," he said

"Stay a little while and refresh yourselves,

seeing that you are passing by my way

Afterward, go and perform your mitzvah,

that you have received”

whatever mitzvah or mitzvot you may have to do

Was there a mitzvah among them

to bring him divine chariot information concerning Sarah?

Abraham's whole soul wondered

They replied to Abraham, “Please, do as you have said.”

After they had eaten, They said to him,

"Where is your wife, Sarah?"

And when they asked this, time was stopped

There was an echo in the universe 

The echo could not be heard in time

But time was stopped for Abraham and he heard this echo

Where is your wife, Sarah?

Adam, where are you?

Eve where are you?

Where is the child of Sarah that God promised for life?

What was the cause of Sarah’s endless barrenness?

What was the cause of the exile of Sarah to her tent?

Abraham heard this echo stopping time

And Sarah heard it too

When the angels came to her tent,

Sarah’s prophetic soul knew what would be

from the present to the end of time

When she heard the news,

Her body laughed with fear

Her soul laughed with pain and joy

Sarah’s soul was the great defender of Isaac

She defended him even when she could not conceive him

As the angels approached her tent,

she saw prophetically the day

when Ishmael’s love for his brother was about to sour

Sarah knew that Ishmael’s

soured love would break the heart of Abraham

She knew with Isaac laughter that Abraham’s testimony

would need to be repaired

When Isaac would finally be mysteriously exiled from the land,

Sarah would go with him into exile as his defender

Even though the angels came today,

before Isaac was miraculously conceived,

and even though they hinted at that offering of Isaac,

on the mountain of God,

and that exile, that would seem never ending, to come,

Sarah would hear of none of it without laughter!

Isaac would be a joyous laughter inside of Sarah,

waiting to be born within her dead womb

Sarah carried the weight of the World To Come

upon her shoulders

She had exiled herself to the side of Abraham's tent,

the side where Isaac could not be found, 

where he was concealed

But now the angels of Hashem’s Presence

were approaching Sarah’s tent

This meant Isaac was about to be revealed

The weight of the World To Come

would fall on Sarah’s unconceived child

Would that weight crush him and steal his life?

No. Sarah would be carrying him

She was determined that she would always carry him

When the corporate human body is broken

the individual is torn and spun

and swirls around itself and becomes self-centred

Who but the mother of all

can give birth to healing the corporate body?

Who but that mother can endure the birth pangs of the Messiah?

Here is how Sarah carried Isaac all the days of her life:

Sarah lived one hundred years

because Abraham was one hundred years old

when Isaac was born

Twenty more years were added to Sarah’s life

because David, her messianic son,

would not count the men aged twenty or under for war

This was an act of faith done because Hashem had said 

that He would make Israel as the stars of heaven

And Sarah was then given seven more years,

so that King Joash might reign in Jerusalem

when he became seven years old,

and that he might do what was right in the eyes of Hashem

all the days of Jehoiada the priest

The corporate humanity of Torah-love was broken,

its organic kindness forgotten in Humanity

Even those who obey are a remnant far away

from the Torah way of yesterday,

the day that it was conceived but never born

Adam chose to rely on their own means

and not the word of God

The individual soul is born abandoned,

like a newborn left behind in the wilderness

So that among all nations

people cling to a group like a trauma tribe

or to a relationship like a survival dream

The fiction of the ideal of Humanity

is worshipped like a flag

The portrait of generations forever

is everything to the dreamy orphaned soul

Atrocities are justified in Dream Humanity's name

The civilized human orphan soul says,

hammer the nail,

sweep the floor,

make change, make money

Just keep living until you unconsciously die

Humanity itself will live forever!

But God works like morning in the heart

and says, Awake!

Home the homeless and you will give God a home!

Heal the lonely and you will bring heaven on earth!

Show kindness to those who are oppressed,

for the whole world is oppressed by the spirit of sin!

Mold for yourself ears and hear!

God has for you a Torah of love

There is a way again to righteousness

through corrective judgment falling upon the nations

For a just mercy shall be revealed on earth

and across all the heavens!

Sarah's eyes looked deep into Abraham's,

when he turned and took Isaac to go

to the mountain 

of infinite trauma and infinite healing

She knew when he came back

her soul would be gone

Isaac would be offered

Sarah would experience the greatest trial

the greatest suffering

For the holy promise of Isaac was blemished,

filled with Ishmael’s unholy mocking mirth,

when Ishmael acted like a Philistine

and filled Abraham’s well with earth

Then Isaac, Sarah’s holy laughter,

dug Abraham’s well anew

Sarah's holy laughter would redeem

Ishmael’s unholy laughter from captivity

Abraham’s testimony would remain true

The testimony of Abraham would be repaired

And in Sarah's soul

the promise of God would be enwombed,

until the whole world would be reborn from her

and raised with Isaac from the dead,

in the day when a just mercy was revealed on earth

and displayed across all the heavens

Sarah's faith would have the very last laugh,

the laughter of holy love and joy

Laughter in the Presence of God,

Laughter like that of children and angels

in the Presence of

the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob...

This is the laughter of the holy love and joy

that is heard only with the Presence of the God of Jerusalem,

Jerusalem, whose joy will not be contained, but sings:

"His left hand is the arm of Isaac,

His left and is under my head, 

and his right hand is the arm of Abraham

His right arm embraces me!"