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

Vayera / Where Is Your Wife, Sarah?

Poetic notes on parashat Vayera*

Abraham sat after his circumcision    

near the oak by the portal of heaven   

He had pitched his holy tent there    

and sat alone in its entrance

He saw the Presence of HaShem there

The breeze was still and the sun was everywhere

Then Abraham lifted his face

and saw three radiant people

They had appeared there in HaShem's 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?

He would insist on showing them his hospitality

He would ask for conversation with his generosity

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

He spoke to the agents,

but address their Master

"Recline in the cool shade of the tree

Allow me to bathe and soothe your feet"

They stopped at Abraham’s holy tent    

He brought water to wash their feet   

We will have a little conversation, he hoped

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

"Stay a little while and refresh yourselves,

seeing that you have come my way

Afterward, go and perform the mitzvah 

you have received”

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

After they had eaten, They said to him,

"Where is your wife, Sarah?"

What is the cause of the exile of Sarah?

When the angels came to her tent,

Sarah’s prophetic soul knew what would be

When she heard the news,

Her body laughed with fear

While her soul laughed with pain and joy

Sarah’s soul was the great defender of Isaac

When Ishmael’s love for his brother would sour

Sarah would know that love 

would break the heart of Abraham

She would know that his testimony 

would need to be redeemed

When Isaac would finally be exiled from the land,

Sarah would go with him

Even if angels should come today,

before Isaac was miraculously conceived,

and hint at that offering of Isaac,

and that exile to come,

she would not hear of it without laughter!

Isaac was still a joyous laughter

waiting to be born within her dead womb

Even if angels should come today to speak of it,

she already knew, despite herself, she knew

She felt she carried the weight of the World To Come

upon her shoulders

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

the side where Isaac was concealed

The angels of HaShem were come into her tent

This meant Isaac was about to be revealed

The weight of the World To Come

would fall on him

Would it crush him and steal his life?

No. She would carry him

She would always carry him

When the corporate body is broken

the individual is torn and spun

and swirls around itself

Who but the mother can give birth to healing?

Who but the 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

Sarah lived twenty more years because David

did not count the men aged twenty or under for war,

because HaShem had said that He would make Israel

as numerous as the stars of heaven

And Sarah lived seven more years

so that 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,

because 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 dream of forever generations

is everything to the orphaned soul

Atrocities are justified in that Humanity's name

The civilized human orphan soul says,

hammer the nail,

sweep the floor,

make change, make money

Just keep living until you die

Humanity will live forever!

But God works in the heart

and says, Home the homeless

Heal the lonely

Show kindness to those who are 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 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

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 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 would be redeemed 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 across all the heavens

Sarah would have the last laugh,

the laughter of holy love and joy

in the Presence of God,

the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,

the laughter of holy love and joy

in the Presence of the God of Jerusalem, 

Jerusalem, who is she who sings,

"His left hand, the arm of Isaac,

is under my head, and his right hand, 

the arm of Abraham, embraces me!"

*Being a mediation on parashat Vayera, with thoughts on a JLI class given by Rabbi Baitelman of ChaBaD of Richmond, B.C., on the comments of Rebbe Levi Yitzchak  Schneerson on the Zohar’s commentary on this parashah. Neither Rabbi Baitelman nor the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute have reviewed or approved of the content of this post.