As we'll find througout the parshiot of Bereshit, there's a LOT that happens in our parsha. In Vayera two babies are born. The first is Ishmael, who is born to Hagar after Sarah gives her
handmaiden to Avram in order for him to have children since she has not conceived. Ishmael is an important figure and God promises to make him a great nation. However, God makes it clear that it is to be the child of Avraham and Sarah who will be the line that has the special relationship with God. The upcoming birth of that child is told at the start of our parsha by the angels that visit Avraham and Sarah, and his actual birth happens later in the parsha, but his birth is initially foretold in last week's parsha where God not only tells Avraham that the child will be born, but goes one step further:
God said, “Nevertheless, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac; and I will maintain My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring to come.
Bereshit 17:19
God NAMES Isaac! Yes, the root of Isaac/Yitzhak's name is צ - ח - ק and is about laughter, but it is not because Avraham or Sarah laughed upon hearing the news that they would have a child and he is not named that because Sarah said "God has brought me laughter; everyone who hears will laugh with me." These laughter references are in the text, but they name the baby Isaac because God told them that would be his name. Perhaps God knew that laughter would be related to this baby's birth, but it makes me think about how names impact peronsonalities. It's interesting how
often I hear about a child named for a particular person who then has many qualities of that person. For all of this interesting thought about the babies born in this parsha, I think it's only fitting to focus on baby foods. No, not strained peas! Instead try this Baby Corn and Baby Carrots Dish.
For the second dish, I want to share a totally new concept I learned. There's something called tikkunei soferim which literally translates to "scribal corrections." These are places where classic rabbinic literature identifies changes were purposely made to the Torah text. There are different lists of these “scribal corrections,” totaling between 7 and 18, from all over the Tanach and one of them is in our parsha! Bereshit 18:22 says
וַיִּפְנ֤וּ מִשָּׁם֙ הָֽאֲנָשִׁ֔ים וַיֵּלְכ֖וּ סְדֹ֑מָה וְאַ֨בְרָהָ֔ם עוֹדֶ֥נּוּ עֹמֵ֖ד לִפְנֵ֥י יְהֹוָֽה׃
The men (angels) went on from there to Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before יהוה.
Bereshit Rabbah (49) says
א”ר סימון: תיקון סופרים הוא זה, שהשכינה היתה ממתנת לאברהם:
Rabbi Simon says: This is a tikkun soferim. [Actually] God was waiting for Abraham.[9]
Just looking at the Hebrew, if just Avraham and God were reversed it would say "God stood before Avraham." So, why the change? It's because the rabbis weren't comfortable with the dynamic of God standing before or waiting for Avraham. This order was seen as disrepectful to God, as the one standing before/waiting for is often viewed as the inferior party, so they felt it
need to be reversed and that's how our Torah read today. I thought this was intriguing and wanted to focus on this standing, the action at the root of this tikkyn soferim. The hebrew verb "To Stand" is לעמוד, transliterated as lamode, and that made me think of a la mode...So the #parshainspiredmenus item is pie a la mode for dessert!!!! Apple, peach, strawberry, pumpkin...you choose, just put some ice cream on it! (you can use real ice cream or one of the amazing non-dairy ice creams if you are doing meat and need parve.)
Shabbat Shalom & B'Tayavon!
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