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1) The Real Source for Chinuch (excellent for a Bas or Bar Mitzvah celebration)
“…The Torah tells us why the Ribbono Shel Olam loved Avraham. It was not because he stood up to Nimrod and was cast into a fiery furnace. It was not because he left his homeland and journeyed to an unknown land. It was not because he circumcised himself at the age of one hundred. None of these heroic acts are mentioned. Why, then, does the Ribbono Shel Olam love Avraham? Because he was mechanech his children and his household to follow in the ways of Hashem — because he taught others how to live and how to act in the manner that Hashem desires.”
The Mashgiach, Rav Matisyahu Solomon z”l, calls this the Torah’s source for chinuch. In a brief but powerful chapter (filled with marei mekoros), he writes that real chinuch is born of love. Avraham didn’t just lecture about faith; he lived it with joy and conviction, and that warmth lit the flame in his children’s hearts. When parents live their emunah with passion, when they let their commitment show, that devotion becomes contagious.
Knowledge alone doesn’t shape a generation – love does. The way Avraham taught was not through sermons, but through a life that radiated meaning. That’s why Hashem loved him.
(This really is a message tailor-made for a bar or bat mitzvah, if you happen to have one in shul this shabbos: the moment when a child stops being merely taught and starts living the Torah for themselves, carrying forward not just the words of their parents, but the fire behind them.)
2) Be Authentic
Rabbi Dr. Avraham J. Twerski z”l had a rare gift – the ability to weave the insights of psychology not only into Torah, but into the fabric of our avodas Hashem and daily life.
Quoting the Chiddushei HaRim, he sheds light on Sarah Imeinu’s strange exchange with Hashem in our parshah (18:15): “Ramban asks: How is it possible that the matriarch lied? [The Chiddushei HaRim] answers that Sarah did not lie. Rather, ‘she was afraid’ means that her yiras Shamayim was so great that it was unthinkable to her that she could have doubted G-d’s promise. Sarah was in denial – thoroughly believing that she had not questioned the word of G-d.”
Rabbi Dr. Twerski adds his signature psychological insight: “Being in denial of something renders one powerless to deal with it. Denial is a falsification of reality, whereas a true grasp of reality enables one to adjust properly to life.” (The original chapter concludes with a striking account of a patient of the Rabbi’s – a catholic nun – in such denial of her own feelings of anger that it prevented her from overcoming serious depression; would make a great anecdote in shul.)
It’s a masterclass in both Torah and truth: the Chiddushei HaRim reveals the depth of Sarah’s holiness, while Rabbi Dr. Twerski teaches that spiritual growth begins with honest self-awareness. Denial, even when born of yiras Shamayim, keeps us stuck; truth, however painful, is what sets us free to grow.
3) Why Does Abraham Cry "Ariri" - Childless of Lonely?
When Hashem promises Avraham great reward, Avraham responds: "What will You give me, seeing I go ariri?" (15:2). We translate ariri as "childless," but the Rav z"l reveals it actually means "lonely." Avraham wasn't just lamenting the absence of an heir – he was crying out from profound isolation.
Consider Avraham's paradox: He needed solitude to hear Hashem's voice – that's why Lech Lecha demanded leaving everything behind. A hermit can elevate himself, but he cannot transform the world. Avraham carried a vision too vast for one soul to contain. He "beheld a wonderful vision and was driven by an inner impulse to have others behold it." The man who fled society to find truth now desperately needed society to share it.
This explains why Hashem praises Avraham specifically for being mechanech his household (18:19), not for his personal righteousness but for transmitting his vision. The journey that began with Lech Lecha (go forth alone) concludes with "he planted a tree in Beersheba" (21:33), finally settling, building community. The Rav notes that Hashem Himself becomes Avraham's companion in wandering: "I took your father... and led him throughout the land" [Yehoshua 24:3]. Not commanding from above but walking alongside, "God took Abraham by the hand."
The covenantal community was born when Avraham discovered that both he and God were wanderers seeking connection – the Shechina be-galusa, the Divine Presence in exile, joining the lonely visionary who needed others to complete his mission.
4) Parparet - What Made Avraham Great, From Rabbi Sacks, z"l
See this stunning excerpt from To Heal a Fractured World:
… The connection between the two halves of the chapter lies in an utterly new understanding of what it is to be a parent. Abraham, about to become father to the first child of the covenant, is being taught by God what it means to raise a child. To be a father — implies the Bible — is to teach a child to question, challenge, confront, dispute. God invites Abraham to do these things because He wants him to be the parent of a nation that will do these things.
He does not want the people of the covenant to be one that accepts the evils and injustices of the world as the will of God. He wants the people of the covenant to be human, neither more nor less. He wants them to hear the cry of the oppressed, the pain of the afflicted, and the plaint of the lonely. He wants them not to accept the world that is, because it is not the world that ought to be. He is giving Abraham a tutorial in what it is to teach a child to grow by challenging the existing scheme of things.
Only through such challenges does a child learn to accept responsibility; only by accepting responsibility does a child grow to become an adult; and only an adult can understand the parenthood of God.
To be a Jewish child is to learn how to question …
My two cents: Avraham’s challenging of Hashem’s plans to destroy Sodom is less a message about pushing back against injustice or standing up for others, and much more a realization of what it means to be a Jew engaged with the world: Avraham’s reaction to hearing that he will have a child with Sarah is to go out and challenge any attack on life.
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