MY DAILY LIFE TORAH COACH:
Parshat Vayera n.4

Parashat Vayera is a very complicated Parsha, with many major moments. From the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah to the birth of Isaac, the exile of Hagar and Ishmaeland finally the binding of Isaac, Vayera offers us many lessons.
The most important moments may include the four tests that Abraham and Sarah had to take. The first test: three angels come to Abraham looking like strangers and tell him that Sarah will have a child. The second test: Abraham bargains with G-d for the lives of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, convincing G-d to let them live if there are at least 10 righteous people. The third test: Abraham and Sarah come to the house of Abimelech, and Abraham says that Sarah is his sister. The last test is the Akedah: G-d tells Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, and Abraham almost does, but an angel stops him. Then G-d tells Abraham that his children will be as many as the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the shore.
During these tests, G-d is testing Abraham and Sarah’s ability to have faith in something, but also their ability to challenge that something when needed. Perharps this is part of what it means to be a Jew, being able to find balance between having faith in Gd and challenging Gd.
The Artist Michal Meron asked me to write this short insight into the complex text of Vayera. On a deeper level this parashat reminded me that being Jewish is a very complicated story with many opinions and questions. Throughout my life, I have been taught by my grandmother and my mother to question everything around me. Struggling with what it ment to be Jewish in a totalitarian comunist country, was to struggle with what it ment to be myself, a human being.
What we might be advice to take from Vayera is that throughout our life, we need the ability to trust something and to have faith, but we also need the same ability to challenge it when necessary.
Part of becoming the best version of ourselves is, maybe, being able to have faith in what WE believe in. This comes, of course, with questioning our reality and breaking the barriers that constrain us. I strongly believe that this ability defines who we are as Jews.
I think that this might have been what Abraham and Sarah were forced to do throughout Vayera, becoming Jews.