Parshat Vayera – Sparks – Rabbi David Aaron

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Enjoying Heaven on Earth In this week's Torah portion G-d appeared to Abraham and yet He said nothing. "G-d appeared to [Abraham] in the Plains of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance of the tent in the hottest part of the day. [Abraham] lifted his eyes and he saw three strangers approaching and ran towards them." Until now G-d appeared to Abraham to instruct, promise or bless him. The Talmud (Sotah 14A) comments that G-d was visiting sick Abraham who was recuperating from his circumcision. What does this mean? When you visit a person who is ill it is not in order to say something; your mere presence communicates your pure desire to identify with this person in his/her time of need. You go for the sole purpose of being there. So it was when G-d visited Abraham. For the first time G-d appears to Abraham only to be with him, identify with him and share this special moment. Sometimes the highest...
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(Portion of Vayera) Small Tastings of Torah, Judaism and Spirituality From Rav Binny Freedman

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The small room wasn’t much to look at, and the sunlight filtering through the old shutters on the window just accented the old, tired-looking walls and cracked floor tiles. And yet, a man had died here in this room, mostly for the privilege of being able to live in this room, in this place. They had been looking for him for quite some time, scouring the country and waking entire neighborhoods every time rumor had it he was somewhere in the vicinity. To judge by the heavily armed troops that were smashing down doors in the middle of the night, they must have feared him, though he was only one man, and not a particularly large or physically powerful one at that; and yet, he must have had a fire to him, to inspire such a determined manhunt. He had been afforded many opportunities to escape, and find refuge overseas, in Europe or America, and even in England, yet he could not...
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