Author: Shlomo Bar-Ayal

Eliezer’s is sent to find a suitable wife for Isaac. He arrives in Haran and Rebecca offers him and his 10 camels water. He realizes that she is the only one for Isaac because of her caring not only for him but his camels as well.

The Torah makes it a point that Abraham bought the burial site for Sarah and himself. That even though he was offered the site for free, he wanted everyone to know that it legally belonged to him. This teaches that we have to be careful in all our actions.

Before the Torah mentions the death of Sarah, we read of the birth of Rebecca. This is to teach us that there is always the next generation and that our duty is to train them to take over leadership of our people.

We learn that Abraham’s major trait was compassion. This was a major reason that God chose him to be the father of the Jewish people. But sometimes compassion can be carried too far, as in the case of Abraham trying to save Sodom.

Lot’s daughters took drastic measures because they thought the world was destroyed. Later they found out that they were wrong in their actions. Instead of acknowledging that they were wrong they choose to blame others.

Lot’s daughters despaired that they were the only ones left in the world. They got their father drunk to have him sire children with them. After they learned that this was wrong, they blamed Abraham for their misfortune. Not themselves.

When the two angels inform Lot that Sodom will be destroyed and he has to leave, he refuses to go even though he knows that Sodom is an evil place. He is so much into his wealth he does not see the obvious.

Abraham tries to save Sodom & Gomorrah but to no avail. Their society was too evil. The lesson is that when we see an evil society we have to take appropriate action after we tried to reason with them.

Abraham is recovering from his Brit Milah at the beginning of this week’s portion. Gid sends him guests because He know that, for Abraham, it was more painful not to have guests.

The Torah does not discuss what Abraham looks like. It describes his character. This is in keeping with the idea, that for the Torah all that really matters is how we behave and how we treat each other.