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The Torah makes the point that Abraham bought the tomb in which Sarah was to be buried to stress that we have the title to the land. That even though God has promised us the land, we can show that we have a deed to it.

In this week’s portion we learn about the death of Sarah and the respect that we owe those who have passed away. This is one of the main issues in the Torah. No matter what the reason that a person dies we are required to respect their bodies.

The story of the binding of Isaac is about the trust that we should have in God. That no matter how bad the situation seems to be, we know that we are under God’s protection.

One of the most important lessons we can learn from the Torah is that we are not entitled to leadership. It has to be earned through our hard work and diligence.

Lot’s daughters thought that the world had been destroyed. They took action to repopulate the world. If they had waited a little, they would have discovered that they were wrong. We forget that humans have seen worse that what we are experiencing.

When the angels came to save Lot, he refused to go with them. He could not believe that Sodom was about to be destroyed. This is an oft repeated story. When faced with the truth of their situation many refuse to believe the obvious.

Abraham does not accept God’s judgement concerning the destruction of Sodom. He argues with God. In the end he loses the argument, but an important principal is laid down. God wants us to think about His judgement. He does not want us to accept it on face value.

When Abraham welcomed strangers, it was to teach them about God and what God wants us to do. You have to expose yourself to society to make it better.

The way to fix the world is to work on ourselves. If we become better people, then we will influence the world. It has nothing to do with government.

Abraham brought ethical Monotheism to the world. That is that our ethics and morality come from God. This is the guide to our behavior. They are not made by men and cannot be changed by men.