Vayeira, 4th Aliya

Audio Summaries of the daily Chumash portions In loving memory of Ousher Zelig ben Myer HaLevi Z”L

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Lot is Saved. Encounter with Avimelech. Yitzchak is Born.

G-d conceded to Lot's request to go to Zoar, and reassured him that not only will he be saved, but G-d will save the entire city of Zoar on his behalf.

Earlier, in Breishis 19:13, the angels neglected to mention that G-d was behind destroying Sodom, and rather said "for we are destroying". As punishment for this, they were unable to move from where they now were until they admitted that they had no power of their own to act.

G-d gave the city of Zoar its name here, so named for it being small (מִצְעָר).

Lot arrived in Zoar at sunrise.

At the start of dawn, G-d and His tribunal brought a downpour of rain which turned into brimstone and fire upon Sodom and Emora. He picked the start of dawn to mete out this punishment, since some of the residents worshipped the sun and some the moon. So He reasoned that if He punished them by day, the moon worshippers would falsely claim that had the downpour come at night, they would not have been destroyed, and if He had punished them at night, the sun worshippers would falsely claim that had the downpour been during the day, they would not have been destroyed. So He picked a time (the start of dawn) when they both ruled, so neither could make such claims.

All four of the cities of Sodom were on one rock which G-d upturned.

Lot's wife looked behind Lot and turned into a pillar of salt. Her punishment was befitting, as she had earlier sinned regarding salt when she refused to give salt to the angel guests when Lot asked her to.

Early in the morning, Avraham went to the place where he had stood before G-d and looked over in the direction of Sodom and Emorah and saw how the whole thing had gone up in smoke.

When G-d destroyed these cities, He remembered that Lot knew that Sarah was Avraham's wife and despite knowing that Avraham pretended that she was his sister while they were in Egypt, Lot had pity on Avraham and did not give him away. Because of this, G-d had pity on Lot and saved him from the destruction of the cities where Lot lived.

Lot was scared to live in Zoar since it was near Sodom, so he left to live in a cave in the mountain with his two daughters.

The daughters thought that the entire world had been destroyed as it had been in the Generation of the Flood.

The older daughter convinced the younger daughter to give their father wine and be intimate with him, in the hopes of bearing a seed from him, reasoning that Lot was old and may die or no longer be able to have children and they would not be able to be with any other man.

So that night, they gave Lot wine* and the older daughter was intimate with Lot.

*Side note: Rashi comments that G-d made it so that there was wine in the cave, as two nations were to emerge from them.

The following day, the older daughter told the younger daughter what had happened, and told her that that night too they should bring wine to their father and this time, the younger daughter would lie with Lot.

Scripture is less explicit about the younger daughter's relations with her father since she was not the one who initiated these illicit relations.

Although Lot realized what had happened when he woke up, he was not careful not to drink the following night, when the younger daughter was intimate with him. Rashi cites Breishis Rabbah 51:9 in this regard, where it is taught that if a person has a lust for illicit relations, this will eventually lead them to commit incest.

Both daughters conceived from their father Lot. Rashi cites the Breishis Rabbah which teaches that although usually a woman does not conceive from the first time she has intercourse (so long as her hymen is intact), the daughters managed to manipulate their bodies so they would (according to one opinion, they manipulated the position of their wombs, or alternatively, they removed their hymen).

The older daughter bore a son whom she named Moav. He became the father of the Moabite nation.

The name Moav literally means "from the father", which showed how immodest the older daughter was that she so named her son in this way which publicized what she had done.

The younger one was more modest and called her son Ben Ami, which means "the son of my people", which was more subtle. He ended up becoming the father of the Amonite nation. She was rewarded for this in the days of Moshe, when G-d commanded the Israelites not to engage in any conflict with the Amonites. This was in contrast to the Moabites whom they were allowed to cause pain to, so long as they didn't start a war with them.

Avraham traveled to the land of the south and resided in Gerar, which was between Kadesh and Shur. He presented Sarah as his sister, this time, without asking her permission (as last time he did this she was taken to Pharaoh's house by force on this account).

Avimelech, the king of Gerar took Sarah for himself.

At night, G-d appeared to Avimelech in a dream, telling him that he would die because the woman he had taken was married.

An angel had stopped Avimelech from coming near to Sarah, so Avimelech pleaded with G-d, asking if He would really kill a nation who is righteous? For no reason? He accused G-d of so doing with the Generations of the Flood and the Dispersion.

Avimelech continued to defend himself, saying that they had presented themselves (as did all of their servants, camel and donkey drivers) as siblings and that he had no intention of sinning and he is pure of sin as he hadn't touched her.

In a dream, G-d told Avimelech that he realized that he took Sarah out of innocence, however he cannot claim total purity as he only refrained from touching her because G-d protected him from sinning by preventing him from touching her.

G-d told Avimelech to return Sarah to Avraham. Since Avraham is a prophet he will know that Avimelech didn't touch Sarah and thus will accept her back readily* and will pray for Avimelech and he will live. He warns Avimelech that if he does not return her, he and everything he has will die.

*Side note: She will not be seen as undesirable to him since he will know that she was untouched by Avimelech.

Avimelech woke up early in the morning and gathered all of his servants together and told him everything and his servants got scared.

Avimelech sent for Avraham and demanded to know what he had done to Avraham to have been set up to commit such a great sin and to have his people be afflicted with such a harsh plague of having all of the bodily orifices (i.e. those of semen, urine, excrement, and of the ears and nose) close up.

Avraham replied that he recognized that there was no fear of G-d in that place, since upon his arrival they asked about Sarah but did not inquire as to his arrangements regarding food and drink. He reasoned that that they would have killed him on account of his wife.

Avraham also defended his categorization of her as his sister, since she was the daughter of his father, though not his mother, which a Noachide is allowed to marry.

To explain:

Non Jewish men (i.e. Noachides) are allowed to marry the daughter of their father, since his lineage is not traced from his father.

Sarah was the daughter of Avraham's brother Charan (who had the same father but different mother than Avraham) , and since grandchildren are considered like children, she was considered to be Terach (Avraham's father)'s daughter.

Avraham went on to explain that when G-d made him leave his father's home to detach from idolatry and go close to the fear of G-d, Avraham knew that in so doing he would encounter many wicked people, thus he told Sarah to do him a favor and tell people they meet that he is her brother.

Avimelach tried to appease Avraham with flocks, cattle and servants and restored Sarah to him. He hoped that in so doing Avraham would pray for him. He told Avraham that he was free to live in any part of the land.

To appease Sarah, Avimelech told her that he had given one thousand pieces of silver to Avraham so that people won't mistakenly think that he violated her and only then returned her to Avraham, but rather will understand due to the money he had given that he returned her against his will.

So Avraham prayed to G-d and G-d healed Avimelech, his wife and handmaids and they were relieved of the plague that had stricken them regarding their orifices which now opened and expelled as needed, poetically written in the text as them having "given birth".

G-d now remembered what He had promised to Sarah and Sarah conceived a son at the time that G-d had promised (when the angel first made the promise, he made a scratch on the wall, and said that Sarah would given birth the following year when then sun reached that scratch, which is what happened).

Rashi teaches here that the reason why the telling of Sarah's conception immediately follows the opening of the orifices (i.e. the "giving birth") of Avimelech's household, is to teach that whoever begs for mercy for his fellow, when he himself is in need of the same thing, he is answered first. .

According to Rabbi Yudan, the son was born nine months later so no one could claim that he was conceived under Avimelech's roof. Rabbi Chama however asserts that he was born after seven months.

Their son's face resembled that of Avraham.

Avraham named his son Yitzchak and circumcised him when he was eight days old as G-d had commanded him to.

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