Parsha shiur: lech l'cha
Oct. 24th, 2002 11:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidLast week's parsha [1] was "Lech L'cha" [2], the name of which I happen to like because the two words look exactly the same in Hebrew without vowels (which is how lots of Hebrew is written).
It starts out with Avraham (well, Avram, at that point [3]) being told to leave "your land, your birthplace, and your father's house." There are lots of commentaries on this bit; we didn't discuss them, for the most part, except to point out that in some ways he's already done the first two of the three. After Avraham gets to Canaan, he ends up going down to Egypt, and playing a weird subterfuge on Pharaoh, claiming his wife is his sister. This whole story has bothered me for ages. It just makes no sense at all to me, even if he is trying to avoid being killed for his wife. The teacher suggested something that made some sense to me. When A first gets the command to leave, he heads out, then is brought back by his nephew Lot, and ends up leaving a second time with his wife and nephew and hangers-on and stuff. But he'd just gotten the command to leave his father's house, and his nephew and his wife could both be considered to be of his father's house (his wife is his neice). So his attempt to ditch Sarah was to try to implement what he thought was a command, foiled by God afflicting Pharaoh. His next thing is to separate from his nephew Lot, and that seems to be the right thing, since after that, God speaks to him again (God had ignored A's attempts at communication in the middle of the story). Still leaves me with trouble about trying to ditch Sarah (how the hell did they built trust back into their relationship?), but less.
We mentioned how Egypt is always the foil for Canaan, not the Mesopotamia he'd just left (proximity?). Also that, although A has come from a decent family where brothers care for each other, A is still told to leave them behind; he can't grow into whoever he's supposed to be while with them. They're good, enough so that any time someone in A's family needs a wife, that's where they go, but not quite enough, or A needs to be out in the world alone, without the support systems a family would provide, or something.
Also apparent is that A has a life path that is difficult for him, but the hard part for him is, presumably, the faith to follow the commands. The rest of the family are the ones who pay the other prices, the consequences of A's actions.
We discussed the dynamics with Hagar, and her motivations. Nothing was much resolved. I did notice, though, that the sons' names seem to be reversed: Yitzchak (meaning something about laughing/sporting) vs Yishmael (God will hear), their characters not matching their names.
Also discussed A's circumcision (along with his whole household), but I don't remember much new that stuck with me.
[1] Torah portion of the week.
[2] meaning "you, go" (a command)
[3] he gets a name change in the course of the story.
It starts out with Avraham (well, Avram, at that point [3]) being told to leave "your land, your birthplace, and your father's house." There are lots of commentaries on this bit; we didn't discuss them, for the most part, except to point out that in some ways he's already done the first two of the three. After Avraham gets to Canaan, he ends up going down to Egypt, and playing a weird subterfuge on Pharaoh, claiming his wife is his sister. This whole story has bothered me for ages. It just makes no sense at all to me, even if he is trying to avoid being killed for his wife. The teacher suggested something that made some sense to me. When A first gets the command to leave, he heads out, then is brought back by his nephew Lot, and ends up leaving a second time with his wife and nephew and hangers-on and stuff. But he'd just gotten the command to leave his father's house, and his nephew and his wife could both be considered to be of his father's house (his wife is his neice). So his attempt to ditch Sarah was to try to implement what he thought was a command, foiled by God afflicting Pharaoh. His next thing is to separate from his nephew Lot, and that seems to be the right thing, since after that, God speaks to him again (God had ignored A's attempts at communication in the middle of the story). Still leaves me with trouble about trying to ditch Sarah (how the hell did they built trust back into their relationship?), but less.
We mentioned how Egypt is always the foil for Canaan, not the Mesopotamia he'd just left (proximity?). Also that, although A has come from a decent family where brothers care for each other, A is still told to leave them behind; he can't grow into whoever he's supposed to be while with them. They're good, enough so that any time someone in A's family needs a wife, that's where they go, but not quite enough, or A needs to be out in the world alone, without the support systems a family would provide, or something.
Also apparent is that A has a life path that is difficult for him, but the hard part for him is, presumably, the faith to follow the commands. The rest of the family are the ones who pay the other prices, the consequences of A's actions.
We discussed the dynamics with Hagar, and her motivations. Nothing was much resolved. I did notice, though, that the sons' names seem to be reversed: Yitzchak (meaning something about laughing/sporting) vs Yishmael (God will hear), their characters not matching their names.
Also discussed A's circumcision (along with his whole household), but I don't remember much new that stuck with me.
[1] Torah portion of the week.
[2] meaning "you, go" (a command)
[3] he gets a name change in the course of the story.