The OrQuest app tells three stories from Parashat Vayera (Abraham’s guests, Sodom and the Binding of Isaac) and explains one of its passages verse by verse.
When it is read in Israel
20 Cheshvan 5787
20 Cheshvan 5788
15 Cheshvan 5789
18 Cheshvan 5790
This calendar runs until 21 September 2030.
The Israeli reading calendar is from Hebcal (CC BY 4.0), checked against Sefaria.
He lifted his eyes and looked, and there were three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the opening of the tent to meet them, and bowed down to the ground.
What it teaches
Hospitality. Welcoming a guest gladly, quickly and with an open heart.
The Torah teaches that welcoming guests begins with the eyes and the feet: Avraham saw men in the heat of the day and ran to meet them. He offered a piece of bread and set butter, milk and a tender, choice calf before them. And while his guests ate, he stood by them.
The lesson
A good host offers a piece of bread and serves a feast.
Far be it from You to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare like the wicked. Far be it from You. Shall the Judge of all the earth not do justice?
What it teaches
Justice. Judging fairly, without favouritism and without rushing.
God says Avraham will command his household to do righteousness and justice, and later Avraham himself asks: shall the Judge of all the earth not do justice? He asks that the righteous and the wicked not share one fate. The Torah teaches that true justice sees the righteous inside the city, and does not judge it as one mass.
The lesson
True justice does not judge the righteous and the wicked alike, even when they are neighbours.
God calls Avraham, who answers “Here I am” and sets out with his son for Moriah.
What it teaches
Self-sacrifice. Giving up what is most precious to you for the sake of Heaven or of someone else.
The command does not hide the cost: Yitzchak is the son Avraham loves. The Torah teaches here that self-sacrifice is being ready to hold nothing back from God, even what you love. The Binding of Yitzchak is read in the synagogue on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.
The lesson
Self-sacrifice means not keeping back even what we love.
Hashem calls Avraham, Avraham answers hineni and an angel stops him before the boy is touched.
For teens and adults
This is chapter 22 of Bereshit, and it is the hardest chapter in the Torah. Avraham has waited a lifetime for Yitzchak, and now God calls his name and asks for him back. We are reading four verses: the call and the command, then the voice from heaven that stops the knife. Read them as one unit, because the chapter is not finished until the angel speaks, and the angel is where the meaning lives.
The verses are from Miqra according to the Masorah (Wikisource, CC BY-SA 4.0), via Sefaria, without the cantillation marks. On this site the four-letter Name is written ה׳.
