TEMPLE TORAT YISRAEL
  • Home
    • Become A Member
    • Members' Pages >
      • Gabbai Group
      • Yahrzeit Form
      • How to be part of shivah...
      • High Holiday Participation
    • Support Us!
  • About Us
    • Heroes in our Midst Blog
    • President's Page
    • Rabbi Aaron's Blog
    • Professional Staff
    • Lay Leadership
    • Social Action
    • Newsletter/Hadashot
    • Links
    • Hours & Directions
  • Events
    • Community Events
    • Shabbat and Holiday Services
    • RSVP Forms
    • Calendar
    • Flyers
  • Education
    • Cohen School >
      • School Registration Form
    • Torah Sprouts
    • Adult Learning
    • Audio Tutorials
    • Bar and Bat Mitzvah preparation

God's Covenant with Abraham and Sarah: Sharing With Our "Siblings"

10/30/2009

1 Comment

 
Parashat Lekh L'kha                         Torah Reading:  Genesis  12:1-17:27

In this week's parashah/Torah reading, God renames two people:  Abram becomes Abraham and his wife Sarai is renamed Sarah.  This act of renaming expresses the reality of a deeper relationship between God and these two people.  What profound shift is marked by these renamings?

[Breishit/Genesis 17:1-4]  When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him:  I am El-Shaddai.  Walk in My ways and be blameless.  I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will make you exceedingly numerous.  Abram threw himself on his face; and God spoke to him further, "As for Me, this is My covenant with you:  You shall be the father of a multitude of nations."

Abram and Sarai were wanderers . . . geographically and spiritually.  With the establishment of the covenant [brit] with God, they now have both a geographic and a spiritual home in the Land of Canaan and in the God called El-Shaddai (one of dozens of names of God that appear in the Torah].  They are profoundly changed and God's act of renaming them marks the moment that changes their personal life journeys and human history.

I am not on expert on pagan religion, but it occurs to me that in establishing this covenant with Abraham, Sarah and their offspring, God has blessed humanity with unprecedented respect.  In the pagan world, there is no covenant.  Human beings placate the gods of their imaginings, hoping that gifts, offerings, actions might avert anger or might spare humans from the pagan equivalent of a drive-by-shooting in which humans suffer because they are in the way as pagan gods fight it out amongst themselves. 

But the God of Abraham and Sarah establishes a partnership . . . offers values and goals to be shared, offers eternal commitment and infinite potential.  It behooves us to remember that Abraham and Sarah are the progenitors of "a multitude of nations," that we share the blessings of this brit we all those who acknowledge and worship the one God:  El-Shaddai, Adonay, Elohim, these are all names of the God we cherish and share with the other monotheistic faiths of the world.  The brit that will be forged at Sinai between God and Israel will be the particularistic covenant that establishes Judaism for all time, but here, in Genesis, this first brit with Abraham and Sarah, expressed through the changes of their names, casts a wider net.

Let us pray for the time when all those who share the blessings of this covenant with us -- Jews, Christians and Moslems -- all descendants of Abraham and Sarah -- will be ready to embrace as siblings.
1 Comment
cheao air yeezy link
12/9/2010 06:48:25 pm

If you fall, get up and try it again

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Rabbi Amy Levin

    Rabbi Amy Levin

    has been Torat Yisrael's rabbi since the summer of 2004 and serves as President of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Rhode Island.  
    Rabbi Levin lived in Israel for 20 years and was the second woman to be ordained by the Masorti/Conservative Movement in Israel.

    Categories

    All
    Aaron / Kohanim
    Abraham
    Adin Steinsaltz
    Anti-Semitism
    At Times Of Tragedy
    Bar / Bat Mitzvah
    Bin Laden
    Blessings
    Bring Back Our Boys
    Community / Kehillah
    Conservative Movement
    Covenant / Brit
    Deborah
    Democracy/Independence
    Deuteronomy / Dvarim
    Dina
    Diversity
    Environment
    Esau
    Exodus / Shmot
    Exodus / Shmot
    Family
    Festivals
    Genesis / Breishit
    Genetic Diseases
    God
    Gun Control
    Haftarah
    Haiti Earthquake
    Halachah / Jewish Law
    Hanukah
    Harold Kushner
    Holiness / Kedushah
    Holocaust / Shoah
    Humility
    Immigration
    Interfaith Relations
    Interfaith Relations
    Isaiah / Yeshayahu
    Israel
    Israel And Jewish Observance
    Jacob
    Jesus/Christianity
    Jewish Fast Days
    Jewish Holidays
    Jewish Identity
    Joseph
    Kashrut
    Kiddush Hashem / Sanctifying God
    Korban / Sacrifice
    Kvod Habriyot
    Labor Day
    Leadership
    Leviticus / Vayikra
    Light
    Masorti: Israeli Conservative Movement
    Memorial Day / Yom Hazikaron
    Micah
    Miracles
    Miriam
    Mitzvah / Commandment
    Month Of Sivan
    Moses
    Mourning / Aveilut
    Nachamu
    Names
    Natural Disaster
    Nelson Mandela
    Noah
    Numbers / Bamidbar
    Passover / Pesach
    Pete Seeger
    Pidyon Shevuyim / Redemption Of Captives
    Poverty
    Power Of Speech
    President Obama
    Privacy And Security
    Psalm 100
    Psalm 104
    Psalm 121
    Psalm 144
    Purim
    Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
    Rabbi Avraham Soltes
    Rabbi Brad Artson
    Rabbi Laura Geller
    Rabbinical Assembly
    Rabbinic Judaism
    Revelation
    Reverend Martin Luther King
    Sarah
    Seder
    Shabbat
    Shavuot
    Shekalim
    Shifra Alon
    Sinai
    Slavery
    Song Of Songs / Shir Hashirim
    Tabernacle / Temple
    Terrorism
    Thanksgiving
    Tikkun Olam
    Tikkun Olam
    Tisha Bav
    Torah
    Veterans Day
    Western Wall / Old City Of Jerusalem
    Women
    Yael
    Yom Kippur
    Zachor

    Archives

    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
    • Become A Member
    • Members' Pages >
      • Gabbai Group
      • Yahrzeit Form
      • How to be part of shivah...
      • High Holiday Participation
    • Support Us!
  • About Us
    • Heroes in our Midst Blog
    • President's Page
    • Rabbi Aaron's Blog
    • Professional Staff
    • Lay Leadership
    • Social Action
    • Newsletter/Hadashot
    • Links
    • Hours & Directions
  • Events
    • Community Events
    • Shabbat and Holiday Services
    • RSVP Forms
    • Calendar
    • Flyers
  • Education
    • Cohen School >
      • School Registration Form
    • Torah Sprouts
    • Adult Learning
    • Audio Tutorials
    • Bar and Bat Mitzvah preparation