Commentary on Biblical Law: “Chayei Sarah”

                   Genesis: 23.1 – 25.18  

 In this week’s Torah portion what we actually see are 3 stories about 3 different women. What I would like to do in this article is first discuss the women and then, at the end, return to the story of Abraham purchasing Sarah’s gravesite. The portion begins with the death of Sarah and we are told that “the years of her life” were 127, but these are presented in a slightly unusual way: we are told she had 100 years, 20 years and seven years. It is my belief that, almost as in modern medicine today, “death” is a metaphor for: “inability to understand” (i.e. brain death) and therefore: “life” becomes a metaphor for: “the ability to understand”. It is also my suspicion that the numbers presented at a person’s death sums up, so to speak, their final level of understanding  the teachings of God. In the New Testament there is a story about a shepherd searching for the 100th sheep and how he happily returns home with the sheep on his shoulders. In addition to this we are told that Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born and the name: “Isaac” means: “laughter”. Along these same lines Noah is the 10th generation from Adam and Noah is associated with the cultivation of grapes and in a parable, told by a son of Gideon, we are informed that: “grapes make men and Gods happy”. What we see from these examples is that the number: “100” is associated with: “spiritual happiness”. In the Old Testament, after the Children of Israel refuse to enter the Promised Land, God says that all those under the age of 20 will not be punished because they do not know the difference between good and evil (which in my opinion negates any theory of: “original sin”). This then implies that the number: “20” is associated with: “distinguishing good and evil” and we see that Sarah passed judgment on Ishmael and had him expelled from the camp of Abraham. The number: “7” is, of course, associated with: “the Sabbath” and, basically, the Sabbath is the day when: “men should not work by searching for food and allow God to provide”, while other parts of the Torah state that: “no manner of work shall be done”. In order to appreciate the meaning here, one must build a chain of metaphors beginning with: “The Tree of Knowledge….”. Since Adam only eats the fruit, therefore: “fruit” becomes a metaphor for: “knowledge”. If “fruit” represents: “knowledge” then “eating” represents: “learning” and: “a tree” becomes: “a source of knowledge”. Since the rabbis have for centuries asserted that: “the Torah is the Tree of Life”, then we see that “a tree” represents: “a book”. Since the Hebrew word for: “garden” is the root of the word for: “archive”, then we can then begin to appreciate that anyone who “works in the garden” is: “a student” or “a teacher”, but in my opinion it is just easier to refer to them as: “scholars”. The point is that “to work” then becomes a metaphor for: “to study”. Thus, going back to the number “7”, we see that on the Sabbath we are not to study and we are not “to search for fruit” (i.e. knowledge). Since we are told that God will provide on the Sabbath, as well as the sabbatical year, what all this is suggesting is that Sarah at age 127 believed that: “God would provide to those who rest (the number 7) spiritual knowledge (the number 100) about the difference between good and evil (the number 20). Also, we might mention here that the name Noah means: “rest”. Upon the death of Sarah, what then is needed are 2 replacements: one for Isaac and one for Abraham. The interesting point about the “search for Rebecca” is that “the slave” Abraham sends selects 10 camels, but nothing is mentioned about the men who go with him until almost the very end of the story. One would think that in the Middle East the both the Old and New Testaments would have many stories about camels, but, except for the story of Joseph, they are hardly mentioned at all. In order to understand the significance of the camels in the story of Rebecca, it is important to remember that Joseph came to Egypt with a caravan of spices and that Pontiphar is described in the Torah as: “a cook” (The translations saying he was: “captain of the guards” are incorrect). The other important point is that the Hebrew word for: “meat” is the root for the word for: “preaching” and “gospels”. Also, in the New Testament Paul of Tarsus uses this image and compares “meat” to “difficult spiritual teachings” and: “milk” to: “easy to understand spiritual teachings”. Hence, “Joseph, who arrived with spices via camels”, represents: “a person who knows how to make ‘meat’ more digestible”. All this is extremely important in relation to Rebecca, because later we are told that Isaac “loved the meat” of his son Esau and it is Rebecca who prepares the goat’s meat which helps persuades Isaac to bless Jacob. Thus, Rebecca, like Joseph, is associated with camels because she knows: “how to make ‘meat’ taste better”. Furthermore, since we have already mentioned the connection between: “the number 10”, “wine” and “spiritual happiness” we can then see that Rebecca is a spiritual medium since 10 camels were sent to bring her to Isaac. Finally, since the ark of the Torah at first will be housed in a tent, there is no doubt as to what the function of Rebecca will be, since we are told after arriving she is immediately ushered into the tent of Sarah.   Another important element of the story of Rebecca is: “water”. Moses said that: “his words” were: “like the rain” and, basically, Moses told his father in law that his function was to explain the laws of God. Therefore, “water” becomes a metaphor for: “explanations”. This is also reflected in the New Testament where in the Book of Ephesians it discusses “cleansing with the waters of the gospels” (just to be clear: there are: “the meat of the gospels” and: “the water of explanations clarifying the gospels”). What also has to be understood here is that we mentioned that “Adam worked in the garden of Eden” and we said this meant that: “Adam was a scholar in the archive”. The Torah, however, also says that: “the animals helped Adam to work in the garden”. If the animals were: “working” and this is a metaphor for: “studying”, then we can begin to appreciate that in both the Old and New Testaments: “animals” is a metaphor for: “different types of scholars”. So a quick example: we mentioned that “the Torah is the bread of life”, in the New Testament Jesus tells a Greek woman that: “it is not right to give ‘the bread of the children’ to the dogs” (please remember: dogs also like meat). Taking these references we can then begin to better understand: “Why the slave of Abraham wanted to see whether or not Rebecca would give water to his camels” (As an aside, this also explains: why Jesus, who is described as: “the word of God” was born in a manger, which is a place where “animals are fed”).   Switching to Abraham’s wife/concubine (one place she is described as: “a wife” and then later as: “a concubine”) I would just like to mention that I do not agree with “The Rashi” that Keturah and Hagar were one and the same person. Basically, Hagar would have been at least 70 years old at the time of Sarah’s death, but in addition to this the Torah lists the descendants of Keturah and Ishmael is not included. Finally, Keturah’s children were not present at Abraham’s funeral, but Ishamel was, so: if Hagar is Keturah, why was this particular son granted special status? The name: “Keturah” means: “incense” and this implies that she was: “a source of inspiration” for Abraham. Since she “only” gives birth to 6 sons, this suggests that there is no connection with the Sabbath and her beliefs. Perhaps this is not the correct place to mention this, however, one must question: 1) Why is there space in this week’s portion to repeat the entire story of: “Rebecca and the water”, yet there is no place in the Torah to mention a procedure for conversion? 2) How is it possible that 7 of Abraham’s own sons were expelled from “the land”, yet the rabbis believe that they can “convert” people and make them one of the Children of Israel? (Here it should be mentioned that Ruth is not a convert! Even after her declaration to Naomi she is never referred to as: “a Jew”. She is described either as: “Naomi’s daughter in law” or: “The Moabitess” and even the Rashi agrees that Naomi could not have performed a conversion alone in the desert).    Probably, one of the best known descriptions of the Land of Israel is: “The Land of Milk and Honey”. We have also noted that Paul of Tarsus compared “milk” to: “easy to understand spiritual teachings”. In addition to this we mentioned that Gideon’s son told a parable about trees and said: “the grape makes men and Gods happy”. In addition he also said that the fig tree produced: ” a good and sweet fruit”. Since, it is a given that: “God is good” we can then see that “things which taste sweet”, like a fig, represent “knowledge about God” (we have already shown that “fruit is a metaphor for “knowledge”). Another story which is relavant to Abraham’s purchase is a riddle posed by Samson: In short, his wife reveals the solution and Samson says: “If you had not been plowing with my heifer, you would not know the answer now”. From this we see two things: 1)Animals (scholars) guide one’s search and provided the “power” (intellectual strenght) to get answers. 2)”To plow a field” is a metaphor for: “searching for answers”. By the way, the answer to the riddle was: “out of the strong lion came sweet honey” and what we can then begin to appeciate here is that “a lion” is a metaphor for: “intellectual strenght”. Where all these metaphors come into play is that in Hebrew the word for “field” is the same word for: 1)A woman’s breast 2)A spiritual being Thus when one: “plows” the “field/breast” the result is: “spiritual milk”. Another “play on words” is that honey comes from bees and the Hebrew word for “bee” has as it root one of the forms for: “word”. Basically, it is my contention that, since there was no television back then, poets, scholars and religious leaders used to sit around at night and play word games and these “metaphors”, “double entendres” and “analogies” made their way into the sacred writings. Thus, when we look at the story of Abraham purchasing a site for his wife’s grave certain points come up again and again: First, the man who sells the land is name: “Ephron the son of Zohar” which means: “The shovel and son of light”. Thus when we think of Samson’s “plowing for an answer” and we see: “a shovel together with light selling his field” it suggests that we are discussing: “a school”. In addition to this we have the trees and we already commented that these are metaphors for books. The last major item is the cave and in Haifa the cave of Elijah is a religious shrine. Another alternative interpretation, however, is based on the opinion that the name “Ephron” means “bird”. If this is correct, then we must recall that in Sinai the story of the 70 leaders who become the 1st rabbis (i.e. teachers of the law) is interwoven with a story of quails providing “meat” for the Israelites. Therefore, we have a “bird” (Ephron) and “light” (Zohar). Which we then mean “Bringing understanding down from the level of heaven since “a bird” is an intermediary between the sky and the earth and the Hebrew word for “sky” also means “heaven”. The other major issue is that Abraham bows down twice to the Hittites and they are described as: “the people of the land”. Here it should be mentioned that the mother of King Solomon was the former wife of Uriah the Hittite and his name means: “God’s light”. Hence, the Hittites were religious masters and Abraham came to live amongst them in order to increase his spiritual understanding, eventhough he brought with him a great deal of understanding as well. The final point I would like to focus on here is that again and again the negotiations mention: “the people at the gate”. Here we should remember that Abraham was sitting at the “gate of his tent” when the angels came, Lot was sitting at: “the gate of the city” when the angels came to him and in the New Testament it speaks several time of: “the narrow gate”. “Cities” represent: “religions”, so we the Old Testament speaks of Jerusalem and Babylon and compares the religious lifestyles of each. “Tents”, as mentioned, represent: “places of worship”. Thus the “gates”, or “openings”, represent: “the way to a higher level of understanding”.  Sarah was a spiritual medium, but she was dead. Abraham was acknowledging that he now accepted the Hittites’ ways and was willing to incorporate the knowledge he had received from Sarah into the Hittite schools. The number “4” is related to Judah, the fourth son of Leah. His name means: “to praise God”. The number: “100”, we noted, is related to “spiritual happiness”. The only place we see the number 400 in the Old Testament is when Esau comes with 400 men and invites Jacob to join him and when 400 Amalikites escape on camels from David, which suggests this number is not associated with Israelites. In the New Testament there is a parable about: “The Workers in the Vineyard”, basically, the parable deals with how much money they will be paid, but the crucial point is that in the time of Jesus there was a famous religious school located at “Yavne” and the scholars there referred to this school as: “The Vineyard”. If: “a vineyard” represents a: “religious school” and: “work” is a metaphor for: “study”, then: “money” represents: “teachings” or: “knowledge”. Thus, Abraham paying 400 silver shekels represents: “he gave a lecture to those attempting to reach a higher level of understanding (those at the gate) in order to demonstrate that he was qualified to operate the Hittite school”. Finally, I would just like to add here that the name “Hebron” means “alliance”, so it appears to me that Abraham, by purchasing “the land” (i.e. “the school”) of Ephron, is accepting as his own some of the teachings and beliefs of the Hittites and “ is laying to rest” some of the ideas represented by Sarah. In conclusion, the name of the grave site is: “Machpelah” and this means: “to double” or “to multiply”. In the New Testament there are several refrences to planting seeds and increasing the produce by 30, 60 or 100 times. In the Old Testament later Isaac will increase his yield 100 times. All these references have to do with increasing knowledge and the name: “Machpelah” implies that in this location one’s religious knowledge will expand.

Commentary on Biblical Law: “Vayiera”

 

                            Genesis 18.1 – 22.24

This week’s section of the Torah begins with Abraham sitting at “the opening to the tent”, when he sees 3 men standing in front of him. Because Abraham runs and begs them to come to his place and eat, there has always been a big debate as to: Whether or not Abraham knew they were “angels”? Or: Did he behave this way with everyone? Although Lot too is a special person, he is not as high up on the “ladder of understanding” as was Abraham, (otherwise he would have remained with Abraham and not descended to the level of Sodom). None the less, when Lot sees 2 of the same 3 angels, he too makes a special effort to bring them into his home and feed them. Thus, if Lot had the ability to discern that they were angels, then, for sure, so did Abraham. Possibly, one might argue, since Abraham lived in the desert, he didn’t encounter too many people. Hence, whenever some stranger came, he extended a greeting to them, but Lot was at the gates of the city of Sodom. Sodom was a place where male strangers were raped by the men of the town. Are we really to believe that every time a stranger came to the notorious Sodom, that Lot jumped up and invited them to his home? In addition to this, Abraham goes to a great deal of trouble to prepare the best of everything for his guests. He clearly knew who they were….

Basically, “an angel” is “an intermediary between God and men”, but rabbis are also intermediaries. In the Book of Exodus the stories about the first 70 rabbis and God sending quails are intertwined. Since birds have the ability to make contact with both the earth and the sky (in Hebrew the word for: “sky” and “heaven” are the same), we can then see that: “people with the spirit of God” are represented by: “birds”. In the New Testament there are two examples of this: 1) we are told that the spirit of God descended upon Jesus like a dove 2) After Simon/Peter makes a declaration, Jesus states that these were not his words, but: “the words of the spirit”. He then calls Simon/Peter by the name: “Bar Yona”, which means: “Son of the dove”. Thus from this second example we can then see that: “a son” is associated with the idea of: “a word”. When Jesus is called: “the son of God”, what then is meant is: “the word of God”. Thus, the men who walked around preaching the gospels according to Paul teachings were identified by Paul as: “his sons”.

Because the Ark of the Covenant was first located in a tent, we must associate: “a tent” with: “a place of worship”. One of the important points of the story of Abraham and the angels is that Sarah is inside the tent and she also prepares: “cakes” inside the tent. To get a better appreciation for the symbolism being used here we must turn to the story of Joseph in Egypt:

Very briefly, Joseph arrived in Egypt with a caravan of spices and was sold to Potiphar, whose job in Hebrew is: “a cook” (the English translation of: “Captain of the Guards” is wrong). Later, Joseph will interpret the dream of: “the prince of the bakers” who dreamt he had 3 baskets of cakes on his head and the birds came and ate them. Finally, for all intents and purposes, the function of Joseph in Egypt was to supervise the production of wheat, yet he tells his brothers he is a man skilled in divination.

What we see from all these references is that “wheat” is associated with: “religious knowledge”. Some examples of this are: 1) the messiah will be born in Bethlehem (the house of bread) 2) for centuries Jews have use the saying: “the Torah is the bread of life” 3) Jesus compared his body to the un-leavened bread of Passover and the Gospels identify him as: “the word of God”. 4) In the New Testament, most of the stories about the Pharisees have something to do with wheat fields (Most of the stories about the Sadducees have something to do with vineyards).

In the story of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil we can clearly see that “fruit” is a metaphor for: “knowledge”. In addition, even in modern times, we are familiar we the concept of: “the earth being a school” (in Hebrew the word for: “earth” and for: “land” is the same) then it should be no surprise that wheat is described as: “the fruit of the earth” while a grape is described as: “the fruit of the vine” (both “Jesus” and “The Children of Israel” are described as: “vines” and it should be recalled that the other dream Joseph interpreted was about vines and grapes). Thus, if “wheat” represents: “religious knowledge” and “bread represents: “the Torah”, then “a cook” or: “a baker” is: “someone who takes religious knowledge in its base form and makes it both: ‘enjoyable to eat’ and: ‘easier to digest’”. What all this then suggests is that Pharaoh’s baker was revealing religious secrets to mediums of other religions, or: he was giving secret lessons and this is why he was executed. Thus, the image of Sarah “preparing cakes” inside “a tent” means that “she was formulating some type of religious prayer to intercede with the angels”.

Sex, is a very, very important issue in the Old Testament. First of all we are told that the 7 nations living in the land of Canaan will be expelled simply because of sexual offenses. Joseph was thrown into prison because he was falsely accused of raping “the cook’s wife”. The Children of Israel were constantly being accused of “whoring after other Gods”. Even in today’s world we associate the bed with two aspects of communicating with God 1) dreaming and 2) praying (although not as much as in the past, some people still say their prayers before going to bed). Therefore, because “the bed” is associated with “a place to communicate with God” it should be considered “an altar” and it should be recalled how angry David was when he learned that the son of Saul had been murdered in his bed.

In this week’s portion we are told that Abraham will go to “God’s mountain”. The other name for this place is called: Mount Moriah and in Hebrew this name comes from the root of the word for: “teacher” (“mor-reh”). In the Old Testament we are told that: “on his mountain God will provide”, while in the New Testament we are told: “ask and you shall receive”. When we place these two sayings side by side, and we keep in mind that God is a teacher, what we can clearly see then is that Janis Joplin might have been a good singer, but she did not know much about theology. The function of God is not to provide people with a Mercedes Benz or a color T.V. Nor, might I add, is it the function of God to provide victory to the professional football team which prays the most sincerely in front of the television cameras.

“A mountain” represents: “a high level of understanding”, thus Moses went up to the top of a mountain and brought God’s words back down to the people. By way of contrast, Jesus usually took several people up to the tops of mountains with him, but, almost invariably, we are clearly told the people did not understand what he said to them (even the disciples were confused or were unable to remain conscious). Thus if one wanted to draw a distinction between the two: Moses was simplifying higher concepts of understanding and bringing them down to the level of understanding of the people, while Jesus was attempting to bring select groups of people up to a higher level of understanding.

Thus, if we agree that: “the function of God” is: “to teach” and: “fruit” is a metaphor for: “knowledge”, then we should not be surprised to find that 1) when discussing the pregnancies of Rachel (the wife of Jacob) and Mary (the mother of Jesus) both the Old and New Testaments speak of: “fruit in their wombs” 2) the verb used to describe: “sex” in the Old Testament is: “to know”.

Carrying this line of logic further, “sex” can be seen as “a way of communicating with God” and “sexual perversions” are metaphors for: “inappropriate ways of praying”. In the New Testament, when Paul of Tarsus advises people “not to have sex”, what he is really saying is that men: “should not consult spiritual mediums”, but, rather, should attempt to contact God by themselves thru prayer. Of course, in just the same way that the disciples of Jesus were unable to comprehend his messages when they approached highest levels of understanding, the followers of Paul of Tarsus also misunderstood his messages. They interpreted his words literally and they continue to do so till this very day, by placing restrictions on sexual behavior.

None the less, the verb: “to know” is not the only verb used to describe “sex” in the Old Testament. The second verb is: “to laugh”, yet we must always remember that both: “sex” and “laughing” are: “methods for communicating with God”. Hence, Sarah is in the tent (the place of worship) and she laughs. God’s angels then say they heard her. She tries to say that she did not laugh, but they insist that she did. The important point, however, is that by laughing she placed herself in communication with the angels, even though she didn’t realize it (The other action that should be associated with: “communication with God” is: “crying”. It seems that whenever someone in the Old Testament begins to: “cry out” God hears them, but in this article we will not be discussing this point).

Reinforcing this line of logic: we see that the son of Abraham is given the name: “Isaac” which come from the root of the Hebrew word for: “laughter” and we have noted the connection between the term: “the son of something” and: “the word of something”.  Furthermore, later we are told that because Ishmael: “laughs with his brother Isaac”, this is the reason Sarah wanted him expelled from the land of Canaan. What’s the connection? How is laughter related to inheriting the land of Israel?

The answer, I believe, comes from the story of Lot and the angels. The men of Sodom surround Lot’s house and they demand the angels be brought outside so that they can have sex with them. Lot then offers to send out his two virgin daughters. Since we have already shown the connection between women and producing fruit thru sex, then what is clearly being implied is that the men are attempting to achieve an even higher level of understanding by using men as mediums instead of women. To understand the logic behind this we are then forced to turn to the story of the snake in the Garden of Eden.

Although, many translations have Eve claiming that the snake “deceived her” or: “beguiled her” or: “whatever”, in Hebrew what Eve says is that: “the snake brought her to a sexual climax”. Thus, we have the connection between sexual climax and the promise of knowledge provided by the fruit of good and evil. The implication seems to be that Eve and the men of Sodom have associated: “sexual satisfaction” with: “higher levels of knowledge”, whereas “the knowledge of God” should be associated with: “the fruit in the womb” (This association between sex and understanding is not as strange as it seems. In the 18^th century a Jewish man by the name of Jacob Frank, and later on his daughter, claimed to have “messianic powers” and it was well known that sexual acts and even orgies were the basis of their teachings).

When we then look at the stories of Pharaoh and King Amimelech we see that God prevented the women of Pharaoh’s and Amimelech’s houses from becoming pregnant. Abraham was described by God as being a prophet and, after he prayed, the women regained their ability to conceive. This is the same pattern of events which took place with Rebecca and the fruit in her womb: she was unable to “bear fruit” until Isaac prayed to God.

Later, when Isaac himself is living amongst the people of Amimelech, we are told that the king saw Isaac and Rebecca “laughing together” and thus he knew they were husband and wife (priest and priestess). This is the exact same verb that is used to describe the behavior of Ishmael and Isaac. In other words, what the Old Testament is implying is that Ishmael and Isaac were engaged in a sexual act together, but I prefer to say that they were both engaged in a religious ritual.

Basically: “the inheritance of Abraham” is: “the land of Canaan”. To better appreciate what this represents we should recall that in the story of: “Elijah and the prophets of Baal” we are told that a tongue of fire comes out of heaven. If a tongue comes out of heaven, then heaven is a mouth. Likewise, in the story of Cain and Abel we are told that the earth opened its mouth to swallow the blood of Abel. “Mouths” are: “sources of teaching”, hence what we are being told in the Book of Genesis is that: “in the beginning” God created two sources of understanding: a higher one (called: “heaven”) and a lower one (called: “earth”).

Thus, Abraham will pass on to his descendants: “a source of understanding”. In other words: “the mouth of the earth” is located in the land of Canaan. Anyone who possesses the Promised Land is “closest to the mouth of God” so to speak and has the authority to relay the messages of God to the rest of: “the world body” (therefore the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is not simply about real estate).

In conclusion, what Sarah clearly saw then was that if Ishmael remained in the land promised to Abraham, and he participated in religious rituals together with Isaac (i.e. engaged in sexual acts), then people would begin to believe that he too was an authorized voice for the teachings of God. Once again, it must be recalled that the 7 nations living in Canaan were expelled for performing forbidden sexual acts. Later, Balaam, a prophet of God, counseled the Medianites to sexually seduce the Children of Israel if they ever hoped to defeat them. To prevent this, Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, kills a member of the tribe of Simon while he is in the middle of a sexual act with a Medianite woman, and as a reward Phinehas is pronounced: “a priest forever”. Furthermore, in ancient times, the use of temple prostitutes was common in the Middle East.

It is my feeling that one of the major misunderstandings of the Torah by the rabbis is the term: “Hebrews”, which they teach means: “the ones who crossed over”. In my opinion, the term “Hebrews” means: “the pregnant ones”, the ones in whom God implanted his ideas. This is why in the Old Testament the Hebrews many times are accused of: “whoring after other Gods” and in the New Testament Jesus says: “if one does not understand the parable of the ‘Sower of the Seeds’ then one cannot understand anything”.

Thus, when Sarah saw Ishmael “laughing with Isaac” (i.e. engaged in a religious ritual) Ishmael was banished from the land by Sarah. This way there would be no doubt what so ever that only Isaac and his descendants (i.e. the Children of Israel) would be identified with: “the school of the earth” located in the Land of Canaan.