Shlomo's Thoughts on the Torah

Isaac's love of Esau was a act of willful blindness. He knew that Esau was far from perfect, but he could not bring himself to admit that he was not the leader that we needed.

Esau complains that he was tricked into selling his birthright. This is a false complaint. He knew what he was doing but was greedy for the lentils. He could not go for a short time without eating. He sold his birthright with full knowledge.

The Torah describes Jacob of a man of the tents and complete. He was studying the wisdom of the Torah to learn how to build a righteous life. Esau was a total secularist and therefore unfit to be a leader of the Jewish people.

When Esau finds out that Jacob got the blessing of the first born he complains to his father. He neglects to tell his father that he had sold the birthright to Jacob. He was lying by omission.

Isaac dug wells for water. The Philistines would try to destroy the wells. The question is why? Didn't they also benefit from the wells? The answer is that their hatred blinded them to the benefits of the wells.

Isaac's legacy was his sons. Especially Jacob. The fact is that while Isaac and Ishmael could come together to bury Abraham, Esau's enmity against Jacob was overpowering.

We are commanded to help each other through loving kindness. Not just to mouth the words. We see this in the action of the Jews of Israel rushing to the aid of their less fortunate brethren.

It is interesting that Abraham did not rely on prayer to acquire a wife for Isaac. He sent his servant to acquire her through negotiations with her family. That is because that God wants us to act, not just to pray.

When Eliezer is negotiating with Rebacca's family, he doesn't mention that Abraham and Isaac are spiritual leaders. He mentions their wealth. That is because Rebacca's family were materialist. They had no spiritual side.

The Torah states that Isaac first married Rebecca and then he lived her. This is to teach us that love for a couple should grow. That we should work to make our spouse happy.

In this week's portion we see that Elazar, Abraham's servant is looking for a suitable bride for Isaac. He makes a test to see if she would go above and beyond in caring for others. This is a lesson to us in these trying times.

Abraham bought the burial site for Sarah. He did not have to since he knew that the land had been promised to him. The reason is that he did not want that there should be any questions about ownership in the future.

Lot's daughters claimed that they committed incest because the they would not otherwise have husbands. They gave up hope. This is to teach us that we should never give up hope but to carry on in the light of the Torah.

When Lot left Sodom with his wife and two daughters they were told not to look back. Lot's wife did and became a pillar of salt. Why did she do it? She missed the "good" life that they had in Sodom.

Abraham debates God over the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. He gets God to say that for sake of 10 He would not destroy the 2 cities. Why did he not go below 10?

The angels come to Lot to tell him that Sodom will be destroyed. Lot refuses to believe them even though he knows that the people of Sodom are evil. This is a lesson to us. If someone says that they want to murder all Jews, believe them.

During a conversation with God Abraham stops the conversation so that he can take care of three strangers. And God agrees. This shows that God is more interested in our actions.

Abraham was so named because of his attribute of mercy. He was merciful but he was not stupid. When faced with evil he was not merciful. He would show mercy to those who were proven to be evil.

Abraham is told to go to the Land of Canaan. The reason is that God wanted the Jews to be seen. That through our actions the world could learn how make the world a better place.

When God describes the land He mentions the seven nations dwelling in the land. Missing from the list were the Philistines. About them the Torah that they were then in the land, inferring that they were not native to the land.

Abraham has to go to war for the sake of Lot. He does not go to war for its own sake. He refused any rewards for the victory. So, it is true with us today. We do not go to war unless we have to not because we want to.

The command to Abraham to leave his home is a strange one. He is commanded to go for himself. This underlines the idea that we do not do the commandments for God but for our benefit.

The Torah is specific in that a government should exist for the safety of society but that it should be a totalitarian regime. This was one of the inspirations for the Framers of the US Constitution.

The Torah states that Noah was a righteous man in his generation. What add the qualifier? Because he would make excuses for the evil around him even though he was apart from it.

Before the flood there were no laws. After, God gave the 7 Laws for mankind. What is interesting is that the one positive is to set up courts to enforce the other 6.