Voices of WRJ: Vayeira
This week’s Torah portion, Vayeira, contains several stories with which we are all familiar. It opens with God revealing through three mysterious visitors that Sarah will have a child. Next comes the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. In it, Abraham argues for the potential innocent when God threatens to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. In the end, there are not even ten innocent people, so God destroys the city. After the story of those two cities, Isaac is born. Sarah pushes for the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael who almost starve in the wilderness, but are saved at the last minute. The portion ends with the story of the Akeda in which Isaac is almost killed by Abraham but is saved at the last minute by God.