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. This Torah portion and the story of Sodom and Gomorrah are often used by those who oppose Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender rights. They claim that the cities were destroyed because their residents engaged in homosexuality. The only (dubious) support for that conclusion is the threat of the men of Sodom to rape Lot’s male visitors. This would, of course, not be an instance of consensual homosexual conduct but rape. Understanding that, Women of Reform Judaism has been at the forefront of support for the rights of members of the LGBT community. In fact, we passed our first resolution supporting the rights of lesbians in 1965. Today, we are joining briefs to courts around the country supporting marriage equality. While it is possible to argue that at least Sodom was destroyed because of sexual violence including homosexual rape, the traditional Jewish understanding is far different. The rabbis understood the sin to be lack of hospitality. They wrote many midrashim in which residents of the cities attacked guests who came through their precincts. Hospitality was an especially important value in an area of deserts and mountains where a lack of hospitality could mean death for wayfarers. As individual sisterhoods, it is important for us to take seriously the rabbinic understanding of the reason for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Today, there are people who are new to our communities. Do we invite new temple members to come to the sisterhood? Do we welcome them when we have sisterhood events? Do we seek out new faces during onegs on Shabbat and welcome them to our synagogues? Do we take other steps to make newcomers feel comfortable in our sisterhoods and temples? Each of us needs to show hospitality to people who are new to our community. There are many ways of doing so, but the first step is often to watch for someone new and go up to them. It can be hard to do. It is much easier to just cluster with our friends than to meet someone new. But if we don’t do it, who will? So each of us must get past our shyness and meet and greet those we do not know. Beyond that, we should look at how our wider communities are welcoming newcomers and treating the strangers in our midst. WRJ recently passed another in a long list of resolutions supporting Immigration Reform and a pathway to citizenship as well as supporting the rights of immigrants in our community. Let us make sure that we do not repeat the errors of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and welcome the strangers in our midst and make them feel at home in our communities.