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Parsha Chayei Sara:

This is more on the frivolous side, but...

I wish I was half the storyteller that Abraham's senior servant is.

I don't mean in terms of loquaciousness, I mean cold hard facts. Not only does the man recite every key detail to Laban, exactly as it happened, but he does it before he eats a bite!

My approach to telling stories is dwelling for far too long on trivial parts whilst glossing over the salient facts. The worst part is, I don't even know what the salient facts are.

Well, who's to say you know what your recipient's ears need more than HaShem? If you're recounting a tale, give them the facts. Don't overstate *or* understate. There's time to wax lyrical after that, but we all need the facts.

Be more like Abraham? Of course.
Be more like Abraham's senior servant? You better, you bet!

Continued thread

**Bungle באנגל** @bungle@babka.social · Oct 25, 2023

Avram is no gung-ho superhero, no conquerer, no Superman, no Rambo. He is stricken with anxiety, with self-doubt, with conflict, with blame. The crushing weight of responsibility sits on his shoulders - After an exhausting night of defending the carcasses of sacrifice, "a great dark dread descended upon him." Rashi says this is representative of the woes and gloom of the Jews in exile. But for Avraham, he is as a nation, a people within himself - with all the internal struggle that that entails. More on that come Parsha Vayera!

After all that, he'd be forgiven for being an overly-serious grinch. But this founding patriarch is no self-aggrandising pompous stoic! His very first action under the name Avraham is to laugh in the face of God and doubt the efficacy of his loins!

I don't have a blog, but I'm starting to see the appeal.

4/4

Continued thread

**Bungle באנגל** @bungle@babka.social · Oct 25, 2023

The plagues that afflict the Pharoah and his household - the very ones Avram feared would kill him - are on account of Sarai. And that which Avram acquires thanks to her is from the Egyptians: The Jewish nation will be strangers among them for many years to come, and yet it is their riches that helped sustain the creation of Am Yisrael.

And so what is his response to the King of Sodom's offer of possessions for persons? "You shall not say, ‘It is I who made Avram rich.’" Because that would be a falsehood - Avram was made rich by many before him!

Continued thread

**Bungle באנגל** @bungle@babka.social · Oct 25, 2023

In turn, they are sustained by the tents he pitches, the altars he builds, the lives he saves, the nation he will birth. It is worth mentioning that the first time Avram is told of the land being assigned (Bereshit 12:7), it is assigned only to his offspring, not directly to him. His name will be made great, but the great name in question is the one he will be given. The goal he is pursuing is one he will never personally witness.

And so it goes on, with Sarai's support - "Please say that you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may remain alive thanks to you."

"And because of her, it went well with Avram; he acquired sheep, oxen, donkeys, male and female slaves, jennies, and camels." (it is worth mentioning that according to Midrash, this bounty includes Hagar!)

**Bungle באנגל** @bungle@babka.social · Oct 25, 2023

After a very satisfying hour of Torah study...

A Layman's Thoughts on Parsha Lech-Lecha:

I begin with an aside: Gematria and that sort of number-coincidence thing aren't really for me, but it feels worthwhile to at least mention that in the year that Israel turned 75, this is the parsha where Avram is mentioned as being 75 at the start of his journey. Now, on with the show.

Selfless In Every Sense, or; The Model Of The Torahic Hero

Everything Avram achieved was supported by someone else.
Everything Avram achieved was in support of someone else.
He is selfless in both senses of the word - without others, he is nothing, but they too are sustained by his actions.

"Go forth from your native land, your father's house." His upbringing, and indeed his entire adulthood, shaped him. This is a 75 year old man with 75 years of life lessons and personal influences. The self-made man is a myth!