In this week’s parsha of Vaera we learn about hospitality, known in Hebrew as Hachnasat Orchim, welcoming guests. We have two examples of hospitality, one as Abraham welcomes three men (it does not say angels in Genesis 18:2) and another of Lot, who invites two angels to visit him.
How is Abraham’s hospitality different from that of Lot? For one, Abraham welcomed three men whom he saw as wanderers, not as angels, whereas Lot invited in angels. Rabbi Frand (from Rabbi Frand on the Parashah 2) differentiates the two greetings; Abraham welcomed men wandering through the wilderness, Lot was only welcoming because he saw angels. But at the same time, Lot had learned something from Uncle Abraham’s example.
Rabbi Frand writes:
Lot…saw angels. Lot was hospitable, but he wasn’t going to have just anyone at his house… Lot had learned enough from his uncle Avraham to invite the angels in, but he had not learned a most important lesson: you don’t handpick your guests. True hachnassas orchim is to make everyone feel welcome at your home, angel or human. And human, we might add, applies to all humans, even those that come from the less genteel segments of society.
Rashi brings another difference in their hospitality. Abraham requested that the travelers remove the dust from their feet first and then enter. Lot invited them to enter with dusty feet. Abraham saw his guests as worshipers of dust and did not want to bring their idol worship into his home. Lot, on the other hand, knew that the people of Sodom objected to Hachnasat Orchim so to protect the visitors suggested the guests remain with dust on their feet so it would appear as though they had just arrived.
I do like having guests over, though I can’t say I always feel up to it; some weeks I feel more inclined to entertain than others. But I do welcome my daughter’s complaint when we don’t have guests (“no guests this week?” she has been known to say). I like that she appreciates Hachnasat Orchim, welcoming guests into our home.
Finally, I struggle with Rabbi Frand’s idea of welcoming anyone into one’s home. Anyone else have their doubts or thoughts about this?
Terebinth. Now that’s an interesting word. Seems to be a Greek word, and it refers to a tree that is also known as a “turpentine tree”. It occurs in some translations of this week’s parsha of Lech Lecha.
And Abram moved his tent, and came and dwelt by the terebinths of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD.
For those of you that read Hebrew, the words are: אֵלֹנֵי מַמְרֵא
So the key word we are trying to translate here is ‘elon’. What is an ‘elon’?
My Artscroll Saperstein edition of Breishit translates ‘elonai mamre’ as ‘the plains of Mamre’.
My JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh claims ‘terebinth’ is the translation.
The first translation of the Bible, the second-century BCE Greek Septuagint, interpreted the word as ‘oak’.
OK, so which is it, oak, terebinth or plains? Depends who you ask. (Do you hate answers like that? Or can you just accept that as life?)
Incredibly enough, I was introduced to this whole topic by two articles on the Forward, of all places (I did not know they had words of Torah on the Forward, a newspaper founded by atheist socialists):
In the second article, Seth Cohen suggests an explanation to the ‘plains’ translation, the translation that is least likely to be the literal one but is suggested by Onkelos:
The translation of elonei as “oaks,” he writes, “might have suggested to some readers in antiquity that Abraham settled in the midst of tree worshipers, since the worship of trees was quite prevalent in his lifetime and for many centuries afterwards.” Therefore, Mr. Cohen continues, although Onkelos’s translation is generally highly literal, he deviated from the text in this case for apologetic purposes — that is, to prevent any possible misinterpreting of the biblical story contrary to the way that he, and the rabbinic sages whose authority he accepted, understood it.
Onkelos did not want any misinterpretation that Abraham might be a tree worshiper.
So what about oaks vs. terebinths?
The Philologos of the Forward argues for oaks, because it is the oldest translation, and because of its small appearance:
Terebinths, whose small leaves indeed smell a bit like turpentine when crushed, may have an impressive-sounding name, but they are not very impressive in appearance. The terebinth is an evergreen shrub that rarely grows to more than 7 or 8 feet and is found all over Israel, where it is one of the most frequent plants in the hillside maquis; terebinths grow wild in my garden and can spread like weeds if you do not keep them in check. The common Palestinian oak, on the other hand, develops into a tall, stately tree. A whole forest or grove of such trees, now seen in only a few places but less rare in Abraham’s time, is an impressive sight indeed.
Why do other translators, such as Robert Alter who wrote the Five Books of Moses, choose terebinth? Perhaps because of its abundance? I couldn’t find an answer.
Here’s a terebinth, courtesy of Wikipedia:
If any of you have the opportunity to visit Neot Kedumim in Israel, you can find a terebinth there. We were there in June (hot!), but I hadn’t yet read about terebinths, so I didn’t think to find one and photograph it.
The cake I baked on Friday that was gobbled up by Sunday morning
First, an explanation for those that do not speak Hebrew. Mabul in Hebrew means flood. This post ideally should have gone up last week, but the cake was not baked until Friday, and the post was not ruminated over until Shabbat, and on Sunday I did JPIX, and after that…well, here it is. I try to make marble cake for Parshat Noach, the section of the Torah about the flood. This year I took Batya’s simple cake recipe (the one I had previously used for orange cake, but no orange in this one, just vanilla for flavor) and divided it in two, one with some cocoa (about 1/4 cup) and one without. I used three cups of flour, and I mixed some chocolate chips into the batter.
The cake itself came out delicious. And no one seemed to care that my lights and darks were not very pronounced. No one except me, however. So in preparing this post I put the picture in Photoshop and made it look a little more marbly (mabully?): Darkened with brightness tool and color balance tool
Does it look more like a marble cake now? Maybe next year I’ll melt some dark chocolate and drizzle it throughout the cake batter as I put in the pan. Any suggestions?
Another fun idea for this parsha by Juggling Frogs: Rainbow Menu
I included many different blogs, whether you submitted your photo or not. If for some reason you do not want to be included (or I incorrectly attributed a photo to you when you may have used a stock photo), please let me know. The links on the images go to the post; the link on the name goes to the blog.
Now for our featured attraction, a beautiful article written by a Highland Park teen:
Seven years ago my mother decided it was high time we children had a dacha, a summer cottage, just like she did in Ukraine…And so we found a private bungalow in the Catskill Mountains — just around the corner from the lake and crowded Russian colonies, giving us both a social life and some relative privacy. The rather spacious two-bedroom cottage, which we would return to every year, with a large kitchen and lovely deck to the side, at first seemed small, compared to the suburban proportions we were used to.
And it wasn’t just the bungalow that was strange; at first we felt like we were dropped onto an alien planet. We had seen these loud babushkas and their Gucci-parading daughters on trips to Brighton Beach, but never in such large doses. Mornings, we were awakened by the eccentric Russian sculptor’s rooster crowing from across the street. Evenings were spent gossiping over tea and sunflower seeds and listening to the latest imported pop from Moscow.
Read the whole thing, on her mom’s blog or in the Jewish Week.
Enjoy a bearded lady and supermarket mouse at Benji’s What War Zone who presents Haveil Havalim #188, the blog carnival with the best of the Jewish and Israeli Blogosphere.
About the photo: I couldn’t find funny, so you will have to settle for weird. The blurry photo of my marigolds (orange and yellow) and zinnia (pink) was taken as part of last week’s Thematic Photographic theme of blur.
Once upon a time there was a little boy who didn’t like kreplach (a kreplach is a Jewish wonton). So his mother decided she would take him in the kitchen while she made the kreplach. First, she prepared the dough. “What are you making?” asked the boy. “You’ll see,” replied the mother. Next she rolled out the dough. Yum, said the little boy. Then she cut the dough into squares. Mmmm, said the child. She took some meat and placed a bit in one of the squares. Yum, yum, said the little boy. She folded over one corner. Mmm, continued the boy. She folded over the next. The boy looked on with expectation. She folded over another corner, then the final corner.
Next we will visit Mrs. S. at Our Shiputzim, who seems to love posting about her construction. I enjoy her sense of humor and friendliness.
Finally, the Babysitter (who has been blogging for a while about babysitting on her blog The Babysitter Writes) started a brand-new blog, The Jewish Side. Good luck with it!
If you feel like passing the award onward (I always recommend a bit of hakaras hatov, recognition of good, in one’s life and blog), here are the rules:
1) Add the logo of the award to your blog
2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you
3) Nominate at least 4 other blogs (I changed this to four; two are fine, really!)
4) Add links to those blogs on your blog
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs (or via email)!
Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures
יִשְׁרְצוּ הַמַּיִם, שֶׁרֶץ נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה
In this week’s parsha, Breishit (Genesis), we get short lists of what was created on each day. On Day 5 God created something called sheretz. What is sheretz? According to Rashi (see a post of mine on Rashi) it is “creepy crawly things” (my words, not Rashi’s). So what are these swarming beings, these beings that Rashi explains as “not high off the ground”? Among the flying creatures, he has the zvuv, the fly. His examples of crawling or slithering creatures are ants, beetles, worms, weasels, mice and snails. And he adds “and the like”, so I looked in Vayikra, where sheretz is also mentioned in connection to kashrut (none of these creatures are kosher), and Rashi there has wasps, mosquitoes, grasshoppers, snakes, scorpions, centipedes, and the word escharbot in Old French, which sounds an awful lot like escargot to me. I find it curious that he has mice and centipedes grouped together. But I suppose if they had invented the microscope in 10th century France, paramecium might be on this list, too.
I also read a piece by Rabbi Abraham Twerski about the parsha. He related the following story:
There was a 96-year-old resident of a nursing home who had not spoken a single word for over a year. No amount of cajoling could get her to speak. It was assumed she was suffering from senile dementia.
One of the volunteers, a young girl of 14, was assigned to sit with this woman. The old woman looked out the window, totally ignoring the young woman’s efforts to engage her in conversation or in an activity. Nothing could distract her from looking out the window.
After an hour, the young woman had just about had it. She arose to leave, but couldn’t help asking, “What are you looking at?” The “demented” old lady looked at her and smiled, “Why, at the light, my child.”
Rabbi Twerski’s comment about this story is that wisdom is often thought of as a kind of light, and most people need to have a practical application in order to value wisdom. But this woman seemed to enjoy looking at the light because … because she enjoyed looking at the light.
So what does this have to do with the insects and mice and weasels? Many of the photo bloggers whose posts I read (or look at, to be more accurate) seem to enjoy photographing these little critters. And this old woman enjoyed looking at the light. And I enjoy looking at the sky and flowers because… because I do.
Herb Garden Outside Kfar Blum Kibbutz Hotel Dining Hall, Israel
The best of the Jewish and Israeli Blogosphere:
Baila hosts Haveil Havalim #187.
And Eric hosted Haveil Havalim #186 (my apologies to Eric for getting the link up this late; it’s been a busy week).
JPix is a carnival for Jews and their pictures, it doesn’t necessarily have to be that ‘joyous expression of art’ which photography can capture, it doesn’t have to be just about photos of Eretz Israel, though they are most welcome. It’s not even about communicating some deep spiritual meaning in a long photo essay, although that’s all right, too. It’s about two things: You’re Jewish and you have photos you want to share, whether they be family, historical, artful, funny, quirky. It’s about sharing.
And anybody in the whole wide world with internet access can enjoy the JPIX carnival.
So, if you are preparing for the upcoming holiday of Sukkot, write up a recipe. Write up your menu. Photograph your Sukkah. Photograph your lulav and etrog. Photograph your kid’s (or some other person’s kid’s) Simchat Torah flag. Draw a picture with crayons of a sukkah, and post that. Describe the vast quantities of food you have eaten during these holidays. Post a food joke. Thank you!
In this week’s parsha of Vaera we learn about hospitality, known in Hebrew as Hachnasat Orchim, welcoming guests. We have two examples of hospitality, one as Abraham welcomes three men (it does not say angels in Genesis 18:2) and another of Lot, who invites two angels to visit him.
Before the Jewish holidays, Lorri of 
In this week’s parsha, Breishit (Genesis), we get short lists of what was created on each day. On Day 5 God created something called sheretz. What is sheretz? According to Rashi (see 
