Three visitors appear in the heat of the day, and Abraham runs to meet them—chesed in motion. Sarah laughs (and is told she did), a first tremor of Yitzhak’s name. From there the parsha descends to Sodom: Abraham argues for the few among the many; Lot hosts, hesitates, flees; a city is ash and a family is scarred. Hagar and Ishmael are sent out and seen. And on Moriah, father and son walk “together”—a test that demands willingness yet forbids the deed. Vayera holds radical welcome beside radical limits, asking what it takes to build a just home without becoming Sodom, and how to give everything to God without sacrificing what God will not take.
We explore:
• Tent vs. city gate: Abraham’s rushing hospitality against Sodom’s violence toward the stranger
• “She laughed / you did laugh”: shades of laughter—doubt, joy, timing—and why Yitzhak is named for it
• Arguing with Heaven: Abraham’s negotiation (50…10) and how many righteous make a place redeemable
• Lot’s household: hospitality under pressure, the pillar of salt, and the tangled aftermath (Moav & Ammon)
• Hagar and Ishmael: exile, seeing, and God’s care for a parallel covenant
• Akedat Yitzhak: “the two went together,” intent vs. act, and the Torah’s rejection of child sacrifice
• Sarah’s prophetic antenna: a close read of who hears what—and when—across the parsha
Parshat Vayera 5786
Torah: Genesis 18:1–22:24 | Haftarah: 2 Kings 4:1–37
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