This study is dedicated in the loving memory of Mr. Will and Mrs. Ida Simmons Belk, may they rest in peace.
Many years ago, after returning to Hashem, I became ill several hours before Shabbat began. I was unemployed, without insurance in a lonely and cold basement apartment. This is before Naomi Leah and I met. It was a very difficult time. Nineteen years of a non Jewish, tumultuous marriage had just crashed. The pieces were still scattered everywhere. My sons were with their mother. The family business was failing. Tax foreclosure was looming. My former spouse (who was the company’s previous bookkeeper) refused to release the business records, even after court order, so I could not properly defend myself. My parents and two brothers disowned me. The story gets worse... my former spouse gave away my best friend - Chase, my dog. He was a registered Weimaraner who was a wonderful friend. Actually it gets even worse, but...
It was at this time that I picked up the phone and called a dear friend of many years who lived a short block away, Danny Kravitz, Treasurer of JewishPath. He jumped in his car, raced to King Soopers, purchased medicine, then raced to my apartment. He returned to his home with several minutes to spare. In addition he made sure I had hot chicken soup, challah and other Shabbos essentials. Only G-d Knew how Danny accomplished so much in such a short time... Later he checked back on me to make sure everything was fine. It is good to have such wonderful friends. Thank G-d!
Actually, this is where our story for Parshas Vayeira begins. With so many things seemingly going wrong and then to be sick on top of it, I was expecting something special from Hashem. Remember, It is Hashem Who Helps to Support the fallen ones. Tehillim {Psalms} 145:14, Meesh Lay {Proverbs} 24:16
That evening I experienced the type of dream that one wants to continue. I was lost and alone on a very dark night. In the far distance a light twinkled... a light sparkled. After hours of walking towards this light it grew brighter and brighter. It was a beacon light for lost souls, like me... The light was very powerful! It shone in all directions constantly. I wondered while walking towards the light, what is a beacon light doing in the middle of nowhere?...
Eventually I reached a location not too distant from where the light was shining. It was the tent of Avraham Aveinu {our father} just after his Bris Milah. Hashem’s presence was very powerful! The light was a beacon of Hashem in Avraham’s tent reaching out into the night. There were no walls to Avraham’s tent. Only a cover and corners. In the center of the tent was a prepared table with challah and wine where Hashem’s Presence emanated from. Avraham restlessly paced back and forth looking off into the night for lost souls... for visitors... for anyone...
This is when my dream ended.
Classmates, not only are the actions of a Mitzvah the light of Ha Torah but the desire to perform a mitzvah is also the light of Ha Torah. The light that glowed from Avraham Aveinu’s tent was also Avraham’s desire to perform a mitzvah.
As a result each year when we study Parshas Vayeira, I fondly return to that night and any time I’m sick the question arises in my mind, Will Hashem visit me?
There are many themes that we could discuss in this parsha, but the most important is how Hashem supports the fallen, the downcast and the sick. My friends, from the depths of your failure, and from the canyons of your discouragement and from the unknown levels of your pain, look for the small sparkle of light in the great distance of the pitch black night. Then reach out towards it.
That light is the Torah illuminating the Jewish people who are filled with Torah and mitzvahs...
G-d Willing, we will be discussing, Who visited Avraham? It will be listed in the Parsha section under Vayeira. It will be a discussion on what Christians / Messianics term Christophanies in the Tenach {what they term the Old Testament}. If time permits, we will also discuss the sacrifice of an only son.
Blessings and Peace!
Dr. Akiva Gamliel Belk
Written in 5761
Updated in 5765
