The Tragedy of Leah Imeinu Being Barren and Unwanted

Parshat Vayetze

by Rabbi Avi Billet 

The Talmud (Yavamos 64a) makes the claim that Avraham and Yitzchak were sterile, unable to father children, until such time as God changed their reality and they were blessed with the pregnancy that resulted in the birth of the next of the Avos (that Avraham had a child with Hagar is ignored in this passage). The reasoning given in the Talmud is מפני שהקב"ה מתאוה לתפלתן של צדיקים. God desires the prayers of the righteous. 

 A similar claim is made in several Midrashic passages regarding the mothers of the Jewish people, “ולמה נתעקרו אמהות ר' לוי (אמר) בשם ר' שילא ר' חלבו מש' ר' יוחנן שהקב"ה מתאוה לתפילתן ולסיחתן ” (Bereshis Rabba 45:4). God desired their prayers, and eventually opened their wombs.

In watching the birth of the children of Yaakov, first through Leah, then Bilhah, then Zilpah, then Leah, and finally Rachel, one wonders if Leah is included in this group of barren women. The verse tells us “And God saw that Leah was s’nuah (some translate as ‘hated’ though others might argue ‘less loved.’ Still others might say this is a reflection of ‘how she felt’), so God opened her womb.” (29:5) If God needed to open one can infer that her womb had been closed and that she too, indeed, was barren. 

 Malbim puts it this way: All the mothers were barren, and had Leah not been ‘hated,’ she too would have been barren. Since God saw she was perceived that way, and since Rachel was Yaakov’s preferred wife, the concern was that he would only pray for her (Rachel), and neglect Leah’s needs of having prayer open her womb. As a sort of proof, he suggests that the Torah saying ורחל עקרה (Rachel remained barren) suggests that Rachel was the עיקרה, the main wife, for whom Yaakov would pray. Thus she remained עקרה, barren…. 

The implication is that Leah was barren, but her barrenness was ended by God rather quickly, perhaps even before it was apparent. 

 Rabbi Dovid Zvi Hoffman expressed a slightly different point of view on this matter: 

שכל אמהות האומה עקרות היו בטבען; כמו שרה ורבקה היו גם רחל ולאה עקרות, רק בחסדו המיוחד של אל הרחמים, של ה', ילדה לאה את ארבעת בניה הראשונים, וכפי שגם נאמר אצל שרה: "וה' פקד את שרה"23), ואצל רבקה: "ויעתר לו ה' ותהר רבקה אשתו"24), ואילו רחל, שלא זכתה לחסד מיוחד זה, נשארה עקרה, משום שהאלהים, זה שבראה, עקרה בראה. רק משום שהיא נותנת לו ליעקב את שפחתה לאשה, היא זוכה לשני בנים, 

“All the mothers were barren by nature. Just as Sarah (25 years of infertility) and Rivkah (20 years of infertility), so were Rachel and Leah barren. It was only in the great and abundant kindness of the God of Mercy that Leah birthed her first 4 sons… Rachel only merited to have her sons because she willingly gave her maid to Yaakov as a wife.” 

 It was only after six years of watching her co-wives having so many children that the prayers of Rachel were heard, and she had the experience of seeing her personal חרפה removed, with the birth of Yosef, at which time she says "אסף אלהים את – חרפתי". And even in that joy, she asks again for God to watch over her and to give her another child - "יסף ה' לי בן אחר" 

The takeaway message from this analysis is simply that we don’t know how God works, and what His plan is for each of us. Some people merit to have children. For some, there is a different plan. 

 God wants the prayers of the righteous, and God wants the prayers of those who are not as righteous. 

Is everyone guaranteed to have an amazing and easygoing life? Or does every life have its ups and downs, its trials, its tribulations, its amazing moments, and its moments of difficulty and hardship? 

Some people seem to have all the nachas in the world. Some suffer terribly, some more in private, and some more in public; some kinds of suffering are obvious to outsiders, while for other kinds of difficulties, those suffering suffer in silence and in privacy. 

 Was Leah correct in feeling “hated?” Was she truly hated? Or was she simply less loved? 

The verse tells us that Yaakov loved Rachel more than Leah (29:30) which implies that he did have positive feelings towards Leah, just that he loved Rachel more. This is natural! In general terms, people naturally have a preference for friends and even loved ones that are more beloved to an individual. Most people won’t say it aloud, but it’s simply because of a combination of a number of factors that put a person in a more preferred light. This can apply to the person who practices polygamy (which has not been an Ashkenazic practice for over 1,000 years, and has grown out of practice in most Sefardic communities, especially where the law of land forbids polygamy), or even to a parent who has several children. 

While all of us would wish for ourselves and for everyone else to have an easy life and for all things to go as best as possible at all times, we are also realists who live in the real world, and therefore know that there are no guarantees. 

Rachel, for example, may have been most beloved to Yaakov. He may have showered her with all the care, love, affection, gifts, kindnesses that he could muster. But her barrenness made her marriage a very difficult one. And her life was cut down prematurely in the aftermath of the birth of Binyamin. 

 Additionally, while we don’t know how long Leah lived, or even if she accompanied the family down to Egypt, it seems most likely that she too passed away in the time between the death of Rachel and the family’s descent to Egypt. It seems Yaakov lived his 17 years in Egypt without a spouse. 

 This is not to say or suggest whose life situation is most painful or most difficult. But it is to suggest that the way a person embraces God’s role in one’s life may put a person at a greater advantage when it comes to facing and overcoming adversity. Prayer has power that is beyond our comprehension. 

 The person who has nothing to fall back on may feel groundless and may feel very much alone. 

 The person who has God to fall back upon can rely on the things we say regularly such as ה' לי ולא אירא – God is with me and I shall not fear (last words of the Adon Olam prayer) and גם כי אלך בגיא צלמות לא אירא רע כי אתה עמדי, that even as I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil for You are with me. (Tehillim 23) 

May we merit to connect to God through prayer, may we fear nothing knowing He is with us, and believe fully that whatever He does is for the best. 

 Leah may have felt hated (or less loved), and the feeling (even if it was in her own mind) of being unwanted is one of the most tragic of human experiences, particularly of the kind in which physical violence isn’t even part of the equation. While Leah’s feeling שנואה may have merited her to have her womb opened and to have children sooner, that she felt that way is a tragedy of large scale proportions. 

 May we be blessed to be seen for who we are and to love and be loved accordingly.

What Triggers the Best of Choices

Parshat Toldot 

by Rabbi Avi Billet 

Three people in our parsha consider what a future will look like, based on their current situation. 

Rivkah struggles in her pregnancy and says אם כן למה זה אנכי – if pregnancy is this insane ordeal, what did I need this for? Hers seems most easily alleviated when she finds out there are two children in her, who are struggling over matters of their own destiny. 

 She weathers the storm, gives birth to them, and her immediate struggle has obviously run its course. 

 Eisav returns from the field, exhausted. Asking for the food Yaakov is preparing, the conversation turns to matters of birthright. Contemplating the value of the birthright, Eisav considers his own mortality. “I’m going to die anyway [one day], so of what value is the birthright to me?” 

[This opens the door to a larger conversation regarding what the birthright includes – is it a financial thing? A spiritual thing? Is it simply an inheritance? Does it carry with it any kind of responsibility?] 

And finally, we see Yitzchak calling Eisav in, to give him an assignment that will allow Eisav to “be blessed before I die.” The verse had just told us that Eisav was 40 when he married. Since Yitzchak was 60 when his sons were born, he is 100 at the time of Eisav’s wedding. His age at the time of the blessing is between 100 and (based on other information in the Torah) 123 (123 is the most popular opinion). The Torah will later record for us that Yitzchak died at 180, which means that for all his concern, he still lived another 57 years. So why was he so worried about death? Rashi says because his mother died at the age of 127, and he was within a few years of that. More likely, we read at the end of Chayei Sarah that Yishmael died at the age of 137. If Yitzchak is 123 now, it is at the same time as his ½ brother Yishmael’s death. And that may significantly get him to think about his own mortality. 

 Rivkah’s ordeal simply questioned whether the pregnancy was worth it. She wasn’t facing mortality. 

Eisav and Yitzchak are each, in their own way, contemplating their deaths, and their actions as a result tell us a lot about them. 

 Rabbi Lamm put it this way: “For Isaac the imminence of death was an incentive to leave a blessing. For Eisav it was a reason to feast on lentils. For Isaac, death was a signal to reenforce the spiritual worth of a wayward child. For Eisav it was an excuse for forfeiting a birthright. This is how death clearly defines the essence of the personality – by making a man choose between a last blessing and a last fling.” 

Rabbi Lamm went on to contrast the one who found God in the foxhole v. the one who lost Him in the hail of frontline fire – one is looking for a blessing, one for a fling. 

It’s an important question to consider. What are my true values? Is the goal to get closer to God in this lifetime? Or is the goal to pursue the pleasures of Eisav’s lifestyle? The Talmud (Shabbos 152b) tells us that Talmud scholars, the older they grow, the wiser they become. But amei ha’aretz, ignorant people, the older they grow, the more does their foolishness increase. This doesn’t suggest everyone needs to be a Talmud scholar. But certainly those who don’t want to be lopped into the latter category can pursue pursuits that have great value – even as a volunteer! Volunteering to help yeshivas, to help Israel, to raise funds for important chesed and tzedakah projects, or to participate in those chesed and tzedakah projects. 

Rabbi Lamm noted how the Chafetz Chaim compared life to a postcard. There’s a finite amount of space to get a message across. Most people begin writing inane questions or statements (How are you? Wish you were here!), in a larger font, until 3/4 of the postcard is filled and they realize they haven’t actually written anything of substance yet. Then they write in smaller letters, and are very careful about what they write. In life, those getting closer to the end might be more considerate, more careful, far less concerned with the petty and trivial. 

When King David contemplated his own demise, he wrote new songs of poetry. He began to sing in praise of the Almighty, revealing his true essence. 

I happened to speak to a gentleman from the old Woodmere guard (I knew him as a middle-aged man when I was a child) during the first months of COVID. Even after shuls had reopened he was still staying home (in a different South Florida community), being cautious, and while I encouraged him to return to shul – which had been a staple of his life forever – he told me about his new ‘online’ life “I have so much to live for! I am learning Torah with my grandchildren, in Israel, in the United States. I participate in a Daf Yomi class, and other shiurim. I’ve never been more productive in my retirement.” He has since passed away – but that conversation left me thinking, Here is a man who knows what he is living for! 

I’ve shared recently that I finished re-reading “All For the Boss.” The subject of the book, Mr Yaakov Yosef Herman, decided some time in his 40s that he would fast every day (except Shabbos and Yom Tov), breaking his fast every evening on a minimal amount of food. When he was in his 70s, he had a serious health scare when already living in Israel, and when his physician found out he fasted daily, he told him he had to stop, because he wasn’t getting enough nutrition. Mr. Herman was reticent to accept this reality, until the doctor told him a story of a Chassidic Rabbi who, at the age of 70, was told for his own health reasons that he could no longer fast on Yom Kippur. The rabbi’s response was to start dancing! He said, “Ribbono Shel Olam, for 70 years I had the opportunity to serve You by fasting on Yom Kippur! Now I will be serving You by not fasting on Yom Kippur.” After hearing this, Mr. Herman agreed to only fast on Mondays and Thursdays and to eat normally all the other days of the week. 

 Certainly when it comes to prolonging life, most of us will try very hard to follow the physician’s advice. We’ll try to drop bad eating habits or smoking habits (Rabbi Chazkel Abramsky stopped smoking cold turkey at the age of 63 when he was told by his doctor that it was a terrible thing to do. He also loved chocolate, and would eat a few chocolate bars a day. He dropped this cold turkey as well, a few years after dropping smoking, when advised to do so by a physician). We’ll do more exercises, even if difficult, if we are told the idleness will kill us. 

Do we pick the path of Yitzchak when considering how much of the postcard is left to fill? Or do we continue to follow the ways and values of Eisav? 

Chazal tell us that Pharaoh was the cause of the greatest Teshuva at his time, because when the verse says ופרעה הקריב, that Pharaoh approached/encroached, וישאו בני ישראל את עיניהם, the Israelites lifted their eyes… and thus turned to God pleading for salvation. 

In our day, the same can be said about Hamas, whose atrocities on October 7 paved a pathway of commitment to kosher, to Shabbos, to tefillin and tzitzis, and countless things I don’t know about – aside from the most obvious, a love of our fellow Jew and the chesed that accompanies that love. 

It does not have to be that we only make better choices when we consider our mortality, or when the enemy is at the door, threatening our annihilation. That should certainly be a push for great decisions, choices, and action! But wouldn’t it be more powerful and more beautiful if we contemplated such without even considering how much time we may have left? 

May we be blessed with Arichas Yamim (lengthened days and years). And may we be blessed to fill those days and years with meaningful activities, an absence of pettiness, and a focus on bettering our relationships with God and with our fellow man as we fill our lives with Torah, Tefillah, Chesed, love for our fellow Jew, and kindness to our fellow man.

Avraham’s Last Big Move – a Lesson in Finding Tov (Good) in Life

Parshat Chayei Sarah

by Rabbi Avi Billet

At a time in his life when Avraham perhaps should have faded into the sunset, after the death and burial of his wife Sarah, he does two things that the Torah notes. The first is take responsibility for finding a wife for Yitzchak – which he does through the agency of his unnamed servant (who just about everyone identifies as Eliezer (based on 15:2). The second, after Yitzchak’s marriage, is to take Keturah as a wife. 

 Last week, I shared the opinion of Seforno that the sons of Keturah might not have actually been Avraham’s sons, but were her children that he helped raise. All this, over 40 years after the birth of Yitzchak, his own ben zekunim (son of his old age), should be a marvel either way, whether he fathered them AND raised them or even if Keturah brought them into the marriage and he had a hand in raising them. 

With the exception of Midian, there isn’t a clear history in the Bible of any of Avraham’s descendants (Yishmael or the other sons of Keturah) having enmity against the Bnei Yisrael. It could very well be that Avraham taught them well the value of family (Yishmaelim bring Yosef down to Egypt, though that is a complicated story. Otherwise Yishmaelim are referenced in Tehillim 83 as a group who God had destroyed, though no context is given as to when that happened). 

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote an essay “On Judaism and Islam” [https://www.rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation/chayei-sarah/on-judaism-and-islam/] in which he derives a message of hope for the future with truly-peace-loving practitioners of Islam, based on the premise that Yishmael is the ancestor of Arabs and therefore of Islam. 

More than looking at the children of Avraham, whether natural or adopted, let us focus on the first component of Avraham’s last hurrah in the Torah, his marriage. 

 Chazal have pointed out that Keturah was a new name for the woman who had previously been Avraham’s wife (or concubine, however one prefers to view their relationship), namely Hagar. She is called Keturah, which is related to the word Ketoret (the special spice blend of the Mikdash) because her deeds in this marriage were similar to the Ketoret, in that they uplifted and were pleasant.

Her name is reminiscent of the verse in Moshe’s blessing to the Tribe of Levi before his death (Devarim 33:10), "They shall teach Your ordinances to Jacob, and Your Torah to Israel; they shall place incense before You, and burnt offerings upon Your altar - יוֹר֤וּ מִשְׁפָּטֶ֨יךָ֙ לְיַֽעֲקֹ֔ב וְתוֹרָֽתְךָ֖ לְיִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל יָשִׂ֤ימוּ קְטוֹרָה֙ בְּאַפֶּ֔ךָ וְכָלִ֖יל עַל־מִזְבְּחֶֽךָ," a phrase which is followed by “May the Lord bless his army and favorably accept the work of his hands” - בָּרֵ֤ךְ ה֙' חֵיל֔וֹ וּפֹ֥עַל יָדָ֖יו תִּרְצֶ֑ה 

Our Sages explain that when Hagar/Keturah was reintroduced to Avraham’s home, she who had been an outcast, despondent, destitute, felt the plight of the wayfarers who passed through Avraham’s tent, and she had a complete turnaround in her own life, focusing now on being a baalas chesed. 

 Avraham is the first person that the Torah mentions as having become widowed, who later married again. While we don’t know enough about his personality and his personal life, nor what triggered his remarriage, I think it is safe to make a few assumptions: 

• He mourned his wife, and wasn’t interested in marrying again until after Yitzchak was settled 

• After seeing Yitzchak’s ability to love his new wife, Avraham considered that he too had more love to give 

• He did not simply want to enjoy his retirement, but he wanted to continue to feel relevant and important, and knew that taking on new responsibilities was good for him 

• It is possible that he did not want to be alone 

The Torah tells us in the context of Adam in the Garden of Eden that God said לא טוב היות האדם לבדו. It is not good for the human to be alone. Since in that space the only human was Adam, some render it to mean “it is not good for man to be alone.” 

 This is one reason why community is such a valuable commodity. The fact is that there are some people who are alone, and having neighbors, friends, people who check in, or simply the ability to come to shul or to a local gathering place is “good.” 

Sometimes tragedy (widowhood) or circumstance (divorce) puts people in a position of being alone, and the verse also references that such a situation can be defined as לא טוב. This is not to say that people are unable or incapable of making the best of their circumstances. Some people manage well alone. Some people have a hard time of it. Some people put on a good face in public. Some people are open about their struggles. Some people never want to marry again. Some people desperately want to marry again. Some people entertain the possibility that marriage may happen again for them. [The truth is that some people who are in a bad marriage may also feel alone – this too is לא טוב.] 

The hope for everyone is that what the Torah defines as לא טוב can somehow be overcome through a person not feeling alone. Sometimes community creates such possibilities through activities, through regular shul-going, through getting involved to whatever degree possible, and through staying “on the map” of visibility. 

Yes, it is also on others to make whatever gestures of invitation and openness and helpfulness to do our part to see to it that those who are alone are not alone. And hopefully, no matter what circumstance one finds oneself in, one does not feel alone. 

 What Avraham demonstrated was what worked for him. He waited 3 years after the death of Sarah to put his house in order, to make sure Yitzchak was settled with a wife, before looking out for Avraham’s own loneliness to be addressed. 

 And if indeed Hagar was Keturah, her loneliness being filled by Avraham gave her the opportunity to take upon herself the ways of his household and transform herself into a model baalas chesed. 

I just finished re-reading “All For the Boss,” a wonderful book of Yaakov Yosef Herman, an influential balabus in the Lower East Side in the early 1900s (he and his wife moved to Palestine in 1939) who, like Avraham and Sarah, “cornered the market” on Hachnasas Orchim. His wife, his partner in hosting and feeding myriads of guests through their years in NYC and in Jerusalem, passed away around 9 years after they arrived in the Holy Land, shortly after the establishment of the State of Israel. He learned to cook, and continued to host in the manner he had before. And a few years later he married again, and his new wife stepped into the role of hostess for their many orchim, rising to the occasion herself based on her new reality of not being alone, and finding a situation that became very טוב. 

 While many in the Torah had passed at much riper old ages than Avraham, he is the first to be described as dying בְּשֵׂיבָ֥ה טוֹבָ֖ה זָקֵ֣ן וְשָׂבֵ֑עַ, at a good old age, old and satisfied, and maybe the word “good” is included there, because he chose to not fall prey to the circumstance of life being לא טוב and he made the effort to find the טוב he needed in his life, such that it was most noteworthy at the time of his death. 

May those who are alone be blessed to find טוב in friends, in family, in community, and if and when the opportunity arises, in and with a new spouse.

Righteousness, Justice of a People and Their Land

A lot of map points are referenced below. Several maps are presented at the end, to ease certain reference points.

Parshat Vayera 

 by Rabbi Billet 

 Countless times in the chapters of Avraham, God tells him and promises him that his children are to become a great nation. This nation will be clearly identifiable, to bring one example, by their innate need to practice righteousness and justice. God even declares that He knows Avraham will teach his children to conduct themselves in this manner (18:19), which is why He reveals to Avraham His intent to destroy the cities of Sodom, so Avraham can try to defend the wicked inhabitants of those cities. 

 Over the course of the parshas Noach, Lekh Lekha, Vayera and Chayei Sarah we learn about families, clans, and nations. We learn of where they settle. We learn of certain aspects of their identities. We also see populations move, looking for greener pastures, or better opportunities. In chapter 10, we learned that Yefet’s children settled in areas that look like Europe, including islands, presumably on the Mediterranean. Cham’s children settled mostly in Northern Africa and along the Eastern Mediterranean coast (Canaan – which is defined, east to west, as Sodom to Gaza), while Shem’s children settled around, though primarily east of, the Euphrates. 

 One of Cham’s descendants, Nimrod, seems to have initiated a move westward in the efforts to create the tower of Bavel. The failure of that enterprise contributed to further expansion westward from the earlier civilization essentially spawning out of Mesopotamia. Terach (a descendant of Shem) started a move westward as well, he settled in Charan, which is eastern Syria. His son, Avraham, continued the journey to Canaan, now at God's direction, where he eventually settled, and was ultimately promised the land by God – an inheritance that would take possession 400 years after his child Yitzchak would be born.

 What happens to Avraham’s other children? Yishmael is expelled from the house at Sarah’s behest and his mother turns to her roots, finding a wife for her son from Egypt. (21:21) He settles in the wilderness (how does one “settle” in the wilderness? Presumably he is a nomad) and he is described as being a bow-slinger. I’ll give the benefit of the doubt and assume this means he hunts animals. His district is Midbar Paran. The most common identification of Midbar Paran is in the Eastern Sinai, just west of the western border of modern day Israel’s Negev Desert. 

 At the end of Chayei Sarah, we are told that Avraham married Keturah (who some identify as Hagar, though this is debated), and that she had 6 sons. Whether Avraham was their father or raised her children is a debate. Seforno argues that he raised them, based on the evidence in Divrei HaYamim I 1:28 (Keturah’s children are mentioned there too in 1:32, and the verse doubles down that these are her children in 1:33, seeming to support Seforno’s view). He explains that the verse in Bereshit 25:2 which says “she birthed for him” doesn’t have to mean that he was the father, because the verse in Shmuel II 21:8 references the children that Michal gave birth to for Adriel, when Michal never had any children (see Shmuel II 6:23) but she raised her sister Merav’s children. 

 The ”Bnei Keturah” (as they are called in 25:4) are given gifts and sent off to live in the east – the most famous is Midian, and the land that is eventually known as Midian is western Saudi Arabia, south of Jordan. 

 Finally, the very end of Chayei Sarah tells us where the Bnei Yishmael lived – from Chavila until Shur, which is near Egypt (25:18). Midbar Shur is typically identified as being north of Midbar Paran, in the Eastern Sinai desert, northwards. Anyone who claims to be a descendant of Yishmael has a decent historical claim on the Eastern Sinai. Arabs who claim to be descendants of Avraham from Keturah have a decent claim on the lands of Arabia. 

 Unrelated to these groups of Avraham’s descendants, there is another clan known as the Phillistines (Pelishtim) who play a much more significant role in the books of the prophets. Philistia is along the Mediterranean coast, in the area primarily identified today as the Gaza Strip. Avraham encounters them twice in his experience – in chapters 20 and 21. First he lives in Gerar, which is identified as being between Kadesh and Shur (20:1). Kadesh is likely east of Paran, while Shur is slightly north of Paran, which means that Gerar has to be to the northeast of Shur – aka close to the Gaza Strip. Later on he is in a place called Beer ShAva (which may or not be the same place as Beer ShEva – that is a debated point). This would follow a natural departure of ways, with Avraham returning to the southern most part of the land promised to him, just shy of living in a wilderness. (Beer ShAva is just north of the Negev Desert.) There is no one today who claims ancestry from ancient Philistia. [For a related discussion as to the location and identification of Kadesh, see here]

 Going ahead a generation, we will meet Eisav, who will settle in Mt Seir and in the land eventually to be known as Edom. Those areas are north of Midian, to the south and east of the Dead Sea. There are some claims that descendants of Eisav crossed the Mediterranean and ended up in Rome. In either case, no one today identifies as being a descendant of Eisav. 

 In the history of the world there were People identified by nationhood, and there were lands that were occupied by those Peoples. We can identify where Babylonia was, but the people of Babylonia are gone. We can identify where Persia was, but the people of that empire are gone. We can identify areas controlled by Mamelukes and Byzantines, but no one identifies directly as being from that culture. Similarly, the great empires of Rome and Greece can be pointed to on a map, but there is no remnant of those cultures in identifiable people today. There are likely descendants of Ottomans today, as that empire fell apart a little over 100 years ago. And while there are surely descendants of Nazis today, only the most unabashed are proud of their family history, as most decent people would like that horrible stain to disappear from their heritage. 

 The people of Israel entered the land of Canaan at God’s instruction, in fulfillment of the promise to Avraham. All the nations who were there at the time are gone. No one in the world can claim Canaanite ancestry. While Israel became two kingdoms – Yisrael and Yehuda – they were still one nation of Bnei Yisrael. Much of the Kingdom of Yisrael was sent into exile and lost, which has led to fascinating theories and research in identifying peoples who seem to have certain Jewish practices, wondering if they are from the lost tribes [the Falasha and the Bene Menasseh, for example]. The Judean section of Israel was partly exiled, and these Israelites became known as Judeans (or Jews), or Yehudim (Yehud or Yehudi). Since the time of the Roman exile, there were always Jews in Israel. Almost seventy years after the destruction of the Temple (in the 130s), the Bar Kokhba rebellion took place. While a center of Jewish life produced the Babylonian Talmud in Babylonia, there were rabbis in Israel producing the Palestinian Talmud (in Hebrew, Talmud Yerushalmi), using the name the Romans had given to the land. Throughout the Talmudic period there were Jews in Israel. Continuing through the Middle Ages, there were as well: Yehuda HaLevi came to Israel around 1140 and found Jews there; Maimonides came to Israel and met Jews in the 1160s; Nachmanides came to Israel and met Jews in the 1260s; there was a significant settlement of Kabbalists in Tzfat in the 1400s-1600s (and beyond). And of course, the ancient dream of “Next Year in Yerushalayim” started to become a significant reality with the return of many Jews starting in the 1880s. From thousands of years of exile somehow there is still a People who claim Avraham as our ancestor. 

An authoritative book, written in the 1700s by Hadriani Relandi, "Palaestina ex Monumentis Veteribus Illustrata" claims that there were far more Jews than Arabs in the land when he traveled the land identifying 2500 locations and kept records of how many Jews (always the majority), Christians (a more significant minority), and Arabs (smallest population) were around. Gaza was 1/2 Jewish, 1/2 Christian. Nazareth was completely Christian. Tiberias and Tzfat had only Jews. Jerusalem was 2/3 Jewish, 1/3 Christian, and almost no Muslims. Only Shechem (Nablus) was a Muslim city. It is clear that the larger Arab population that eventually was to be found in the Holy Land emigrated to the land after the 1880s, when the Jews began to rebuild the land and economic opportunities began to present themselves. The book contained 1200 pages and was published in two volumes. 

 Mark Twain came to the Holy Land in the 1860s and reported that there were not a lot of people in the Holy Land. Surely there were inhabitants, but how long had they been there? What had they built? Why were they there? Where had they come from? Were these nomads who tried settling? Were these people who had come from Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Lebanon looking for a different life?

 Until 1948, Palestine referred to a land, never to a people. In fact, Palestine never referred to a people (who were simply displaced Arabs) until the founding of the PLO in the 1960s. It is a modern miracle that the wasteland that Twain saw is a country that blooms. It started to turn with the arrival of Jews , a couple of decades after Twain's visit, intent on reviving the land, an effort eventually enhanced by modernity. 

 As Avraham made peace with his neighbors in chapter 21, there could be peace in the land today. But peace can only work when there is a basic premise of accepting the other’s right to exist. Historically, this has always been difficult for one side.

 Tzfat (Safed) was attacked in 1517, 1660, 1838, 1929. There were riots in Hebron in 1929 and throughout the land in 1936-39. All of this pre-dates the modern State of Israel. Many have noted the offers of Statehood that have always been rejected by Arab leaders. 

 Everyone loves and sympathizes with dead Jews. What they don’t like is a Jew who doesn’t lie down and take it, who will no longer walk like sheep to slaughter. The Jew who fights back is a tough pill for some people in the world to swallow.

 Avraham’s mission was to model a life of Tzedakah and Mishpat. Righteousness includes allowing everyone to live in peace. Mishpat means that when people break laws and don’t allow for life to be lived in safety that such crimes need to be addressed, and the perpetrators need to be eradicated. That is what happened to the people of Sodom. 

 Calling the just court that carries out the law “murderers” is a diversionary tactic to not see crimes for what they are. To state the obvious, those who don’t commit crimes don’t need to answer for them. They are never at the mercy of a court which is carrying out the law, ridding the world of actual murderers.

 Moral people are sickened by crimes against humanity, and no decent person wants war. War is sometimes a necessary evil, but the goal of war (when a nation is attacked by an evil enemy) is to end hostilities forever, so there will be no more war. That is justice, the kind that opens the door for a world of righteousness to emerge.

Those who call for ceasefire, using humanitarian claims before the war is won, don't realize that war, by definition, is not humanitarian. Those who start a war are the ones responsible for its outcomes, and the only real way for a war to end is for the bad guys to surrender and to never start up again.

May God help that reality come about so those who truly want to live in peace can do so. The first step (which unbelievably needs to be stated after 75 years) is to accept Israel's existence, and its place as a Jewish State, as a reality. Accept its right be so. Give up hopes of taking it over (to recreate whatever theocracy or terrorist state that no one really wants), and make a commitment to make the best possible life for those who truly suffer - without wanting Jews to suffer.

THEN THERE WILL BE PEACE!