Standing Over Him

In 18:2 the verse says "And he saw, and behold, three men standing over him." And then the verse continues, "And he saw, and he ran to them."

The double language of "And he saw" is addressed by others, but what I find interesting is the language of "standing over him", which clearly implies such a close proximity that they are looming above him. If so, then how could he be running out at some distance towards them?

My Lord

In 18:3 the verse says "And he said, My Lord, if I find favor in your eyes, do not pass from before your servant."

But the prior verse said that there were three men. If so, why is he saying "My Lord", singular, instead of "My Lords", plural?

Sarah Laughed

The verses from 18:9 to 18:15 are just extraordinary. The three men have finished eating Avraham's lavish meal, and they announce that this time next year they will return and Sarah will have a son. Sarah hears and laughs at the notion that an old woman like her could have a child. Then Hashem says to Avraham "Why did Sarah laugh? Next year you will indeed have a son." Sarah denies laughing, for she is frightened, and Avraham says, "No, you did laugh."

There are so many things to dig our teeth into, so let's go through them systematically.

The first is the switch from the plural to the singular when referring to the three men. We already saw in verse 3 that Avraham uses the singular "My Lord", and then in verse 5 it is "They said 'So you shall do as you have spoken'". And again in verse 9 it is "They said to him 'Where is Sarah your wife'". But then, in the very next verse we switch to singular, and it is "And he said 'I shall surely return to you and behold! a son to Sarah your wife'". What exactly is going on? Is there some clear leader among these three men that Avraham initially addresses and who afterwards delivers the important prophecy? And why the first two times that they talk it is all of them, but at the actual prophecy it is just one of them?

Another oddity is the inclusion in verse 10 of the detail that Sara was listening at the entrance to the tent and "it was behind him." Why is it relevant that the tent's entrance was behind the speaker who was announcing the prophecy?

She Looked Behind

In 19:17, the angels escorting Lot and his family from the destruction of Sodom warns them "Do not look behind you" at the destruction. Then, in 19:26 "And his wife looked behind him and she became a pillar of salt."

If you examine the language carefully, I believe that it implies that Lot's wife was actually trying to be clever here, technically respecting the angels' command while still being able to steal a look. Because the angels said "Do not look behind you" - and, technically, Lot's wife obeyed! For all she did was to look behind him: possibly, instead of peering back over her own shoulder she positions herself just before her husband and looks over his shoulder. Nonetheless, of course, she still suffered the consequences.

Description and Recollection

There is a lovely little pattern that stitches the Haftora to the Torah portion.

Yaakov is pleading with Lavan to allow him to leave. Lavan says that God has blessed him (Lavan) simply by Yaakov's presence. "And he (Lavan) said describe your payment to me and I shall give it." (30:28). The word the verse uses for "describe" is "Nakvah" - the exact same word as the one for "female". Now, what is the connection between "description" and "female"?

Let us examine the Hebrew word for "male". It is "Zachar", which means "memory" or "recollection".

Thus we have "female" and "male" as "description" and "recollection". What does all this mean?

The Haftorah for this week's Parsha is from Hosheya. The verse (12:8) says "A merchant, in his hand scales of deceit, to overcharge he loves." The Hebrew word for merchant here is "Canaan" - the exact same word as the one used to describe the Holy Land before the coming of the Jews, with the root of the word being "Cana", to be "bowed". And we may contrast that with the term used after the Jewish conquest: "Yisrael", from the root "Yashar", to be "straight". And so we have our contrast: "bowed" and "straight".

What is the difference between description and recollection? Recollection is of the thing itself: something happened to you and now you recall that event: it is internal. Description is the act of representing or giving an account of something: it is a label, it is external. In other words, recollection cannot be communicated, it is something that you recall to yourself. But the entire purpose of description is for sharing, for communicating.

The male manifests continuity, recollection, internalization. The female is externalization, description, communication, connection.

What is a merchant? A connector of supply to demand. And a connector cannot be rigid in their beliefs: they must be flexible and adaptable as they seek to bind people to each other. And this was the Holy Land before the arrival of Jews and their uncompromising Torah: it was a land of many peoples and beliefs. But then came the Jews and the land became knows as Yisroel: rigid, uncompromising, straight, hardened in their internal beliefs.