Questions on Parshas Vayeira to think about and discuss:

1. Avrohom gives the visiting Angels milk and meat. How did they eat this?
2. Rashi (19:22) brings that the Angels who came to Sedom (Gavriel and Refoel) were punished for saying that “we will destroy” attributing the destruction to them and not Hashem. Yet, Rashi (18:5) brings that Angels do not have bechira, free choice. How then could they then make a mistake and be punished for it?
3. In Parshas Vayeira it brings (end of Chapter 19) the episode of Loit and his two daughters and their children Moav and Amon. Which daughter acted better?
4. How are we to understand the episode of Loit and his daughters?
5. Why did Avrohom believe more than Soro about the tidings of a son and only she laughed and was rebuked?
6. When Soro laughed Hashem told Avrohom who then told off Soro. Why did Hashem not directly rebuke Soro?
7. How could the great Soro deny the claim that she had laughed at the tidings?

Ideas for answers on the general parsha:

1. Tosfas says that they ate them together. The Roikayach says that first they had the milk and only then the meat. The Malbim says that the meat was created by Avrohom with the Sefer Yetzira and therefore was not considered real meat and therefore could be eaten with milk.
2. Perhaps the idea is that people are affected by their surroundings. This also applies to Angels who come down to this physical world. Up there in the spiritual world they do not have free choice. However, when they descend and enter the physical world they then receive some of its characteristics and this is seen here in how the Malochim made a mistake. We find the reverse when Moshe went up to Har Sinai for forty days and nights without eating. Since he entered the spiritual domain he therefore was influenced by the laws there and was sustained without the need for physical food.
3. The Gemora (Bava Kama 38b) brings that the older one was better in the sense that she acted first and merited that our descendants joined the Jewish Nation four generations before her sister’s. However, the younger one acted better in the naming of her child not to express blatantly what she did. She merited that her descendants would not be threatened at all by the Jews unlike Moav who we are only instructed not to threaten them in battle but not anything else.
4. It brings in Igres Moshe Volume 8 in the introduction (p.15) a story about a man who had a terrible disease on his tongue. He told R’ Moshe Feinstein zt”l that it was because he spoke bad about the two daughters of Loit and their deed going along with the fact that Moshiach descended from them. They had appeared to him in a dream and rebuked him saying how they had acted with the best intentions… We see from here how careful we must be when discussing the episodes in the Torah and how they look from our prospective. We must only take what chazal say on the matter and be careful not to criticise any of their actions based on our perceptions and judgements.
5. The Ramban says that Avrohom did not tell her previously what Hashem had told him and she just heard it from these people who looked like Arabs and therefore she was sceptical.
7. The Ohr Hachaim points out that the possuk does not say she said words of denial. Rather it means that she made actions that could be interpreted as denial.

Questions on Avrohom and his bris mila:

1. Rashi (18:1) brings that to protect Avrohom from being bothered, Hashem took the sun out of it’s casing and made it so hot so that no guests would trouble the recovering Avrohom after his bris mila. What is the understanding of why Hashem did this in this particular way using the sun, as it could have come about in different ways, e.g. putting in the minds of people not to go in the direction of Avrohom?
2. Avrohom was waiting by the entrance of his tent for wayfarers. Chazal say that Avrohom had a special tent with entrances on all four sides to be welcoming and easy accessible from whichever direction you came. Which of the four entrances did Avrohom wait at?
3. Avrohom was in tremendous pain recovering from his operation of bris mila. Why did he not simply close his house to guests for a few days until he was fully recovered and then resume his hospitality?
4. Rashi (18:1) brings that Avrohom took the advice of his friend, Mumrei, to do bris mila. How could he even entertain the idea of asking advice about doing it when Hashem had clearly told him to do it?

Ideas for answers on Avrohom and his bris mila:

3. We see an amazing thing about Avrohom. It is true that if people are doing chesed and then have to temporarily stop for some reason then they can. Avrohom however was not looking for excuses. His whole essence was to perform chesed, kindness, and therefore even when in such pain his essence drove him to continue despite his discomfiture!
4. Perhaps the advice was not about doing it since Hashem had told him so. Rather it was about how to go about it taking the rest of the world into consideration. The Rosh says that Avrohom first did bris mila to others and they had died. He therefore asked Mumrei about his dilemma and he told him that the reason is because you must first have mila and only then do it to others. The Gur Aryeh answers that he did not ask advice for the actual act of mila. However, since on all other occasions he asked Mumrei advice he did so again out of courtesy but the ultimate decision was his. Another answer is that Avrohom was scared that when doing mila publicly he would be weakened and open to attack from his enemies. His seeking advice was whether to therefore do it secretly and not rely on a miracle. Mumrei advised him to do it publicly and rely on a miracle.

Questions on Sedom:

1. What was the main sin of Sedom?
2. How many cities were allied and partners to Sedom and how many of them were destroyed?
3. When Avrohom davened to save Sedom he asked that they should be saved in the merit of tzadikim who were inhabitants. He asked for different amounts of them to save the towns, starting with 50 and ending with 10. All the time he goes down in ten’s – i.e. 40, 30, 20, 10 with one exception, namely 45. Why?
4. We find that Avrohom davened to save Sedom. Why did Noach not also daven to save the generation of the Mabul?
5. Pirkei Avos (5:13) brings that some say that someone who says what is mine is mine and what is yours is yours demonstrates the characteristics of Sedom. Why?
6. When the Malochim came to Sedom they were offered lodgings by Loit but they refused and then the townspeople gathered against them. Why did the Angels not simply go around announcing in the streets that if they did not repent the town was slated for destruction (like Yona did to the city of Ninvei)?
7. Rashi (19:3) brings that the Malcohim came to Sedom on Pesach (the 16th of Nissan, the second night of Pesach) and it was destroyed the next morning. How is this significant? (Homon was also hung on the second day of Pesach, after the three fasts of Ester.)

Ideas for answers on Sedom:

2. The five kings mentioned in Parshas Lech Lecha (Chapter 14) were the five kings of the cities allied and partners of Sedom. The other four were: Amora, Adma, Tzvoyim and Tzoar. They were all slated to be destroyed but in the end due to Loit’s plea, (19:19-22), Tzoar was saved and only the other four were destroyed.
3. Rashi explains that there were five towns and really he needed 10 tzadikim to save each one. He therefore went down in denominations of ten, meaning each time asking for one less city to be saved. The only exception is 45 since this would mean nine tzadikim for each city plus Hashem together makes ten. However, when he saw that this did not work when he came to 10 he did not bother asking for 9 tzadikim and Hashem to save one city.

Questions on the Akeida to think about and discuss:

1. Why is it called Akeidas Yitzchok and not attributed to Avrohom as it is counted as one of his ten nisyonous?
2. Why is it called “Akedia”? What does this mean?
3. How old was Yitzchok by the Akeida?
4. What do we have from the actions of sacrifice of Avrohom by the Akeida?
5. What does the Akeida have to do with Rosh Hashana and where do we see this?
6. Avrohom’s zealousness going to the Akeida precedes an enemy of the Jews who does the same. Who?
7. Where did the Akeida take place?
8. Avrohom had ten (main) tests. Why does it only mention the word , “niso“-“test”, by the one of the Akeida?
9. Avrohom set off with four people: Avrohom, Yitzhcok and his two lads (chazal say were Eliezer and Yishmoel). He left his two lads and went to do the Akeida with only him and Yitzchok. Why did he leave them behind?
10. When during the year do we make mention of the Akeida?

Ideas for answers on the Akeida:

1. Perhaps the idea here is that Yitzchok was willing to keep up his life for Hashem and with death it would finish. However, the pain of Avrohom, a father who was willing to kill his long awaited special son and go on living with it is much greater. (This is like people say: Living for Hashem is more difficult than dying for Hashem because it is for much longer.)
2. “Akedia” means “tied”. It refers to a special tying of hand and feet together as was done to Yitzchok (See Gemora Shabbos 54a).
3. Yitzchok was 37 years old by the Akeida. Rabbeinu Bechai (Chayei Sara, 23:1) sees an allusion to this in the possuk that ויהי”ו that has the gematria of 37 that were the number of main years of Soro when she had Yitzchok. (He was born to her when she was 90 and she died when she was 127.)
4. R’ Chaim Volozhin (Ruach Chaim, 5:3) explains the phraseology and emphasis of Avrohom Ovinu, our father. All his actions, nisyonois, were the first of such done by man and therefore to him they were extremely difficult. However, after doing them, to his descendents they are now part of our nature and therefore much easier for us to do. The moshol to this is like the electrician who puts in the wiring and then afterwards everyone can just press the light switch to work it. Perhaps what we come out of the Akeida with is the ability to chose the love of Hashem over the love of our children.
5. Since the Akeida is such a source of merit for the Jews it is mentioned in many places and several times on Rosh Hashana. Some of them: The ideal shofar to take is from a ram to remember the ram used by the Akeida (see O.C. 586:1). Some people eat the head of a sheep to remember the ram brought in place of Yitzchok (O.C. 583:2). The reading from the Torah on the second day of Rosh Hashana is about the Akeida.
6. It was Bilom. (see Rashi, Parshas Bolok, 22:21)
7. The Akeida was done on the mizbayach at a special place where many other people did sacrifices. The Rambam (Hilchos Beis Habechira, 2:1-2) lists this place as the same one where Noach brought up his sacrifices after leaving the tayva and the altar where Kayin and Hevel brought their offerings as well as where Odom brought his sacrifice. It was also the place of the mizbayach of the first Beis Hamikdosh.