Parshah Vayeira mashed up with your favorite YouTube videos. All videos licensed under Creative Commons/Fair Use. Visit our YouTube channel by clicking here.
Haftarah Va’eira: Too Big For Your ‘Breeches’
Ezekiel 28:25-29:21
This week’s haftorah opens by Ezekiel recalling the exiles being led from Egypt and the subsequent decimation of the Pharaoh Meanwhile, over at this week’s Parshah, it’s raining plagues as Moses lobbies for his people’s freedom.
“When I gather in the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they have been scattered.. then they shall dwell on their land…and dwell upon it securely.”
Flash forward a few centuries, and Egypt is again about to receive some godly punishment—this time a forthcoming flood of conquering Babylonians. Why is Egypt in trouble this time? Ezekiel says their first sin was to renege on their promise to aid Israel when they were being attached by the Babylonians, and secondly, they’ve been arrogant—attributing their success to the Nile and not to G-d. But “the river is mine and I have made it,” and as such, an angered G-d is going to reward Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian [Read more…]
Haftarah Vayeira: Elisha, Elijah and all that Jazz
Kings II 4:1-37: This week’s haftarah mirrors the parsha in a depiction of miraculous promises. Vayeria haftorah describes two miracles performed by the prophet Elisha: the first, an indebted widow is instructed to bring forth all the vessels in her home and borrow those of her neighbors to fill with a miraculously never-ending vial of oil in order to stave off debt collectors from taking her sons as slaves. The second, Elisha promises a hospitable couple they would have a child in exactly one year’s time, which they do, and then miraculously brings the boy back to life after a sudden death several years later.
When I read through the text, I thought to myself, “who is the prophet Elisha? Is this the same as the prophet Elijah, for whom we leave our extra glass of wine on the seder? Maybe just spelled differently in this text?”
Indeed Elisha and [Read more…]