Parsha discussion

Question:  What is the significance of being told of יצחק praying for a child? Especially when we notice that no such mention is made regarding אברהם and/or רחל Approach: Seemingly, יצחק realises that in order for the message of אברהם to continue, he must produce an heir. According to the plain reading of the text, at this juncture יצחק has not yet been promised (directly) that he will have progeny and he therefore entreats הקב״ה for a child who will be able to carry the torch for future generations. רחל on the other hand knows that יעקב already has children, and therefore his need for children specifically from her is much less.

Question:  Who owned the field in which מערת המכפלה is situated? On the one hand, it seems that עפרון sold the field, but in 23:20 the implied previous owners were בני חת as a whole Approach: it seems that ownership in the ancient world was a dual process, and not necessarily all that different to what happens today. Firstly, the tribe/nation acquired land in some form, and then the members of the tribe divided up the land between their members. As such, the people of בני חת first took possession of the entire tract of land, which was then divided up between the members of the community. The portion of עפרון contained land that אברהם wanted to acquire. So, in order for the land to be fully purchased by Avraham, it had to come with the consent of both the individual owner (עפרון) and the nation (בני חת).

Question:  How do we understand Avraham’s requests regarding the destruction of Sdom . If 10 צדיקים would be sufficient to save the city, why start with 50 and work down? Approach:  Many of the commentaries link the numbers to the fact that there were 5 cities to be destroyed (based on 10:19 and other verses), and an assumption that only ten were needed to save each city. This approach doesn’t seem to fit into the simple reading of the text, which consistently refers to “the city” and S’dom (with one mention of Amora). However, we could perhaps explain this based on a phenomenon found elsewhere on Na”ch. Oftentimes, we see that there is reference to a city and “it’s daughters”, i.e. satellite cities or suburbs. So we could maybe understand that S’dom was the major city in the area, and there were another four smaller places in the surrounding area. Avraham treats these as separate entities at first, but is willing to consider them a single entity later on. A possible suppo...

Question:  16:2 How do we understand Sara(i)’s statement that if Hagar has a child, it is as if she has a child? Approach: the word used is אבנה. From other places in תנ״ך, it appears that this root has the meaning of creating a dynasty or something meant to be long/ever lasting. For example, this root is used in conjunction with the building of the בית המקדש, but strikingly NOT with the building of the משכן (where the root used is הקם) It therefore seems that Sarai figured that, since she was barren, the way for her to create her dynasty was for her husband to have a child with another woman whom she would raise, and therefore be treated AS IF she was the mother figure (perhaps a bit along the lines of the converts from חרן as per the Midrash).   An interesting point to note is that the word for “son” or “child” is בן . Which may well indicate how we are to view our children. Rashi seems to take a different approach, which links helping someone else with a similar pro...