GEN825 Although we must express gratitude to someone who renders us a service, we must thank God before we thank man.  … The Talmud Nedarim 32b states that Malkitzedek erred by expressing gratitude first to Abraham and then to God. For this he was punished.  We must be grateful to anyone who does us a favor, but at the same time, we must realize that God is the ultimate source of all favors.  When someone is told that his wife has given birth to a son, he should make the blessing Hatov Vehamaitiv [Who is good and does good-AJL] before thanking the person who conveyed the good news to him.  Sefer Chasidim 844, cited in Kaf Hachayim – Orach Chayim 222.  PLYN 50

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GEN826 Many contemporary Jews who are skittish about belief in God but strongly committed to helping others may be disturbed by the centrality of the belief in God in motivating Judaism’s commitment to others. Jewish sources provide a series of rationales for caring for others, and some of them, as we shall see, invoke God much less than others do. As a result, atheistic or agnostic Jews can find ample grounds in the Jewish tradition for the duty to help others, and even those who firmly believe in God will at times be motivated more by Judaism’s nontheistic reasons than by its theistic ones. At the same time, it would be misleading to pretend that the Jewish concept of (and belief in) God plays only a minor role in Judaism’s demand that we care for others. On the contrary, God is very much at the center of that Jewish duty. The ultimate theological foundation for Judaism’s commitment to help others is the belief that God created the world and therefore owns it. The Torah (Genesis 14:19, 22) describes God as “koneh shamayim va’aretz,” which in biblical Hebrew means both Creator of heaven and earth and also Owner of heaven and earth. (“Heaven and earth” is a merism, a biblical device that names the ends of the spectrum and means everything in between as well.) The Bible also spells out this idea in verses such as these: (Mark, the heavens to their uttermost reaches belong to the Lord your God, the earth and all that is on it!” (Deuteronomy 10:14) and “The land and all that is on it belongs to God, the earth and those who dwell on it”. (Psalms 24:1). DORFFWITO 23

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GEN827 If some give their tithes and some do not, a famine comes through drought; some go hungry and some have enough. Pirkei Avot V:10-11.  … A man could always find a way to circumvent his [tithe] obligation.  Only hashgahah, the watchful eye and care of Divine Providence, could know; only hashgahah could act. And so, if the crime became general, a general punishment would ensue to fit the crime; rainfall would decrease or come sporadically; there would be some drought; and the sinners would go hungry while others had food enough.  Thus the Israelite had to learn one lesson, willy-nilly: let him withhold his tithes from the Levite or needy, and eventually a drought would deprive him of all his crops. You save nothing by shutting your first on the share that belongs to charity. One way or another, Heaven will take its due.  The practice of giving a tenth of the harvest did not begin in Jewish history with the Torah’s commandment. Of themselves, the Patriarchs sensed a sacred obligation. When Abraham returned victorious from his battle with the four kings to save his captured nephew Lot, he have “a tenth of all” [this verse] the war booty to Melchizedek of Salem, who was “cohen to God most high.”  Genesis 14:18 as interpreted in Pirke d’R. Eli’ezer xxvi. SINAI3 117-8

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GEN828 R. Yochanan said: “Why was Abraham punished, and his children enslaved in Egypt for 210 years? Because he allowed people to be separated from him, whom he could have brought under the wings of the Shechinah [the Divine Presence], as it is written: ‘And the king of Sodom said to Avram: “Give me the souls, and take the spoil for yourself”’” Nedarim 32a TEMIMAH-GEN 66

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GEN829 If one has as good eye, an humble temperament, and a lowly spirit, he is of the disciples of Abraham our Father. Pirkei Avot V:22  When a man has a “lowly spirit,” he will reject luxuries and excesses, preferring only life’s bare necessities; hence, what he has is generally ample for his needs.  Such a man was Abraham.  Having vanquished the four kings to save his captured nephew Lot, he set free a multitude of other captives from Sodom and their goods – war booty. As the victor, Abraham was entitled to it all as the spoils of war, and the King of Sodom offered it to him. “I have lifted my hand,” he replied, “ to the Lord God Most High, maker of heaven and earth, [in a vow] that nothing, from a thread to a shoelace, would I take of all that is yours …” [this verse]. He had no desire to “make a killing” or strike it rich, so that he could climb upward on the pyramid of status. The wide worlds of Solomon come to mind: “A beneficent spirit will feel enriched”; “The tzaddik (righteous one) eats [but] enough to satisfy his spirit.” Proverbs 11:25, 13:25.  SINAI3 201

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GEN830 R. Abba said: “How severe is the sin of stealing food and eating it; for even those who are absolutely righteous cannot return it, as it is written: ‘save only what the youths have eaten’” [which I cannot return] Chullin 89a TEMIMAH-GEN 67

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GEN831 A core commitment to the preservation of humanity—our own and that of our enemies—means that we do not shy away from protecting ourselves, our civilians, and our values, but that when we fight, we do so not with bombast and arrogance, but with fear and trembling.  We never delight in the opportunity to fight, and we work to ensure that our soldiers’ conduct in war lives up to the highest possible standards of moral decency.  The fact that a nation may have a legitimate need to fight does not justify recklessness. … In [this verse], Abraham emerges victorious after fighting the invading armies of four mighty kinds.  In his first moment of rest after the battles, he is addressed by God: “Al tirah Avram—Fear not, Abram” But why would Abraham be afraid?  He has just vanquished his enemies and is, for the first time in years, able to dwell in peace.  The Rabbis teach that his fear derived from a persistent post-war apprehension, as he thought, “Perhaps there was one righteous or God-fearing person among the people I killed.” Bereshit [Genesis] Rabbah 15:1.  What would that kind of moral sensitivity look like in our time? The hour calls for a heartfelt reaffirmation of our shared humanity—something that seems to have been lost in contemporary warfare.  Perhaps that will help us step out of the morass of these violent times and begin to build pathways toward peace.  DORWAR 104

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GEN832 We see how characteristic it is for the pious to express concern even regarding a mitzvah that has been fulfilled, saying, “Perhaps, Heaven forbid, something objectionable is intermingled in it.”  As for Abraham, after he had gone to the assistance of his nephew, Lot, who was in captivity, he became freighted and said that maybe his deeds were not completely pure.  This [derives] from what they of blessed memory explained Genesis Rabbah 44:4 about [this verse].  “Rabbi Levi said: Because Abraham became frightened, saying: ‘Among all the people that I have killed, might there not have been one righteous person or one God-fearing person?  [See also, 32:8 AMJV 62-3] Therefore he was told, ‘Abram, do not be afraid.’” In the Tanna D’Vei Eliyahu it says Eliyahu Rabbah 25: “Abram, do not be afraid’ [teaches us that] one only says ‘Do not be afraid’ to one who truly fears Heaven.  This is the true fear about which they said Berachot 33b: “The only thing the Holy One blessed be He has in His world is a storehouse that contains the fear of heaven.”  Only Moshe was able to attain it easily because of his great attachment to the Blessed One’s name.  For others, corporeality is unquestionably a great deterrent.  Nonetheless, every pious person should strive to attain as much as he is capable of attaining; and it says Psalms 34:10: “Fear the Eternal – you, His holy ones.”  PATH 172-3

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GEN834 The ideal Jewish home is created by the conviction that a blessing unfolds itself within the life of husband and wife and their children through the family. This is both of a natural and of a spiritual order. Home life is on a partnership basis; there is the love and the care of the parents for their children and there is the obedience and the respect of the children towards their parents. In their father and mother, the children have before their eyes that union between man and wife which is Kiddushin (holy). It is from the care and love for him that the child first learns the meaning of God as “Our Father who art in Heaven (avinu she’bashamayim).”  One of the many answers that could be given to the question “What is Judaism?” is this: It is a religion in which the family is in possession of God’s blessing and in which the parents hand down this blessing to their children. It is in the happiness of the family life that the Jew experiences his nearness to God.  The question might also be asked “What is marriage?” The answer could equally be given very simply. It is not merely a social relationship but an attempt to create joy and peace in the world, to build a sanctuary out of a worldly institution. Husband and wife and enabled through marriage to share in the creative work of God, “renewing the creation every day continually” Singer’s Prayer Book, p. 37.  Both can sustain life and make it holy; empowered by their life together to bring out the best that is in them.  “Thou are consecrated unto me by this ring according to the Law of Moses and Israel” is the translation of the nine Hebrew words by which the bride becomes a wife. They form a gateway through which the couple proceed towards their future life of joy and holiness, at the same time impressing upon them that they are now dedicated to each other for life. Jewish family life will always be the main reason for the survival of our people; for it is the ideal home that forges characters able to withstand extinction. No gain in national territory could ever offset the tragedy that would ensue were those ideals of Judaism – marriage, the Sabbath and Kashrut – to suffer a decline in the State of Israel. Thucydides, the historian of the Peloponesian Wars, records that Greece fell not because of the clash of arms but because home life was being destroyed.  Rome had a similar tale to tell. On account of the danger existing to the sanctity of marriage not only in the Golah [i.e., exile/diaspora – AJL] but also in Israel, it is the task of spiritual leaders constantly to be on their guard to defend and explain the ethical import of a Jewish union. … Marriage is holy, for it gives to men and women the opportunity of taking art in the miracle of creation and provides for the children resulting from such a happy union the best environment for their sound and healthy development – a united and happy home and the love and care of devoted parents. It is also blessed, because it offers to the majority of men and women the greatest chance of achieving personal happiness and the joy of companionship with a beloved and chosen partner. Judaism sees in marriage a mitigation of the essential loneliness of life and the opportunity of shared interests which gives content and significance to things around us.  LEHRMAN 246-9

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GEN833 A surprising number of biblical figures had fertility problems. Abraham and Sarah, Rebekah and Isaac, Rachel and Jacob, and Elkanah and Hannah (who ultimately bore the prophet Samuel) all had difficulties. [this verse, Genesis 18:1-15; 25:21; 30:1-8, 22-24; 35;16-20; 1 Samuel 1:1-20). No other culture’s sacred scripture focuses so extensively on infertility. What can we learn from this? First, that children are precious. Indeed, the Jewish tradition sees them as a great blessing. In part this is so because of the psychological growth and joy they bring to their parents. In addition, of course, the future of Judaism and the Jewish people depends on procreation. But the very difficulty that so many couples have in conceiving and bearing children is itself a mark of how precious they are when they come. Second, the biblical stories amply indicate that infertility causes immense tensions in a marriage. Infertile couples begin to question who they are individually as a man or woman and what their future together holds. … Some couples break up over this issue, and those whose marriages survive must revise their hopes and dreams of their lives together. (By Elliot N. Dorff) OXFORD 321-2

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