Loving Kindness Needs Limits

Jacob has to flee from his brother Esau. The reason is that Esau sold the birthright to Jacob for a pot of porridge. This is the story of Jew haters. The feel that they are owed something for nothing. Unfortunately, this story repeats itself throughout history.

Abraham bought the Tomb of the Patriarchs. Jacob boughtShchem. And David bought Jerusalem. We inherited these from them. It is part oftheir legacy.

The Torah states that Isaac first married Rebecca and then he loved her. It is emphasizing that love should grow between a man and his wife. This happens when you recognize that your job is to make your spouse happy with no expectations in return.

When choosing a wife for Yitzhok, Eliezer, Abrham's servant looks for character, or not beauty nor wealth. He finds that Rivka has these qualities.

Sarah demands that Abraham send Ishmael and Hagar awaybecause she sees in Ishmael a danger to the family. He is doing things that areagainst everything that Abraham and Sarah stand for. God tells Abraham tolisten to her.

One of the most important lessons from this week's Parsha is that in order to improve the world we must first improve ourselves.

It is very clear that from the outset of the Parsha that the reason we are called upon to keep the commandments is that it is for our sake.

When Abraham and Lot separated Lot chose to live in Sodomdue to it being a place of wealth. He thought that the evil people there would not affect him. He was wrong. This is a lesson to all of us that who are neighbors are will affect our moral behavior.

 God makes a promise to Abraham that he will be theprogenitor of a great nation. But before they can become a nation they will have to suffer 400 years of slavery. This was to teach us what it means to be a stranger in a strange land.

Abraham was called the "Ivri" which means"from the other side" because he stood up in a world of lies and told the truth. Much like today Israel stand up for truth in a world of lies.