Family dynamics and squabbles provide a recurrent theme in this week’s Torah reading.
Abraham convinced Sarah to pose as his sister to fool Pharaoh. Abraham and Lot went their separate ways because their people couldn’t share the lands of Canaan. Abraham and Sarah struggled to have a child which culminated in Sarah offering Abraham her maid servant Hagar, and then after Hagar gave birth, Sarah cast her and her son out into the desert.
The Jewish read on our patriarchs is that they struggled like we struggle. Some of our struggles are personal, some with our families, and some with our communities.
Torah doesn’t ask us to be perfect – Abraham and Sarah received great blessings despite, or maybe even on account of their imperfections and their struggles to behave better. The Jewish reading of Torah reminds us that aiming high and working to get there is the ideal of the human endeavor.
Wishing all of you a week of fruitful efforts and a Shabbat to rest and reflect on them,
Jonathan