T ORAH P ORTION
We Can Make That Change
BY RABBI JEREMY SCHNEIDER
Parshah Vayera
IN THE YEAR 1054, there
was a huge supernova explo-
sion, an explosion that
eventually became the Crab
Nebula. Astronomers in
places as far fl ung as China,
Japan, Arabia and even the
Americas recorded the event.

Yet strangely, there is no record
of this gigantic event anywhere
in Europe. How could that be?
Is it possible that Europeans
did not see it?
One probable explanation is
that such an event went against
the mindset of Europeans,
under the infl uence of Aristotle
and the Catholic Church. To
these Europeans, the heavens
were rotating spheres that were
unchangeable. Heavenly bodies
did not explode; they simply
circled the earth for eternity.

Such an explosion would go
against their very belief system
and due to this belief system,
Europeans did not “see” it.

What we believe aff ects how
we see the world. We learn
this same lesson from the
story of Hagar and Ishmael
in this week’s Torah portion.

Depending on how we trans-
late the text, Sarah fears that
Ishmael either will be a bad
infl uence on Isaac or actually
hurt him. At Sarah’s urging,
Abraham expels the child and
his mother from his tent.

Hagar and Ishmael wander
in the harsh wilderness. Th ey
quickly run out of water,
and Hagar despairs. She is
convinced that there is no
water in the wilderness and
that the two of them will die of
thirst. Ishmael is crying, and
she cannot bear the thought
of watching him die. She sets
him down under a bush, so
he will be hidden from her
view, and removes herself a
good distance. God hears the
cries of young Ishmael, and
God opens Hagar’s eyes. She
now sees that right before her
is a well of water. It was there
all along, but Hagar did not
see it. Th e boy is saved and will
grow up to be a leader of a great
nation of his own.

Th e question is, why did
Hagar not see the well of water
that was right in front of her?
Why did God have to open
her eyes? Perhaps she was so
convinced that everything was
lost, that her son would die,
that her mind would not allow
her to see the water.

Th e Talmud says “a man is
shown only what is suggested
by his own thoughts” (Berakhot
55b). Too oft en we do not see
what is really there, but rather
we see what our mind suggests
is there.

In the same way God
opened Abraham’s eyes to see
that there was only one God
CAN DL E L IGHTIN G
Nov. 6
Nov. 13
who is the creator of all. God
opened our ancestors’ eyes
through the Exodus experience
to see the meaning of freedom
and of covenant.

When our eyes opened,
when we can recognize that
what we are seeing is in our
mind and is not or does not
need to be reality, we experi-
ence a paradigm shift . From
that moment, we never see the
world the same again.

Th e founding of this country
was such a moment, when we
came to realize that freedom
requires a government that
is, in Lincoln’s words, “of the
people, by the people and for
the people.”
So, if it is true — as the
Torah teaches through Hagar
— that we see only what our
mind sees, how does this
impact our daily lives?
First, knowing the power of
the mind to shape our percep-
tions can free us from being
4:34 p.m.

4:28 p.m.

trapped by the past and make
us receptive to new and higher
truths. Never assume that the
world is as you see it.

Second, having been set
free from the shackles of our
preconceptions, we can allow
our minds to imagine worlds
diff erent from what we see.

We can lift ourselves up above
our current reality and choose
to see the world diff erently.

When we make that choice,
we become empowered to
change the world to match our
new vision.

May we learn to be open to
seeing the world in new and
unexpected ways. May we strive
to see the world as it should be
and to do our part to make it so.

Th at’s doing Jewish. ●
Rabbi Jeremy Schneider is the
spiritual leader of Temple Kol Ami
in Scottsdale, Arizona, and a past
president of the Board of Rabbis of
Greater Phoenix.

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