In verses 4-6 Sara speaks to Avram complaining of Hagar and Avram says to her “do what you want to do” – Sarai then treats her badly. Hagar then runs away. In this passage Avram seems to take no responsibility for addressing the situation – is he then partly responsible for Hagar’s leaving? Our actions can have consequences we don’t foresee, but does that absolve us from responsibility toward the outcome? The discussion plan “Consequences and Responsibility” explores the relationship between actions we take, their consequences and our responsibility toward the outcome.
If I give you permission to play ball outside the house and a ball goes through the window, who is responsible for the broken window?
You loosen the wheel on the bike of someone intending to scare them, but they ended up getting hurt. Are you responsible for them being hurt?
You help your friend with their homework. Are you responsible for their good grade?
You introduce two people and they become friends. Are you responsible for their friendship?
Your parents don’t give you permission to go to your friend’s sleepover party and your friend is angry with you. Are your parents responsible for the anger?
When you decide to move, does it make a difference if your reason for making the move is tied to leaving behind the place you are currently in, or tied to the place you heading toward? Sometimes the place we are heading towards is also a place we once chose to leave (coming home after camp, leaving the home town where we grew up, then coming back there later in life). Sometimes that ‘return’ is from a place our ancestors left generations before (Jews going to live in Israel, second or third generation immigrants returning to their parents/grandparents’ country of birth). Is a return to place always motivated by the desire to be there or can there be other reasons to ‘return home’? Susan Babbitt, writing on American slavery notes that the decision to leave often also involves a bold step of imagination. In going to this involves the capacity to imagine one’s life differently from how it is, and perhaps to imagine yourself capable of things you have not yet done. To have both to desire change and some imagined life that you are moving toward. In going from imagination also comes into play, as it may involve playing out the consequences of staying where we currently are. Of course both might be the matter of implusive action (without much forethought) – but is that the case here? Hagar has left Avram’s house and she is ‘on the road to Shur’ – heading back toward her place of birth, Egypt. It looks like she is fleeing from one home and returning to another home. Yet she turns around and returns to the place of conflict – her home with Avram and Sarai (and that doesn’t seem to turn out too well for her!). These discussion plans explore going form and going to and the reasons we might have for making these journeys.
Leading Idea: Rhetorical Questions “Where have you come from? Where are you going?”
When the Angel comes to Hagar he asks: “Where have you come from? Where are you going?” Does the angel want an answer? Rhetorical questions are questions we ask when we do not expect (or even desire) an answer – rather, their intent is either: (i) to lead us along a path of reasoning (in which case the person asking the question then proceeds to answer it (e.g.; “Why am I saying this? Because…), or (ii) to point our attention to something we are already expected to know (e.g.; “Do you really want that third cookie?”). In the case of Hagar, it seems the angel is asking the second kind of rhetorical question. So what is the angel seeking to get Hagar to think about? Hagar has left Avram’s house and she is ‘on the road to Shur’ – heading back toward her place of birth, Egypt. It looks like she is fleeing from one home and returning to another home. The question might be: “To what home should you be returning?” or “Where do you belong?” Other cases of rhetorical questions in the Torah involve other pivotal events.
God to Adam and Chava in the garden of Eden, (Bereshit 9-13)
God to Cain “Where is Hevel your brother?” (Bereshit 4:9)
God to Moshe “Why are crying out to me?” (Exodus 14:15)
Can you think of circumstances in which the following might be asked as a genuine question? Can you think of circumstances where the question is asked rhetorically? f it is a rhetorical question, what might it be designed to get the person to think about?
Do you really want that third cookie?
Have you been listening to what I have been saying?
Aren’t you tired yet?
Did I say that you could go out tonight?
Aren’t you cold?
Are there questions that can only be asked rhetorically?
N.B. You might like to get students to actually do the first five questions/instructions before they talk about each one.
1. Ok – try to laugh. Can you do it? If you did, where in the body did the laughter take place?
2. Can you laugh from your belly?
3. Can you laugh with your eyes?
4. Can you laugh silently?
5. Can you laugh inwardly without showing anything outside? If so, where is the laughter happening?
6. Is there a difference between laughing inwardly and laughing silently?
7. What is a difference between laughing to yourself and laughing at yourself? Does the actual laughter feel different in each case? If so, in what way is it different?
8. Can you laugh without intending to?
9. Can you laugh without being aware you are doing it?
10. Could you be mistaken about whether you are laughing?
11. Can you hold back laughter?
12. If you suppress your laughter, have you still laughed?
Intertextual Sources: Exploring the meaning of אות
Exploring the meaning of אות
Is there any difference between the meaning of אות in the following passage and the way it is used in Noah?
Read together Shemot 12:13 (God telling the Israelite to mark their door frames during the plagues)
Discuss the ways in which this is similar and different from the rainbow. (for example: What is the function of the אות (to show? tell? remind? something else?). Who is doing the actions? Is this to help the Israelites also remember that they will be safe from God’s actions – is this the same as the rainbow?)
Drama Activities: The meaning of אות
Divide into small groups – half the groups will work with the Exodus text (Shemot 12:13) and half the groups with the in the rainbow text – they should create a skit that shows what they think putting the sign up (on the door, in the sky) is about in light of their discussion.
Divide into small groups – create a skit that shows how you understand the rainbow text in light of some of the distinctions you explored in your community of inquiry / in these discussion plans
Leading Idea: Establishing (מֵקִים), remembering (לִזְכֹּר) and remembering in the future (זָכַרְתִּי)
In Verses 9:8-17 God turns his attention from Noah to himself. “As for me…” Within this passage he reflects on the act of establishing a covenant and remembering it – that is maintaining a covenant (keeping it over time), and the intention to keep it in the future (I will remember). God also reflects on the ‘sign’ (אות) , or rainbow, as representing the covenant (as a sign of the covenant), as a way of showing us of his intentions (it stands as a sign between me and you), and as a way of reminding himself of his covenant. These exercises and discussion plans explore these subtle yet very powerful distinctions.
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