• October 14, 2021
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In Parshas Lech Lecha we are introduced to Sarah’s tent - a tent that will be alluded to in next week’s Parshah and the one after that, a tent that we are told the Mishkan and Bais HaMikdash were modeled on, and the tent that is the paradigm for all of our homes as well. In this week’s Parshah, we are told that Avraham pitched, “ohalo”, his tent. That is the way the Baal Koreh will read it on Shabbos, but if you’re reading the pasuk, you’ll notice that its not spelled with the masculine “vav” at the end, but the feminine “hey”, so the word as written, means “her tent”. His tent? Her tent? The lesson seems to be that her tent was his tent. What does this mean and what can we learn from it? I heard the following idea from Rav Sheftel Neuberger of Ner Yisroel of Baltimore and want to share it with you. Ohel Sarah, Sarah’s tent, isn’t referring to a canvas structure that you or I would call a tent, rather ohel, is the word the Torah uses to describe an internal environment which is unique from the outside environment and that is what Sarah built. In Sefer Braishis Sarah is bound to her ohel. In next week’s Parsha, when the angels come to visit Avraham and ask about Sarah, the answer is, “Hinei BaOhel”, she is in the tent. Later, when Yitzchak marries Rivkah, he brings her into the tent of Sarah his mother and we’re reminded there that as long as Sarah was alive, the environment of her tent was supernatural. Her candles remained lit all week, a Heavenly cloud hovered above, and there was a special blessing in her dough. When Sarah died all that disappeared, but Rivkah brought that quality back. Sarah’s ohel, the model for all future Jewish homes, and the Batei Mikdash had two qualities: 1. A separation from outside - walls that divide the internal from the external and contain the internal environment within 2. The power to spread an internal atmosphere throughout the ohel We see these two principles later in the Torah, when discussing the laws of “tumas ohel”, the laws of impurity in tents. Firstly the tumah is confined within the ohel, it does not spread to the outside, and secondly, within the ohel, all its contents are now tamei. The impurity affects everything within the ohel. An ohel doesn’t just contain, it also spreads within. The emphasis we see on Sarah’s tent is because she had a unique job. Her job was to create an environment that was protected from outside influences and was also infused with an internal atmosphere. That is an ohel. It isn’t enough to be separate and divided from outside influences, but there must be an internal aura that fills the home too. And this is the legacy that we inherited from Sarah, this is the significance of what we do each day. We build our homes with walls that divide from the outside world, we filter what comes into our homes, and at the same time we also work to create an internal environment of warmth, love, Torah, and kedusha. Perhaps for today we can take a minute to reflect and appreciate all the wisdom and energy that we expend towards building our “ohel”. There are times we feel exhausted by our job, and there are times that we wonder if we’re even doing it well. But think about it and you will recognize that these two qualities of Sarah’s tent are exactly what you work in building your home day by day! Let’s appreciate the significance of our homes and see them as they truly are, a direct legacy of Sarah’s tent found in our Parsha. Conversation Point: 1. What do you think mothers today can do to actualize the two qualities of an ohel in our homes?