An offering for the week of Va-yera’ (Gen 18:1 – 22:24) — some images I hope are suggest rest and hope and the possibility of hospitality and re-building.
Featured image is detail from illustration shared below from Sandow Birk’s American Qur’an (Norton, 2016). Learn about the amazing American Qur’an and check out more of his work.
A Tree/Orchard
Image description for ESHEL
and more on Planting Trees and this portion
Illuminating Scriptural Connections: A Qur’anic Commentary on the Torah, by Rick Sopher and Abdulla Galadari (JPS, 2026), points out connections between parashat va-yera’ and text of the Qur’an. Sopher and Galadari reference 51:24, where “Abraham’s honored guests,” the “unfamiliar folk” appear. A footnote in my copy of the Qur’an* gives cross citations to 11:69ff and 15:51ff. The latter section, in which the righteous sit amid gardens and streams, is illustrated here —
* Learn about JPS’s new resource
** The Message of the Qur’an, translation by Muhammad Asad (The Book Foundation, 1980).
Gardens and Streams
Image description for Qur’an 15:50-99: Two pages from the illustrated American Qur’an by Sandow Birk (Norton, 2016). A large picnic area, where contemporary caravans and trucks are parked and people are sharing meals and conversation among the trees.
A Vision
Some Hagar-related resources, including the poem, “All Good,” by Mohja Kahf with notes she added when giving permission to share her poem.
Hajar pours water that becomes
a subtle, sweet, and heretofore unheard of wine.
Sarah laughs again, more deeply.
Abraham is radiant. Everyone, this time
around, can recognize
in the eyes of every other,
the flickering light of the Divine. — Kahf, 2016“All Good,” in Hagar Poems, University of Arkansas Press, 2016
