Torat Chaim

May this post be in merit of Dror Yisrael ben Rut Miriam (דרור ישראל בן רות מרים) for a successful operation tomorrow and a speedy recovery.

"Torat Chaim". "Torat Netzach". Terms that sometimes seem too abstract for my taste. Not everything always seems relevant to our lives, and yet, everything is Torah and therefore everything is the core of life and the essence of infinity.

These terms hit hard with the war in Israel, with regards to the parshas we're reading now. Suddenly, every parsha seems to be speaking volumes about dilemmas - moral, practical, halachic, spiritual - we all seem to be facing. For example, Avraham not stopping to think twice before leading his small battalion against a quadruple-sized army to save his close relative Lot - Lots of Israelis did just that during the first few weeks of the war. They dropped everything and marched to war to save their brothers.

And how about Yishmael's arc? Yitzchak and Yishmael can only get along when Yishmael lets Yitzchak take the lead.

And in Toldot: How far do you go to do the right thing? And the Plishtite ruining of the wells- classic antisemitism. Someone succeeds with few means and jealous neighbors don't offer offer partnership. Instead, they destroy and push away.

And now Vayishlach: Rabbi Chaim Navon pointed out the immense difficulty in choosing which hostages to let go and which not, and that Yaakov in this week's parasha believed that not his entire family would survive. And so, he split up the camps. Some might gripe that he decided that Rachel and Leah and their kids were the most important and put them in the second camp, but remember: a. He stayed in the lead camp - his other two wives and other kids had the advantage of having their father around in a great time of need, and b. He made sure that every child stayed with his mother.

These are but a few examples of how these parashas are amazingly very relevant to what's going on now in Israel.

Disclaimer: None of the above is to say that I've never found parashas - including non-story ones, such as in Vaykira (Leviticus) - to be meaningful and able to offer guidance on various topics. But these days it feels much more so.