Chesed in Action
Haftorat Parshat Vayera
Melachim II 4:1-37
This week’s Haftorah relates two of the miraculous incidents that the Navi Elisha performed. The first story is of Ovadiah’s widow and the pitcher of oil that continued to pour until she had enough oil to pay off all her debts and make a decent living.
The second is the Shunamite woman who was unable to conceive children. After being blessed with a son, the child dies and Elisha performs the miracle of resurrecting the boy’s life. The connection of the Haftorah to the parsha is not obvious.
The Ramban in last week’s parsha famously states that maaseh avos siman labanim - that the deeds of our forefathers (and foremothers) are a portent for their children. Siman can be translated as a sign, classically interpreted as a harbinger of future occurrences and incidences. I would like to suggest that siman can also be translated as an example, our northstar to follow.
The noted psychologist Albert Bandura analyzes the features of modeling. He associates modeling with Burrhus Fredric Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning. Operant conditioning posits that learning occurs through reward and punishment. Bandura extends this theory to include modeling. He suggests that when a person sees another person receiving reward or punishment for a behavior, the viewer applies these consequences to him or herself and thus chooses the behavior based on what was observed. He elaborates on the theory of observational learning and suggests that there are four necessary elements for the modeling to be impactful. Firstly, one has to pay attention to the modeled behavior, the information learned needs to be retained, the person needs to be able to reproduce the behavior and finally be motivated to do so.
Our Torah is replete with role models for chesed, sacrifice and connection to Hashem. Stellar models of chesed include Avraham, Sarah, Elisha and Ovadiah’s wife - a clear connection, says Rav Samson Rafael Hirsch, between the parsha and Haftorah. We read example after example of our ancestors performing chesed as Avraham did with the angels, how the widow of Ovadiah helped her husband feed the persecuted prophets and how Elisha was so concerned with assisting the widow of Ovadiah and the Shunamite woman. As our role models in the Haftorah learned from Avraham and Sarah, their mentors, we too can learn from all of them to emulate their ways of loving kindness and care for humanity. Paying careful attention to the stories in our Navi and learning from their actions will motivate us to continue along this path of chesed.
In these challenging days we are witnessing profound acts of chesed, Connecting and supporting each other gives us the opportunity to step outside ourselves and become one people. This desire to go beyond oneself and to follow in the holy ways of our Avot and Imahot will ultimately bring the redemption, may it be speedily in our days.