Our Parsha Questions are crafted to be challenging even to Talmidei Chachamim but answerable by anyone who pays careful attention to the Krias HaTorah. I saw this practiced in Marlboro, NJ. They are meant to be presented before Krias HaTorah and answered afterwards, giving everyone the chance to show the answer chapter and verse. I usually include some that are simple so that everyone can participate. I find that it increases attention to Krias HaTorah and is mentally stimulating both for the audience and for me.
1. The Yerushalmi in Brachos 1:1 says that the description of malachim in Yechezkel 1:7 as ורגליהם רגל ישרה means their legs have no joints. Where do we see this hinted at in our parsha.
18:4, Avraham told them השענו תחת העץ, lean. When someone sits down, the Torah uses the term לשבת, as by Haggar when it says in 21:16
וַתֵּלֶךְ וַתֵּשֶׁב לָהּ מִנֶּגֶד הַרְחֵק כִּמְטַחֲוֵי קֶשֶׁת כִּי אָמְרָה אַל אֶרְאֶה בְּמוֹת הַיָּלֶד וַתֵּשֶׁב מִנֶּגֶד וַתִּשָּׂא אֶת קֹלָהּ וַתֵּבְךְּ.
So why didn't Avraham ask them to sit down? Apparently he saw they could not sit down like normal people. (Not a real pshat, because hisha'anu means recline, like the heseiba at a seder - relax, stay a while.)
2. In 18:3 Avraham says ויאמר אדני אם נא מצאתי חן בעיניך
and there is a machlokes whether it was an honorific addressed to the travelers or a request to Hashem that He allow him to interrupt his Tefilla to take care of his guests.
In 19:2 Lot says הנה נא אדוני סורו נא
and nobody says it was anything but a term of honor for the travelers.
If by Lot there is no doubt that it is an honorific, why would we think differently when Avraham used the word?
-Because the Parsha begins with וירא אליו השם, and then apparently drops the subject and says nothing more about the Shechina- unless when Avraham says Adonai he is saying to Hashem "Please excuse me."
-Because by Avraham they were described as Anashim, simple travelers, so Adonai is incongruous. By Lot, they were described as Malachim, having an awesome appearance, so the term Adonai is fitting in the simple sense of an honorific.
-Maybe the difference of Patach by Lot and Kametz by Avraham.
3. Modern day Muslims are known to be careful to eat Halal that was properly slaughtered and to show hospitality to guests. Where do we see the first examples of these behaviors in our parsha?
18:7, where Avraham told Yishmael to shecht an animal in honor of the guests.
וְאֶל הַבָּקָר רָץ אַבְרָהָם וַיִּקַּח בֶּן בָּקָר רַךְ וָטוֹב וַיִּתֵּן אֶל הַנַּעַר וַיְמַהֵר לַעֲשׂוֹת אֹתוֹ׃
4. Name the 2 sons of Lot, which most people get wrong.
19:37-38, Moav and Ben Ami.
5. The Gemara in Kiddushin 32 says אין זקן אלא מי שקנה חכמה.
Two times in our parsha that it just means old, and definitely not wise.
The men of Sdom, and Lot, as described by his daughters.
6. Find a repudiation of the concept of secular humanism in the parsha.
20:11, רק אין יראת אלוקים במקום הזה והרגוני על דבר אשתי.
7. In ובא לציון when we say ברוך הוא אלוקינו שהבדילנו מן התועים, the word תועים means to be spiritually lost. In our parsha, when it says about Haggar in 21:14
וַיַּשְׁכֵּם אַבְרָהָם בַּבֹּקֶר וַיִּקַּח לֶחֶם וְחֵמַת מַיִם וַיִּתֵּן אֶל הָגָר שָׂם עַל שִׁכְמָהּ וְאֶת הַיֶּלֶד וַיְשַׁלְּחֶהָ וַתֵּלֶךְ וַתֵּתַע בְּמִדְבַּר בְּאֵר שָׁבַע.
Chazal say that וַתֵּתַע means she lost her faith. Where do we see this word used just to mean physically lost or homeless.
20:13, where Avraham said to Avimelech
וַיְהִי כַּאֲשֶׁר הִתְעוּ אֹתִי אֱלֹהִים מִבֵּית אָבִי וָאֹמַר לָהּ זֶה חַסְדֵּךְ אֲשֶׁר תַּעֲשִׂי עִמָּדִי אֶל כׇּל הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר נָבוֹא שָׁמָּה אִמְרִי לִי אָחִי הוּא.
8. In 18:12, Sarah says that she is old and wrinkled.
וַתִּצְחַק שָׂרָה בְּקִרְבָּהּ לֵאמֹר אַחֲרֵי בְלֹתִי הָיְתָה לִּי עֶדְנָה
If so, what was Avraham afraid of? And why in fact did Avimelech kidnap her?
Apparently, she regained her youthful beauty after the Malachim left, and the episode with Avimelech followed, and then she became pregnant with Yitzchak. (Ramban and Radak.)
9. In Yiddish and German, naar means fool. The Hebrew homophone Naar is etymologically unrelated to that word, but it does denote youthful or childlike, which is probably why the German meaning was adopted into Yiddish. Show that a father can call his son a naar even if he's 37 years old and wise.
22:5, ואני והנער נלכה עד כה.
Sarah was a בת תשעים when she had Yitzchak, and died at 127 at the time of the Akeida, so Yitzchak was 37 and Avraham called him hanaar.
10. Two times a malach intervened to prevent a death and then gave a bracha to the person he saved.
Yishmael in 21:18, Yitzchak in 22:12 & 17.
11. A person not named once in the parsha, but referred to 15 times. Find examples.
Yishmael. Once where Avraham told him to prepare the meat, one when he was expelled, and once by the Akeida.
12. Where did two go up but only one came down.
2 went up, Avraham and Yitzchak, 22:5, ואני והנער נלכה.
1 came down, apparently, only Avraham. 22:19, וישב אברהם אל נעריו.
13. Four times someone woke early.
19:27 Avraham to daven Shachris and to see the fate of Sedom
20:8 Avimelech to tell his people about his dream
21:14 Avraham to send Hagar away
22:3 Avraham to go to the Akeida.
I'm just throwing this in because it's interesting. The Seforno in 21:1 says
וַיַּעַשׂ ה' לְשָׂרָה כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֵּר. כְּאָמְרוֹ (בראשית יז:טז) "וְגַם נָתַתִּי מִמֶּנָּה לְךָ בֵּן", שֶׁלֹּא כְּמִנְהַג הַמּוֹלִידִים בְּעֵת זִקְנָה שֶׁיּוֹלִידוּ עַל הָרוֹב נְקֵבָה:
Is this something that we see statistically? Yes, it is. I came across this in Psychology Today magazine. There were no working links to the original studies, and the graphs were not in the article, which is from 2018.
The National Child Development Study replicates these findings from earlier studies. As the following graph shows, the association between the age of the parent and the sex of the first child is not monotonic, but there is a general decline in the proportion of sons as the parents get older. Teenage parents are particularly likely to have sons, with the proportion of sons at .5327, and older parents over the age of 40 are significantly less likely to have sons, with the proportion of sons at .3557. Two-thirds of children born to parents over 40 are girls! The bivariate correlation between the probability of having a son and the age of the parent is significantly negative (r = -.030, p < .001, n = 9,301). Each year in the parent’s age decreases the odds of having a son as the first child by 1%.
As you can see in the following two graphs, the association between the age of the parents and the sex of the first child is stronger among women than among men. In fact, the bivariate correlation between the probability of having a son and the age of the parent is only statistically significantly negative among women (r = -.34, p < .05, n = 4,864), not among men (r = -.024, ns, n = 4,437). Among women, each year in age decreases the odds of having a son as the first child by 1.2%. However, the graph below clearly shows that fathers over the age of 40 are significantly less likely to have sons, with the proportion of sons at .3592.
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