Sidrah
Parashah of the week: Vayera
“Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called on the Name of the Lord, the Everlasting God” Genesis 22:33
November 7, 2025 09:38
“Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called on the Name of the Lord, the Everlasting God” Genesis 22:33
November 7, 2025 09:38We can picture the scene. Under the blazing desert sun, a lone figure stoops to the earth. Around him stretches an endless expanse of sand and silence, and in that stillness, Abraham plants a tree.
One of the most powerful aspects of the Book of Genesis lies in its depiction of seemingly simple acts performed by the founding figures of the Jewish people, which are in fact rich with hidden meaning.
The sages saw in the Hebrew for “tamarisk tree” – eishel – an acronym for the Hebrew words for eating, drinking and lodging. They interpreted Abraham as having not simply planted a tree but built a welcome place of shade in the desert as a resting place for tired wayfarers. Inspired by his kindness, they would be drawn to his faith and “call on the Name of God”.
There is another midrash which takes this idea a significant step further. Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, is also related as having stayed in Beersheba on his way to Egypt to be reunited with Joseph. There, says the Midrash, he cut down Abraham’s tree and carried it with him, replanting it when he settled in Egypt.
When the Jewish people left Egypt more than two centuries later, they took with them the wood from this tree. It was then used to create the central beam of the Tabernacle, the portable sanctuary constructed by the Jewish people during their sojourn in the desert (Targum Yonatan, Exodus 36:33).
Seen in this light, the tamarisk tree planted by Abraham takes on a deeper significance. This tree came to embody the values of chesed, kindness, espoused by Abraham and Sarah, which they hoped to pass on to their descendants. With time, those descendants would build their most precious structure using the very same wood that Abraham had planted many years earlier.
The planting of this tree by Abraham, according to this, was no mere symbolic act. From that quiet gesture would grow a legacy which defines the spirit of our people. Like our ancestors, when we build a synagogue, communal building, or even a private residence, our task is to imbue it with the same values of kindness and compassion for all those who enter its space.
These structures then become our own “tamarisk trees” and when we plant them, like Abraham, we plant them for all eternity.
Image: A tamarisk tree (photo: Cheima Fezzani/Wikimedia Commons)
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