imaginary family values presents
yesh omrim
a blog that reclines to the left
What you can observe from a verb
16 November 2003
(Yeah, if I had read the parsha earlier in the week, I would have had time to post a drash before Shabbat, and it would probably be a better one, too. `Al chet, `al chet. I’ll try to do better this week. Bli neder.)
While reading the parsha, I noticed something in Genesis 18:17 — God wonders to himself whether or not he should hide “what I do” (asher ani `oseh). If God had only been thinking about how much to tell Abraham about His plans for Sodom, He would have used the imperfect tense and said “what I will be doing” (asher ani ya`aseh). So He’s actually referring to something much broader here.
I mentioned this to my wife, who was preparing to give a drash at our synagogue for seudah shlishit, and it fit very well with the drash that she had prepared, so she included it. And she did a much better job than I did at studying the parsha and thinking about it, so you should read what she has to say on her own blog.