Unusual Photographer

Guillaume Ribot wished to be a singer, he became a photographer. He now specializes in photographing the Holocaust, or rather how he can convey what the Holocaust was.

For five years now he has traveled with Patrick Desbois, the author of The Holocaust by Bullets. He has photographed Ukranian peasants who witnessed the mass shooting of Ukranian Jews and the sites where the executions took place.

Since he was sent to Auschitz by a French daily paper who wanted him to cover a high school students’ visit there, the Holocaust has haunted him. Therefore he can’t understand people who say we talk too much about the Holocaust and says that if we stopped talking about it we would just contribute to the extermination.

His most recent book is about the French deportation camps such as Gurs and Drancy.

Hiw work has also led him to a family discovery. He thus only found out last year that his grandmother had hidden Jewish children during WWII.

Jew wishes has written a review of The Holocaust by Bullets.

Sacrifice your Son?

וְהַעֲלֵהוּ שָׁם, לְעֹלָה

Vayera is certainly the best-known Torah parshah because of the akedah (the binding of Yitzchak). It is also probably one of the most commented upon.

This is a very confusing passage and one which seems to be in total contradiction with last week’s portion when God promised Abraham that his offspring would be numerous.
‘Look now toward heaven, and count the stars, if thou be able to count them’ and He said unto him: ‘So shall thy seed be.'(Bereshit 15:5)

If God made such a promise to Abraham, why is he asking him now to sacrifice his son? If this is baffling for the reader, how much more for Abraham, God’s faithful servant.

Ten centuries apart, two French-born rabbis suggest that the answer lies in God’s request itself.

In fact God never commands Abraham to kill Yitzchak.
“Rashi comments on this verse, pointing out that God never said to slaughter Yitzchak. God did not want Yitzchak’s life to be ended. He wanted Yitzchak to be “raised up”, designating him as an “olah.”. Once he was uplifted, He commanded Avraham to take Yitzchak down.” (Aish)

Marc-Alain Ouaknin notes that the above expression has two meanings:
– Take him up to be an Olah; which is what Abraham understood
– Elevate him

Thus God’s test was not to check whether Abraham was ready to sacrifice his son but whether he was able to understand and question what God expected from him. Indeed this week’s parshah is a timeless invitation never to shut-off our brains but on the contrary to use them, especially when we think we are acting in the name of God.

Leora has written a parshah post on hospitality, complete with a watercolor of Abraham’s tent.