This week’s Parsha chronicles the period in Avraham’s life from age 99 to 137, when he experiences his greatest challenges and teaches his greatest lessons. It is also a narrative that darts between earth and heaven, providing us glimpses of both human events and Hashem’s plans.

At times, a particular word or phrase is repeated in a Torah portion, serving as a motif. In “VAYERA” one such phrase, found four times, is MIN HA’SHAMAYIM, from the heavens:
1. And Hashem had rained upon Sedom and upon Amora sulphur and fire, from Hashem, from the heavens (MIN HA’SHAMAYIM) (Bereishit 19:24).
This emphasizes, say Sforno and Malbim, that this event is not the result of natural conditions, but of direct Divine intervention. But then again, as Hirsch points out, every “natural” event is a consequence of Hashem’s intercession.

When Yishmael is on the brink of death:
2. And G-d heard the voice of the lad, and an angel of G-d called to Hagar from the heavens (MIN HA’SHAMAYIM) and said to her, “What is with you, Hagar? Do not fear, for G-d has heard the voice of the lad, there where he is” (21:17).

During the Akeidah:
3. And an angel of Hashem called to him from the heavens (MIN HA’SHAMAYIM) and said, “Avraham! Avraham!” And he said, “Here am I” (22:11).
4. And an angel of Hashem called to Avraham a second time from the heavens (MIN HA’SHAMAYIM) (22:15).
Hashem is “comfortable” calling to Avraham, says the Midrash (Yalkut I 428), in the same way that it is not beneath a king’s dignity to speak to his host.

The prevalence of MIN HA’SHAMAYIM creates an atmosphere bridging heaven and earth. More poignantly, “from the heavens” emanate punishment as well as solace, and relief from danger as well as future blessing.

Rashi takes note of this polarity in his comments to the first verse. His sources are Tanchuma Vayera 10, Tanchuma Buber Beshalach on Shemot 16:4 and Yalkut I 258. The book of Iyov (36:31) says about the heavens:
For by them He judges the peoples, He gives food in abundance.
On this, the Midrash says:
With these very heavens He judges the nations of the world. Know that, when the generation of the flood sinned, He judged them with the [heavens], as it says, “Upon the wicked He rains snares, [fire and sulphur and a horrible tempest]” (Tehillim 11:6). . . . When the people of Sedom sinned, He judged them with the heavens, as it says, “And Hashem had rained upon Sedom…”. Also, when Sisera sinned, He judged him with the heavens, as it says, “From heaven they fought . . .” (Shofetim 5:20): with the heavens He judges the nations. He gives food in abundance: from them He provides nourishment for Israel. To what is the matter compared? To a baker who was standing by the oven. His enemy entered and he shoveled out some coals and spilled them on his head. Then his friend entered and he removed warm bread and gave him. Both the coals and the bread came from the oven. So, the Holy One Blessed be He brings down fire from the heavens upon the Sedomites and burns them, and from the heavens He brings down manna for Israel, as it says, “Behold I rain down for you bread from the heavens for you” (Shemot 16:4).

MIN HA’SHAMAYIM as the expression of Hashem’s multifaceted relationship with mankind is seen elsewhere. On the one hand, there is Divine retribution, as during the battle against the five Emorite kings:
And it was, as they fled from before Israel while they were on the descent of Bet-Choron, that Hashem cast down upon them great stones from the heavens (MIN HA’SHAMAYIM), as far as Azekah, and they died . . . (Yehoshua 10:11).

By Eliyahu’s command, fire came down “from the heavens” twice to destroy the emissaries of the wicked King Achaziah (Melachim II 1:9-14). Another fire descends “from the heavens” and destroys Iyov’s cattle (Iyov 1:16).

In contrast, a Divine fire “from the heavens” is a sign that David’s sacrifices are accepted (Divrei HaYamim I 21:26). Hashem listens “from the heavens” to our prayers (Devarim 26:15; Divrei HaYamim II 6:21-39, 7:14), and the word of Hashem is likened to the blessed rain and snow “from the heavens” (Yeshayahu 55:10). At Revelation itself:
And Hashem said to Moshe, “Thus shall you say to the Children of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen that from the heavens (MIN HA’SHAMAYIM) have I spoken with you’” (Shemot 20:19).

SHAMAYIM, say our Sages (Chagigah 12a, Rashi on Bereishit 1:8), is a compound of ESH (fire) and MAYIM (water); it is where opposites coexist. Those entities which, from an earthly perspective, are perceived as antipodal, originate from Hashem. This does not, in any way, stand in opposition to Hashem’s Absolute Oneness. Rambam (Moreh Nevuchim I:53) explains the allegory of fire:
it melts some things, makes others hard, cooks and burns, bleaches and blackens. . . . However, he who knows the nature of fire, knows that it performs all these actions by virtue of one active quality, namely, heat.
Similarly, we might intuit that the many actions of Hashem, including those that are diametrically opposite each other, all proceed from the One G-d.

This is evident from the motif MIN HA’SHAMAYIM in “VAYERA.” Hashem destroys Sedom and answers Yishmael’s prayer MIN HA’SHAMAYIM. And at the moment of Avraham’s greatest act of faith, the Akeidah, Hashem’s angel twice calls to Avraham MIN HA’SHAMAYIM.

It is Avraham’s mission to teach the world about the Oneness of G-d. The events of Avraham’s own life, in which Hashem reaches out to man from the heavens, are echoed in the blessing we recite every day:
“Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe, Who forms light and creates darkness, makes peace and creates all.”