It's Only Logical

By Rabbi Joshua (hermeneutically known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

The midrash tells us that Avraham Avinu had a unique way of getting non-believers and idolaters to express their recognition of and gratitude to God. He would provide them with an excallent meal, and then tell them that they needed to thank God for the meal. Otherwise , they would have to pay for what they had eaten. The guests then proceeded to thank God, as avram instructed them to do. Rav Yisroel of Gru, one of the Gerrer Rebbes, in his Beis Yisroel to parshas Lech Lecha cites the Talmud in Berachos, 35a, which says that we derive the obligation to thank God after a meal from a verse in the Torah which says,' and you shall eat and be satsified, and you shall bless the Lord your God.' How do we know that one should bless God before he eats? The Talmud says that it is a logical principle, a kal vachomer: if we must bless God after we have eaten and satisfied our hunger, how much more so should we bless Him before we eat, and are stil hungry. Since this is based on logic, asks the Beis Yisroel, why didn't Avraham tell his guestts that they needed to bless God before they ate?

Rav Yisroel offers two answers to his question. First, he says that before they were recipients of Avraham's hospitalty, they were not able to make a blessing. What he mans by this is unclear, but perhaps the idea is that Avraham was so concerned about his guests' welfare, that he did not want to wait to relieve serve them until after he convinced them to make a blessing. Only after they were relieved of their hunger did he instruct them to thank God. The second answer that Rav Yisroel gives is brought in the name of Rav Yisroel Meir, of Gur, the first rebbe of Ger, in his Chidushei HaRim., He says that the kal vachomer argument of the Talmud applies only to Jews who have a special relationship with God, and cannot hold themselves back from blessing God before they eat, or before they do a mitzvah.I would like to suggest a different answer, which incorporates elements of these two, but is, in fact, fundamentally different.

Avraham was able to convince his guests to bless God only after they had eaten, because only then did they have a sense of gratitude for having been provoded with their sustenance. There is, in fact, a Mechilta in parshasYisro that, in te beginninfg of the Decalogue, God said, " I am the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt," in the way that a king, before issuing decrees to his nation, first provides them with various structures and other rnecessities of national life, so that they would not be able to say,' what have you done for us, that we should serve you?' Once Avraham develped a sense of gratitude in his guests, he could then hope that the next time, or at some time in the future , they would understand the logical need to take the next step and bless God before they ate, as well.In this way, they would progress in their service of God, which, in fact, according to the Beis Yisroel, Rav Ahron Kotker, and many other commentators, was what Avraham was bidden to do himself, when God told him, " lech lecha,' meaning, that he was to go into himself, or develop his inner potential to come closer to God. Avraham, with his deep concern for his guests, wanted them to do this as well, on whatever level they were able to do so.Therefore, he began this preoceess by teaching them the need for gratitude, and then left them o teir own devices in carrying this notion to the next level.