Netvort
parshas Vayeira 5771: Moving
On
By
Rabbi Joshua (transiently known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
In the
beginning of this week's pariahs we are told of Avraham's prodigious
efforts in caring for the needs of three wayfarers who came by his
tent. The rabbis tell us that since Avraham was recuperating from
his bris milah, God did not want to trouble him with guests and,
therefore, made the weather intensely hot, so that no one would
travel. However, because Avraham was so keen on extending
hospitality to guests, and was pained by the lack of passersby, God
sent three angels in the guise of humans in order to provide Avraham
with an opportunity to invite guests into his tent. As soon as
Avraham saw the travelers he ran to provide them with what they
needed. The Talmud (Bava Metziah, 86b) notes that as a reward for
whatever Avraham did for these guests by himself, God provided a
similar provision for his descendants in the wilderness, and as a
reward for whatever Avraham did for them through someone else, his
descendants were also rewarded through a shaliach, meaning a
messenger, or an intermediary. Thus, for example, since Avraham
prepared the cattle for the meal himself, the Jewish people in the
wilderness received the quail directly from heaven. However, since
Avraham provided water through a messenger, the Jews in the
wilderness received water through Moshe hitting a rock. Why was
it so important for Avraham to provide for these guests by
himself?
Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Neriah, in his Ner LaMaor, explains
that the initial provisions for guests should, in general, be taken
care of by the man of the house, because women are very punctilious
in serving guests, making sure that the table is set properly,
that there are napkins on the table, and so forth. The guests,
however, may be very hungry, and they need to be taken care of as
soon as possible, without any time being expended on the niceties of
the service being provided. Therefore, Avraham needed to act quickly,
in order to make sure that his visitors would not go hungry waiting
for the table to be set. Interestingly, the Yalkut Reuveni cites a
kabalistic source which says that the reason Sarah merited giving
birth to Yitzchak is that she accommodated Avraham in his efforts to
care for these guests. According to Rav Neriah, this source is
understandable, because Avraham tended to their needs differently
than a woman usually would have done. I would like to suggest a
different explanation of why it was so important for Avraham himself
to tend to his guests, based on what we know of who they actually
were.
As we noted at the outset, the three wayfarers who came
to Avraham were angels in the guise of men. The Maharal, in his
commentary to Rashi, Gur Aryeh, points out that Avraham was used to
seeing angels, but, in this case, God arranged that he not discern
the true nature of his visitors, so that he would be able to perform
what, to his mind, was the regular mitzvah of hachnasas orchim, or
tending to guests. The Torah tells us that Avraham had the guests
wash their feet before entering his tent, and the midrash, cited by
Rashi, says that this was because Arab travelers were wont
to worship the dust of their feet as idols. The Maharal explains that
they did so because Arab merchants were constantly on the move, and
therefore worshiped the forces that they thought controlled the
roads, in order to ensure that they would complete their journeys
safely and successfully. Based on this observation, we can understand
why it was so important for Avraham to tend to these travelers by
himself, as much as possible.
Rabbi Yehudah Shaviv, in his
work Mi Sinai Ba, cites a Midrash (Bereishis Rabbah, 39:9) which
notes, in effect, that Avraham began his series of tests with
God's command to leave his homeland, which begins with the
words' lech lecha' - go for yourself - and ended the series with
God's command to bring his son to the altar, which also begins
with the words ' lech lecha.' These bookends, says Rabbi Shaviv,
denote Avraham's constant movement, and, on a larger scale, his
constant process of growth and self-improvement. Perhaps, then when
Avraham saw these Arab travelers, and realized that they worshipped
the powers that they thought controlled the roads, he felt that,
in essence, they had the ability, as travelers, to learn the
importance of constant growth and self-improvement, as reflected in
their constant travelers, but place it in the context of a
relationship with the true God, creator of the universe. Avraham
tried to do this by offering himself as an example. Even though he
was an elderly man and had just undergone the painful process of
circumcision, he leaped into action when he saw these men, and tended
to their needs largely by himself. In this way, he tried to
demonstrate that a person has the capacity to constantly grow, and
need not rely on some outside force to manage his life. In this way,
Avraham tried to assist his guests not only in terms of their
physical needs, but in terms of their spiritual needs, as well.
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