In memory of Rabbi Elazar Menachem Man Shach zt'l, Rosh Yeshivah of the Ponovezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak. Rav Shach, author of the multi-volume commentary to the Rambam's Mishneh Torah, Avi Ezri, was a great Torah scholar and widely recognized as a leader of worldwide Torah Jewry. He passed away last night in Tel Aviv at the advanced age of over one hundred years old. May his memory be a blessing.
In this week's parsha, we learn of the remarkable extent to which Avraham's trait of kindness went. As the rabbis, cited by Rashi in his commentary to the beginning of the parsha, explain, God, out of consideration for Avraham's post - milah condition, had made the day exceedingly hot, so that no wayfarers would pass by Avaraham's tent and move him to help them out. However, Avraham, whose entire essence yearned to help people, was in distress because no such opportunity presented itself. Therefore, God brought three angels, in the form of idolatrous Arabs, to Avraham's tent, so that he could offer them his hospitality. The Torah goes on to describe the alacrity and enthusiasm that Avraham put into serving his guests, serving as an example and inspiration for all future generations. There is another midrash, not cited by Rashi, that, I believe, adds a further dimension to this episode in Avraham's life.
The midrash tells us that when Moshe ascended to heaven to receive the Torah, the angels wanted to attack him. God then changed Moshe's appearance, so that his face appeared to the angels to resemble that of Avraham. He said to the angels, "aren't you afraid of him? Didn't he give you hospitality, and didn't you eat in his house?" The angels then relented and let Moshe proceed on his mission. Rav Avraham Yitzchok Kook discussed this midrash in a discourse at seudah shlishis, as recorded by his student Kalman Eliezer Frankel in his work 'Shemous Reiah' to Sefer Bereishis. Rav Kook explained that Moshe is described by the rabbis as experiencing his prophecy through a clear glass, an 'aspaklaria meirah.' All other prophets saw only 'through a glass darkly,' through an aspaklaria she-einah meirah, an unclear glass. The difference was not in the vision itself, but in the level of the prophet. This midrash, said Rav Kook, is telling us that in order for Moshe to attain his unique level of prophecy, through which he received the Torah, he first had to pass through Avraham's level of prophecy.
Although Rav Kook is not recorded as saying this, I believe that there is an important message inherent in the prophetic development described in the midrash as explained by Rav Kook. In order for Moshe to receive the Torah, in order for the Torah to be meaningful to man, it had to be given through the prism of Avraham, whose essence was chesed, being kind to his fellow human being. This is what the rabbis meant when they said the derech eretz, proper relations with one's fellow man, precedes Torah. The angels wanted to prevent Moshe from receiving the Torah, because they felt that Torah's pristine nature was not relevant to man. God showed them that the model of Avraham's chesed is the vehicle through which Torah is brought down to this world and implemented in it. The Torah, the Talmud (Sotah 14 a) tells us, begins and ends with chesed. God made clothing for Adam and Chava, as recorded in the beginning of the Torah, and buried Moshe, as recorded at the end of the Torah. Avraham serves as our model in following God's example in doing chesed. Although each of our forefathers personified a different character trait that we need to emulate, they are all crystallized in Avraham's trait of chesed. Thus, as Rashi points out in parshas Lech Lecha, even though we mention, in the first blessing of the Shemoneh Esreh, all three of our forefathers, when we say "the God of Avraham, the God of Yitzchok, and the God of Yaakov," we end the blessing by mentioning only "the God of Avraham." The idea behind this is that chesed constitutes the essence of all these traits, and, for this reason, serves as the means to bring Torah and Godliness into this world.
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