What would you do if God appeared to you?
Imagine you’re sitting at home resting, and God shows up, what would you do?
That’s what happens to Abraham in the very first verse of our parasha. He’s sitting in his tent recovering from his circumcision, the first brit mila which happened at the end of last week’s parasha, and God shows up to do the mitzvah of visiting the sick.
What does Abraham do? Look at the second verse. He looks away and attends to 3 men who happen to show up at his tent. He runs to greet them, to offer them water and food, to help them get refreshed for they have been traveling.
Imagine God appears to you, and you turn away to wash the feet of some strangers who are passing by! It’s remarkable. And not only does Abraham turn away from God to attend to these visitors, the commentaries point out that they weren’t anyone special. For example, later in the parasha when Lot similarly welcomes visitors, the Torah says clearly that they were angels, malachim, but Abraham’s guest are simply anashim, men. In fact, Rashi explains, when the Torah says in the first verse that Abraham sat at the opening of the tent, it was specifically to see if anyone would pass by so he could invite them in. He’s sitting there in the heat of the day, it says, 3 days after circumcising himself, waiting to see if he can invite strangers into his home!
And when the Torah says that Abraham wants to wash the strangers’ feet, Rashi explains that this means that they were wilderness dwellers, pagans, who bow in worship to the dust of their feet. So, Abraham turned away from God to bring in simple men, dusty pagans!
In case we might find this surprising, the rabbis assure us of the righteousness of Abraham’s actions – Gedolah Hachnasat Orchim m’kabalat pnei haShechina.
Hachnasat Orchim, the mitzvah of welcoming guests is greater than receiving the face of the Shechina, the Presence of God!—Talmud. Let’s try to understand what the Torah and the rabbis want us to understand here - why is receiving guests greater than receiving God? Isn’t the whole purpose of religion to be close to God, to have the chance to come face to face with God why is Abraham admired for turning away?
The Torah is teaching us about the goal of religious life. Perhaps our goal is not so much about having some intense spiritual encounter where we see God, where we’re meditating on a mountain top or praying alone in a cave somewhere, meeting the face of God, but rather where we’re inviting some poor shlepper into our home
or perhaps the mitzvah of hachnasat orchim, of inviting guests, is not so much greater than receiving the face of God, but IS receiving the face of God. As Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev tells in a parable – it’s not such a big deal to see the king all dressed up in his fancy robes and crown, surrounded by his whole retinue and army and to treat him with respect and awe. But if you see the king alone in the forest, looking ordinary and even dirty, and you treat him with respect and awe, now that’s something. Can we see the face of God on a stranger’s face, and invite him in?
Anyone can be a spiritual person when God just shows up and appears to them, but a more meaningful measure of our spiritual depth is how we receive the stranger, even a dusty pagan, like Abraham did.
How well we welcome guests, all guests, is our highest spiritual practice, the rabbis are saying.
There’s been a lot of talk recently in our own Kol Shofar community about how welcoming we are or not, started on Kol Limmud. Some argued that we do so much to be welcoming to newcomers and to each other, and that they personally felt taken in and made to feel at home when they started showing up here. Perhaps that’s another reason why welcoming guests is greater than receiving the face of God – when you welcome another, you help them see the face of God, too.
Others felt that we don’t do enough, that people still feel excluded, that they aren’t invited into other’s homes for Shabbat and holidays. This discussion went on for some time until one member of our community, a brand new member, I might add, stepped forward and said – I have an idea. Why don’t I set up a Shabbat Dinner Swap so that anyone who wants to be invited for Shabbat dinner can have a place and anyone who wants to host someone for Shabbat dinner can fulfill this mitzvah of welcoming guests. I want to point out to you Matt Mercurio and say Yasher Koach to him for making this happen, (how perfect that it’s beginning this week, on parashat Vayera where we focus on the importance of hachnasat orchim) and I want to invite you all to contact Matt to let him know that you’ll take in 3 guests this week or 2 guests next week or 4 guests the week after that. (his email is listed on the KS connections email that is sent out each week, its KSShabbatSwap@yahoo.com). And I also want to invite you to see from Matt’s example, that if there is something that you think is needed in our community, that you can take the initiative to make it happen.
Everyone can do the mitzvah of hachnasat orchim, so if you feel that our community is not as welcoming as you’d like it to be, then I ask you to make others feel welcome. This community belongs to everyone, and each one of us can make it welcoming, whether here in this building or in your own home. I know for certain that the most involved people in this community were newcomers at one point, and many of them got involved because someone invited them, someone reached out to them. We can daven all we want, but the Torah is teaching us that greater than meeting God face to face is meeting each other and finding there the face of God.
In the end, Abraham’s three strangers turned out to be angels, although he didn’t know that when he brought them in. These 3 angels were messengers from God, each with his own blessing of healing and redemption for Abraham and his family. (Isaac would be born, heal Abraham, announce destruction of S’dom.) Had he not brought them in, who knows how the story might have ended.
So too may we learn from Abraham and welcome the stranger and each other here in our own community, and may we find in our own hachnasat orchim, messengers and angels, bringing us the face of God.
|
