God Versus Man

OXYGEN FOR THE SOUL | PARASHAT VAYERA

Rabbi Reuven Ibragimov

A View from the Road

Abraham is ninety-nine years old and three days past his brit milah. He sits at the entrance of his tent in the blazing heat, and then the unimaginable happens.

וַיֵּרָא אֵלָיו ה' בְּאֵלֹנֵי מַמְרֵא וְהוּא יֹשֵׁב פֶּתַח הָאֹהֶל כְּחֹם הַיּוֹם

And Hashem appeared to him in the plains of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of the tent in the heat of the day. (Bereishit 18:1)

Imagine being alone with the Almighty. Every ounce of your attention would be on that conversation. Yet the very next verse tells us that Abraham lifted his eyes, saw three travelers, and ran to greet them.

וַיִּשָּׂא עֵינָיו וַיַּרְא וְהִנֵּה שְׁלֹשָׁה אֲנָשִׁים נִצָּבִים עָלָיו וַיַּרְא וַיָּרָץ לִקְרָאתָם מִפֶּתַח הָאֹהֶל וַיִּשְׁתַּחוּ אָרְצָה

He lifted his eyes and saw three men standing over him. He saw, and he ran toward them from the entrance of the tent, and bowed to the ground. (Bereishit 18:2)

Now look at it from the travelers' side. An old man stumbles toward you in the desert, begging you into his tent. Most of us would walk away. We have become so suspicious that kindness itself looks like a threat.

Putting God on Hold

אֲדֹנָי אִם נָא מָצָאתִי חֵן בְּעֵינֶיךָ אַל נָא תַעֲבֹר מֵעַל עַבְדֶּךָ

My Lord, if I have found favor in Your eyes, please do not pass away from Your servant. (Bereishit 18:3)

Rashi offers two readings. He may be addressing the greatest guest, or speaking to Hashem Himself, asking Him to wait while he tends to his visitors. Abraham puts God on hold.

Isn't that rude? Yet the Gemara learns from here: "Hospitality to guests is greater than receiving the Divine Presence" (Shabbat 127a).

Think of a parent who calls a child, and the child says, "I can't talk right now, I'm helping my brother." No parent is insulted. The parent is overjoyed, because the child is living out everything the parent hoped for. Hashem was not offended. He was delighted.

Abraham's Great Discovery

Adam, Noach, Shem and Ever all knew about God. What made Abraham the father of a faith that nearly half the planet claims today? He discovered not only that there is a God, but that there is God in man.

וַיִּבְרָא אֱלֹקִים אֶת הָאָדָם בְּצַלְמוֹ

And God created man in His image. (Bereishit 1:27)

Every human being carries a spark of the Divine. Abraham found God in the reflection of His image, in the face of every traveler. Serving people was not a distraction from serving God. It was how he served God.

This is why the Gemara (Sanhedrin 98b) teaches that one is spared the birth pangs of Mashiach through Torah study and gemilut chasadim together. Learning that never moves us to act has missed its purpose. A religion that leaves us sitting quietly while the world aches is not the Judaism of Abraham.

The Holocaust and the Ashram

Contrast Abraham with Lot, who also welcomed the angels yet was ready to hand his own daughters to the mob of Sedom. That is not chesed. It is a perversion of it. Kindness demands moral clarity about the value of every person.

Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen once hosted a Holocaust survivor at his Shabbat table, a twin who survived Mengele's experiments and lost her sister. Also at the table was a man who had recently become observant after ten years in an ashram. As he spoke, she muttered, "The Holocaust was good and the ashram was evil." Finally he asked how she could say such a thing.

She explained that before the books were taken, her sister memorized Tehillim so someone could still say it, and a friend memorized Megillat Rut so it would be read on Shavuot. "The Holocaust forced us to think about how to care for one another. You sat for ten years thinking only about yourself. That is evil."

Evil is narcissism. That was Sedom. Few of us live in an ashram, but many of us live in a mini ashram of our own, absorbed in ourselves while the people around us are hurting.

The Takeaway

Not everyone is outgoing, and that is fine. Start with your spouse, your parents, your siblings, your neighbor. Smile at someone. Offer a kind word, the way the angels praised Sarah to Abraham. Time is not infinite.

Love humanity first, and you will find God.

Shabbat Shalom