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Overview
of the Torah Reading
To be read on Shabbat Vayeira, 15 Cheshvan 5785/Nov.16,
2024
Torah: Genesis 18:1-22:24; Haftorah: Kings II 4:1-37
(because of v.22, similar to the angels' promise to Avraham)
Vayeira is the 4th Reading out of 12 in Genesis and it contains
7862 letters, in 2085 words, in 147 verses
Avraham interrupted a conversation with G-d to run and
offer three people walking by a rest stop and food. They were angels from
G-d, who told him that Sarah would have a son next year, and that G-d
was about to wipe out Sodom. Avraham prayed for the people there. The
messengers continued to Sodom, and were invited home by Lot. They told
Lot to flee with his family, and not to look back. They ran, but his wife
looked back and became a pillar of salt. The five cities were destroyed.
Lot and his two daughters moved into a cave. Thinking they were sole survivors
in the world, the daughters got their father drunk and had his sons. Avraham
visited Gerar, announcing that Sarah was his sister. The king Avimelech
took her, but G-d told him in a dream that she was already married and
that he must return her to her husband. Sarah gave birth to Yitzchak,
whom Avraham circumcised when he was eight days old. Avraham sent Hagar
and Yishmael away, as Sarah did not want Yitzchak to share his inheritance.
G-d promised Hagar that Yishmael would also become a great nation. Avraham
and Avimelech made an oath regarding the well which Avraham had dug, and
a peace treaty. G-d tested Avraham and told him to bring his son Yitzchak
as an offering. At the last moment a voice from heaven stopped him, telling
him that he had proved his faith. Avraham offered a ram instead. G-d blessed
him that he would have many descendants.
 An
essay from Rabbi
Shaul Yosef Leiter, director of Ascent
(for a free weekly email subscription, click
here)
This week's Torah portion, Vayeira, begins with the story of G-d revealing
himself to our forefather Avraham while he was sitting at the entrance
to his tent. We also hear about the three guests who came to him. The
main commentator, Rashi, explains that it was the third day after Avraham
had circumcised himself, known as the hardest day in terms of pain and
recuperation. G-d "took the sun out of its shield", making it
so hot that there were no travelers. G-d wanted Avraham to rest, not to
preoccupy himself with guests while healing from the brit. However,
since the lack of guests upset Avraham so much, G-d sent three angels
disguised as people.
The Torah tell us that when Avraham saw the "men", he quickly
ran to call them, while apologizing to G-d for leaving Him for the sake
of the guests. This is the source of the famous Talmudic teaching that
hospitality is greater than receiving the countenance of the Shechinah,
the Divine Presence(Tractate Baba Metzia, 86b). Avraham left G-d to take
care of the guests.
Here is the big question. These were angels, not people. Angels don't
need food, drink, or a bed to sleep in. They only pretended to eat all
the delicacies prepared for them. It comes out that Avraham's leaving
G-d was not really to be hospitable, because hospitality is greater then
receiving the countenance of the Shechinah when you are actually doing
your guest a service! Here there was no true need at all.
Under the circumstances, because it was so hot and Avraham was in a weakened
state, it is easy to say that he did not know they were angels . Yet many
commentaries insist he did not know, and that was G-d's will. But if he
did know, then we need to understand: What is going on here ?
The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that we can understand the answer by seeing
the difference between how our forefathers fulfilled the commandments
and how we perform them since the Giving of the Torah. When we take a
piece of animal skin, called klaf (parchment), and use it for making
a mezuzah or tefilin, the physical klaf is transformed
into something holy. It is the same when we serve food to a guest, a part
of the commandment of hospitality, when these foods become imbued with
holiness. On the other hand, our forefathers did not have the ability
to invest physical things with spiritual energy. Their performance of
the commandments remained only in the spiritual sphere.
Serving G-d for our forefathers was primarily spiritual. True, they did
tie their mitzvah observance to physical things but only to create
a parallel for us, their children. They opened the conduit. Through their
actions, they enabled us to fulfill the commandments in a way of imbuing
the physical with spiritual, which began after we received the Torah at
Mount Sinai. Their actions did not transform the world from mundane to
holy, the way that ours do. That is our particular ability, that we can
transform reality to something holy.
From this we understand the power of our commandment observance!
The main importance for the forefathers was their spiritual intention,
not the result, the physical action. For us, the most important thing
is the action in this physical plane.
For example, after the Giving of the Torah, a Jew who has all the right
intentions when putting on tefilin, but if even one letter in the parchment
is missing because of an error of the scribe, the wearer did not fulfil
the commandment. For our forefathers the situation was the opposite. The
whole emphasis was on the inner spiritual intention If they had the right
intention, they had fulfilled the command completely, regardless of the
fact that it did not happen in this physical world.
According to the above, we can now understand that even if Avraham knew
his guests were angels, he still was fulfilling the commandment of hospitality,
and it was appropriate for him to leave G-d's presence.
Avraham acted totally correctly when he left G-d's presence to perform
the mitzvah of hospitality, even though his guests were not people but
angels, because from his perspective he was fulfilling the commandment
in its truest and complete way.
Of course, there is great importance, and satisfaction too, in fulfilling
the commandments with love and fear of G-d, and with the proper intentions,
because that's what makes the action complete inside and out. However,
before the Receiving of the Torah, this was not crucial. In Avraham's
time, emotion and intention were enough. For us, the commandments have
to be fulfilled in physicality. The deed is the main thing. (Pirkei Avot/Ethics
of the Fathers 1:17).
[Adapted from Shulchan Shabbat from Likutei Sichot. Volume 5. Page 324]
Shabbat Shalom, Shaul
(for a free weekly email subscription, click
here)
For last year's essay by Rabbi Leiter on this week's
Reading, see the archive.
FROM
THE SAGES OF KABBALAH ON KabbalaOnline.org
Specifically,
for an overview of the recommended articles in the columns:
Holy Zohar, Holy Ari, Mystic Classics, Chasidic Masters, Contemporary
Kabbalists, and more,
click to Vayeira.
one sample:
Chassidic Illuminations
 Empty
Vessels
From the teachings of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi and the Lubavitcher
Rebbe; adapted by Yosef Marcus
Before Abraham was visited by G-d, he was on the level of the 49th gate
of understanding, the upmost level at which a human being can interact
with the Infinite through his own efforts. When G-d visited Abraham, He
granted him the fiftieth gate.
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