HOSPITALITY

Parashat Vayera - 15 Cheshvan 5774 / 18-19 October 2013
Torah: Genesis 18:1 - 22:24
Haftarah: 2 Kings 4:1-37 (Ashkenazim; Sefardim read 4:1-23)
 
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Hospitality
 
“And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and here three men were standing before him; he saw and ran to them from the tent opening, and he bowed toward the ground.” Genesis 18:2
 
According to the Rabbis, Abraham was the paradigm of hospitality. One midrash has him being famous throughout the land for his treatment of guests. There is a Chasidic teaching which asks, why only Abraham, and not also his nephew Lot? After all, our parashah recounts that Lot also greeted and fed, and even protected, the same angels that first appeared to Abraham. The difference is in the details.
 
Abraham “ran” to greet them. Lot “stood up” to meet them. Abraham offered them “a morsel”, but gave them a veritable feast of butter, milk, bread and meat (we’ll discuss the kashruth another time!) Lot “made a feast and baked matza” (the bread of poverty), implying that he promised a feast but gave them only crackers. These differences between Abraham and Lot are relatively unimportant when compared with this - Abraham saw “three men”; but “two angels” came to Lot.
 
Had he not known they were angels, Lot might have treated God’s messengers in the same way that everybody else in Sodom treated each other - with disrespect, if not downright contempt. Abraham, on the other hand, treated the messengers in a highly respectful if not downright holy way, even when he thought they were “merely” human beings. Now that’s the way to treat guests. There’s hospitality, and THERE’S HOSPITALITY!
 
Have a wonderful Shabbat!
 
Rabbi Richard A. Flom
Congregation Beth Meier
Studio City, CA
http://www.bethmeier.org
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"For the sake of Zion I will not be silent; for the sake of Jerusalem I will not be still."  Isaiah 62:1
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This d'var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah for Boaz ben Dina, Dov Nechemya Hakohen ben Rachel Chaya Sarah, Meyta Zlata bat Leah, Miriam Minya bat Alisa Batya, Eve Beatty, Howard Ehrlich, Joshua Erenmark, Jerry Forman, Pamela Huddleston, Rose Jordan, Meir Lanzner, Lizzie Legnine, Gloria Loera, Frank Marcovitz, Barney Meskin, Marsha Meyers, Phil Raider, Gil Robbins, and Rachel Robbins.