Lessons we can learn from the weekly Torah portion!
It’s the Thought that Counts!
The story is famous. After Abraham was circumcised at the
young age of just 99 years old, he was in extreme agony. However, refusing to
lay idle; he waits outside his tent to welcome visitors. In fact, the reason he
had to wait outside was because God had specifically sent a heat wave; to give
Abraham a much-needed day to relax from his constant hospitality activities.
God sees Abraham’s distress at not being able to serve any
guests, and therefore sends a group of angels that look like Arab travellers.
Abraham runs after them, putting God on hold, welcoming them in and providing
them with a lavish feast, complete with juicy Beef and mustard!
But surely; if they were angels, how can the verse say that “they
ate”? Angels are purely spiritual and do not eat or drink; amongst other things!
Rashi solves this dilemma by commenting that the angels
pretended to eat; and it seemed to Abraham that they actually ate.
But, if they only pretended to eat and did not actually eat;
this means Abraham did not really fulfil the commandment of honouring guests.
This therefore implies that his interruption of the Divine presence to attend
to the “guests” was unnecessary. Furthermore, a Talmudical principle is learnt
from the incident, that “Welcoming guests is greater than welcoming the divine
presence!”
However, in this incident, it wasn’t the outcome that
mattered.
Abraham served his guests with the utmost self-sacrifice and
to the best of his abilities. This is what was showcased in the commandment.
Therefore, even though they did not physically eat, Abraham fulfilled his part
of the deal.
It’s not about winning; It’s about taking part! By doing this
mitzvah in the most exemplary manner Abraham set a message for us that we can
take home with us.
When performing a mitzvah, we should have in mind that even
though there may be no positive outcome for the deed we have done; we have
still fulfilled our part. We have done the best we can. From there, it is out
of our hands.
But what is in our control is our responsibility. By us
reading about Abraham doing everything he could despite all the challenges that
faced him, this opened the history books for our chances at doing the same.
The sages teach that when Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did
something; this enabled similar things to re-occur in the future. This is
comparable to a balloon artist who must stretch each balloon so it can be
inflated to its maximum capacity and strength.
Even though Abraham interrupted God, so to speak, and didn’t
actually feed them; he gave us the all-important message.
Always try your best, and don’t give up.
Shabbat Shalom
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