I’ve always felt like embracing guests, in Hebrew called hachnasat orchim, has been a core part of my Jewish experience. I grew up with guests often around our Shabbat table, both close family friends and also newcomers to town and people we didn’t know well. It was always important to me as an adult to build a home where hosting was crucial - people I knew and even those I didn’t. This week’s parashah, Vayera, is often as viewed as the place in the Torah where we learn about the value of this mitzvah.
There are actually two important examples of hachnasat orchim in this parsha. The first is with Avraham, who welcomes three individuals into his tent. Avraham eagerly greeted them, and then Sarah made them bread. One of the shepherds prepared a calf to eat. It was certainly a team effort to make the guests feel welcome, involving everyone not just in Avraham’s family, but those in his orbit.
In contrast, just a few chapters later, we read about Lot, who, on the face of it, carries out a similar act of hachnasat orchim to his visitors. Two of the same angels who visited Avraham are now at Lot’s doorstep, and just as Avraham did, Lot greets them eagerly. Just like Avraham, he brings them in and washes their feet. He baked bread for them, he got an animal, and he made them a meal. Commentators notice the stark difference between the way that Avraham and Lot carry out their acts of welcoming. Avraham involved all those around him, whereas Lot did it all himself. Avraham sees himself as a part of a community, a system of people working together, whereas Lot sees himself only as an individual.
In this parsha, God declares that Avraham will become a great and populous nation, and that God has singled him out to instruct his children and all those that come after him. This declaration comes directly between these two moments of hachnasat orchim, as if to say, Avraham’s actions are the ones that will endure. Avraham’s are the actions we should learn from. He will be the one to become our ancestor, because of the way he operated in relation to others. The point of being in Jewish community, part of the point of being Avraham’s ancestor is that we feel a responsibility to uphold God’s commandments as a collective. Together, we build the fabric of community and we can’t do it alone. It’s not about seeing ourselves as doing the work individually, but about involving all those around us to become a network that creates community and meaning, together.
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Sarit
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