Parashat Vayeira

Avraham took curds, milk and the calf that had been prepared and set these before them; he waited on them under the tree as they ate. (Genesis 18:8)

As the curtain rises on this week's parasha, Avraham is sitting in his tent and traditionally is recuperating from the circumcision. Three angels/men appear and this Divine visit is regarded as the model for the value of Bikkur Cholim, visiting the sick. Reciprocating, Avraham goes out of his way to accommodate his guests, signifying another Jewish value: Hakhnasat Orchim, welcoming the stranger.

There is much excitement when guests arrive. This is as true today as it was for the ancient world. In sparsely populated areas like the desert, the presence of a guest would be quite the event. For the guest, being welcomed and given food and drink in the harsh environment was not only proper etiquette but could mean the difference between life and death. Our text tries capturing some of the excitement, the worrying, the running around and everything that was done quickly to make guests feel comfortable. Then we read that Avraham served the guests milk with meat; a meal, which violates the rabbinic prohibition of eating milk with meat. We are more fascinated by the Torah's lack of condemnation of Avraham than whether he kept kosher. It is hard for us to look at Avraham without seeing his life through the lens of the rest of the Torah, and the lens of rabbinic tradition. We would think the Torah should have 'cleaned up the story' and omitted the menu, or at least made some disparaging comment on how Avraham neglected to observe the dietary laws but it doesn't. The Torah is comfortable faithfully depicting Avraham as the nomadic monotheist that he was and not retro-projecting later prohibitions on to him.

The Baal Shem Tov, founder of Chasidism, asked why we say "God of Avraham, God of Isaac and God of Jacob" in the Amidah prayer (and not God of Avraham, Isaac and Jacob). His explanation was that each one of the patriarchs and matriarchs had a unique relationship with God. The God of Avraham was not the God of Isaac. The God of Rachel was not the God of Leah. The 'Torah' of Avraham was not the same as the 'Torah' of Moses. The Torah's integrity is not compromised because it contains 'continuity errors'. It teaches us that each generation has its unique encounter with God and a unique relationship with the Torah.

Shabbat Shalom.