Parshas Vayeira: The Astounding Chesed of Avraham - Emulating Hashem

this Torah class is brought to you by Torah anytime.com okay so the beginning of the par speaks about Abu it's on the third day of his mil andu say is in great pain the third day of the mil of course is the most painful day and the PK says that he sees arim the only thing is also came to visit him so he has a conflict who does he pay attention to if I have found favor in your eyes do not pass by so the simple interpretation is he's talking to his guests and he's speaking to the master of the three the middle one the greatest among them and he's saying do me a favor stop in by my house don't just pass by my house however Rashi brings down a explanation and it's it's from that AB was not addressing his Earthly guest he was addressing the he was waiting for the to wait for him until he runs and greets the guests rash B byha then in it says so he already went to the so he already went to theim why after he already went to theim would he be asking AEM wait for me to go to the he already went to the AR says Rashi no theuk are out of order and this is the DAR the Torah does not speak in a in a sequence it's not in a uh it's not in a regular flow what it's not in a chronological order thank you even though is written after comes before B so in other words imagine the scene is Basking in the glory of he's and some three people who thought were Arabs to the point where has to ask them to was wash the dust between their toes but still says would you mind waiting I have to greet Mohammed and some other guy and that's what happens says the gar what do we see right normally we say we don't always know we don't usually know the reward of mitzah it's hard to evaluate it's hard to establish which one is greater says there are two mitz that are equal is equal to coming early to the to learn why because is talking about a very interesting there's not something called a person there are certain things that even though they're technically permitted but if they involve excessive strenuous effort you can't do it for example if you have a lot of produce in a certain area and you want to clear the produce right you can't clear out an area unless it's azah so the mishna says that you're allow to clear out an area for guests or to make a b Med so the fact that it list these two mitos apparently that means these two mitos are of equal value greeting guests is greater than coming early to why because the Mish says you're allow to clear your house out of produce not only for guest but even for a b now if a b was a bigger Mitzvah than gu then it's a smaller the fact that it says for guest and even for a Bish means a Bish is less of a Mitzvah than guest so we see from here greeting guests is more important than going to the B greeting guest is greater not only than going to the B greater than greeting himself okay so you see from here if you had the option of either hosting the or hosting three guests greeting guest is a greater Mitzvah even than greeting the so the Von wants to know maybe they're equal and was just saying since they're equal let me try to do both so you just wait and I'm going to do something that's equal and this way I'll both right as they say so says the villain god wait a second is that when you take leave of your Rabbi you don't say okay bye rebi and then turn your back on him no when you take leave of your rebi you have to walk out backwards backward rightner was very that the Accord that type of the um uh yeah the uh yeah walk in bowing and they walk out backwards bowing okay it's something beautiful to see a lot of people when they when they walk out of show many people they they walk out in a backward manner but here it's not only in a Bas Med even a rebi you walk out facing the rebi you don't turn your back to the rebi so now says the gr just imagine was talking to and now the are coming over there and the says now you can't run backward no I don't mean he's not a cornerback right you can't you can't run backward means he had to run toward that means everywhere but the is called there's a concept is called or what you mean everywhere but there's a concept that the has designated if we could say such a thing right there's a count mean he was there any he was there before he was so there is some kind of this is what the says the fact that Abraham ran toward the arim song like is here is there is everywh yeah but that's according to the bat but the rejects that you should know yes the and the main you should know the main between and between theat is do we passing like unclei that hm is here everywhere seriously the says no the gr says no the gr says hasem is not here there hasem is everywhere there are places that maybe has would prefer not to be so and that's that was that was thees that this goes well way back do we say or do we say you know you know anyway but that's a separ has has a on that yeah one is before the one is after okay wasall because because of the okay before it was says the that the fact that put his turned his back to re and ran toward the the guest that shows G yeah okay so here's the here's the question question is like this we learned from Ab that here some more we learn from Ab that is greater than but how did AB know who told AB yeah who told abam so we very interestinger the he says like this we know that Abraham is 248 because Abraham was so in sync with the r of hasem that hisim naturally were inclined to do hashem's will that's why by the when he was about to the says he had to send out his hand why do you send out his hand why in his hand naturally do it because that wasn't the r of hem CU hem really just told him bring him up so Abraham had Ascend his hand because this was something that was not the r of hem so Abraham knew what the r ofm was from what he did it's almost like his a were naturally drawn he reached the madreo where his body was naturally drawn to do the rat is it possible to go against is it possible it's possible everyone has free will sure if hasm doesn't want it won't be able to do anything if hasem hasem allows you to go against his anytime a person doesn't have doesn't want the person to do that but he he allows he he with that's the that's the concept of says Adler look in the the why does it say two times says [Applause] he saw them why did he run to them because he did because he's always naturally runs to do the when he realized that he was running to the and away from hasem who had come to visit him ah from there he realized in other words how did how did Abraham know he knew it from what he did functional it said V two times the first V is he saw with his physical eyes the second V says he understood from what he did that now that's a very high MGA that's a I don't think too many uh people in history were ever on such a level but that's the concept say that his eyes his ears did not even see or hear something improper they didn't function for that he was in complete man of all of his okay toct okay what what's the mitvah no but he's not always what's theah is that what's which mitvah is that a we just said one's a they both we said that no I didn't say that okay was okay let's see let's see let's see the the med tells us the says to and let's just get a little picture for a moment what was giving up in order to because this is not just says number six you know who used to visit you uncircumcised people we're all coming to you you are about to receive the greatest event the biggest group of guests the most prestigious group of guests that any anyone ever visited anyone you're about to experience that is not only giving up his greeting of he's giving up and you say well again he's not doing a mitvah like what exactly is he giving up what's he involved in what kind of experience is that well the NV writes that at that moment arrau was completely immersed in the Mitzvah of you imagine being in such close proximity to how's Soul was a flame in this experience and he gave up aside from the fact that everybody knows that the greatest T the greatest pleasure available to a human being or to anyone is to bask in the glory of the so is now giving up the greatest pleasure any human being has had or will ever experience to greet these three right these three these three uh Arabs and says the the it's also that was occupied in and nevertheless he gives it up right so you don't say you sayy you don't have to do MIT the whole day cuz I sit I sit here I'm po you don't the whole day you don't you don't you don't say when you're not when you're what what there's no there's no is not a mitah that exempts you from other mitz it's an experience it's not it's a if you love hem go do a Mitzvah it's a coris right we don't you say um somebody comes you do me I'm in middle of doing the mitvah of Amun can't okay so the question really is that what is going on over here is giving up to greet three guest say page 180 to 181 isn't it you say just wait a second right it's like you get a phone call please hold you're calling me and you're telling me to hold right you ever get these phone calls please hold so AB saying please hold I have very important business and these guys who have to have their toes cleaned out AB is is is taking care of these guys he's washing their feet and he's telling wait isn't it already asking this and how did the malim interrupt AB talking to if they knew that he was talking to him where's the cover over there who says they knew they were not interrupting him he interrupted were walking they're walking they're walking he he didn't they didn't want to stay they said no thanks they said no thanks we're going on our way so says maybe this is a situation of the same way you're ladder right down T so you could interrupt your your super natural experience to greet guest but that's that's hard to understand that that's the actual explanation for why it's permitted to greet guests and interrupt your experience with ranam let's come to another question here okay take a look in number 11 for a moment everybody knows that what's the if um all of a sudden you get a call from your friend um I'm 15 blocks down uh my car broke down I need help changing a tire and you're in a Shear you help him or you don't help him well what's a bigger Mitzvah or now if the guy has AA right if someone else could help the guy then you're not allowed to interrupt your learning to them you're not allowed to not it's you don't have to you're not allowed to if no one else could help them then you have to interrupt that's if again that's you're you're not learning then talking about a guy is walking on the road he's not learning and no one else could do it but if you're MD of learning and someone else could do it then someone else should do it that's it's that something that's you can't interrupt so let's say a guy is sitting and learning should you say oh I wish somebody would call me on the phone who has no one else to help them change their tire so I could get up and interrupt my learning you know that that would be quite odd you should be happy that you have this to be able to you don't have to so here's here's it's the third day of his but still before it was given he's he's learning and writes in a footnote in the said was certainly learning in all of his spare time and it's so hot that no could come andash says was that no why is he M no so he could he could learn he's that they imagine would anyone say oh I love to be oh I'm such so sorry there no people on the list because they have nobody to visit right imagine I love to do oh crazy so why would he's nobody needs a meal why is he that they no first of all it's a hot day nobody's outside first of all you should be happy nobody needs it number two he learn number two now he could learn and what's the whole inan over here it's a day but is upset so is upset so make it not hot you make it hot nobody could come out now I was upset like hands are tied so he has to send so take the sheath off the sun right EXC put it back make it a normal day let it let the temperature drop from 130 to 70 and then people will come what's this whole thing makes it too hot for people so now no come now ab's upset so has to send isn't there a much simpler way out don't usually come to people's houses to eat because K even say that in this situation don't think the Mal didn't eat even though don't eat in this case ate the cover of so here what has to do he has to make a make it to then ab's upset has has to make another nce to send food eating tongue eating Mal bread eating Mal water drinking Mal just send people okay so nowu has people to feed aru has um three guests who he thinks aream andu had a very simple solution you know what he could have done oh you're hungry let me give you some what Sara get the water out of the fridge I think there's some peanut butter in the uh pantry and make him three peanut butter S Sandwiches no you have to she three cows why cuz he wants to give each Arab tongue and let me ask you something if one Arab would have got tongue and the other one got a spear ribs they also would have enjoyed very much no spear ribs is not as good as tongue so now we have to kill three cows imagine if Peter found out there Abino killed three cows just to give three pieces of tongue why so much why so much doesn't have better things to do it definitely took off time from his learning and it's not what do he do with the rest of the cow put in the freezer put in the freezer yeah I mean isn't that is that isn't that overboard if you would let me ask you something if you would see today no real this is a serious question imagine um some a collector a neb was sitting in front of a sh and you would see the rub of the sh go into his house go go to wasman buy baby lamb chops cook it up roast it up and the finest Delicacies and put down after 3 hours of preparing this meal put down a fancy meal with fine wine in front of this guy would you even think that this is normal I don't think so just imagine if a g today would do it we would think it's what are you doing the guy's hungry give him 10 bucks so go get a good meal in the pizza store what why did what was AB doing even what was he doing is this a regular thing to do would you consider a a reasonable thing to do would you do this three I mean a cow is an expensive thing with mustard it say so it's it was tender tender wasn't a was a young still a cow okay gar says the whatever did by himself so paid back himself whatever AB did sent pay payment through so for example ran to the cow gave clel the SLO said here take butter and milk Hashem gave us Hashem gave us the Manu stood over the gas by the way you want to hear something amazing the say so we read that to mean waiter them under the tree listen to what one of the I think the the says he stood over them there was no tree who's a tall man he hovered over them to protect them from the Sun imagine imagine a god of is taking some schar and say well I don't I want you to be comfortable so imagine he's like blocking out the Sun so this guy can have a comfortable meal what do he take him into the tent what's the problem you got to ask your wife you can't just that was the story it's why he didn't take them right but that's what he did and could someone explain to me because abrahamu because Abu gave bread listen to what the med says the matter look at number 14 I'm gonna pay back you gave water to the so had water in the midbar for 40 years you gave water to the AR has water in for thousands of years you gave water to there'll be water in you told them to wash your feet I wash the y in the midbar I wash them in and I wash their you told them to sit under the tree I will protect with covered for 40 years they'll be to the protect them could someone explain to me because AB gave a little water to an Arab therefore CL gets water for 40 years is that mid mid measure for measure he just gave water to an Arab so why is CLA you so this is such an eternal m is such a Monumental mitvah how do we understand this why is Abraham so that he can't serve the arim why does he go so almost overboard for these guests and why is this so valuable in the eyes of Hashem ask you another question was the greatest yeah was the of the greatest which was a chapter written by in number 20 was fine that means AR probably specialized in many forms of he was great at he was great at he was great at lending money he was great at he was great at many forms of does is there anywhere in the Tyra where the T says heard someone sick so you know what he did he called the guy up he said I'll be over right away and then AR ran as fast as he could to the to the sick man and he ran up the stairs and he brought flowers and he swept and he said hope you feel better and he was no there's no description anywhere in the T the you find anywhere in the Torah about any other form of no even though I'm sure he excelled at all of them why by the is so much why of all the forms of you look in the he explains many different categories of why does the choose as the example of how to to describe the details of that M yeah okay so let us begin what we're going to learn today is a very fundamental area of we come to the maral look at number nine the maral explains why is greeting guests greater than going to sh says Mar you know what it means that greeting guest is greater than going to sh we know the purpose of a Mitzvah is for a person to become to become spiritual to do Godly things it is more Godly to greet your friend than it is to go to SCH you know why because your friend is created in the image of the so there's nothing that we have in this world closer to theb than your friend what do you mean in the Sho there's a saer Tyra no saer Tyra is the but your friend is the he looks like so greater than my gamar no more important than your gamar is your friend so says Mar wait a second that's nice but how about when it's my friend or the because the G says so now you're telling me it's greater to greet my friend than it is to greet says what do you mean greet you see him you don't see him you're not you don't see him the is here in some Dimension you look at your friend you see the the image of your friend is more like Hashem is more key than the itself because you don't see the no one's eyes could see the is not something you could see your friend's appearance is the closest thing you have to the Itself by the way look at number 10 that if you're on your way to SCH and guest come now guest does mean not you jump into someone on the street guest means someone comes off the airplane they don't have somewhere to stay a guest is not someone who you decide to invite at Shak time a guess is you happen to be leaving your house and you have guests from is coming and they come at that time so what should you do you got to take them in you got to greet them warmly you have to don't say oh make yourself at home I'll be back in 45 minutes after shakas you know I'll do that say again that's only if there's no one at home who could greet them properly if your wife if your family could bring in the guest in an appropriate manner so then let them do it and then you go to but if they're not able to do that then says we learn this is not just a it's that bottom line if guests come at that time and you're needed to greet them properly then you do that you go ding later okay so what you saying is that it's much better to stand outside the sh and greet every no they're not your guests they're not your guests they're not your gu no only so the mar says it's only if you if you see him before you see him all the time so you already know that you you already got it you got it already it's only only the morning it even see that day you saw him yesterday you remember you didn't forget you know what he looks like right the mar says it's only okay but we still okay so now we come to one more idea and then we're going to try to explain this you know in the inion of uh children this is one inion where people look for scho people look for scho I to have to be to have children the um many of the schoolo have no Mak at all there is a schoa found in that says is the most documented established authentic and that is the why number7 every is not mentioned um there are that the is Children s hosted guest and theis she she hosted Alisha and in this week's par and in this week's two people hosted guests and there was like to have children and in fact brings down in the that someone who accustoms themselves in this Mitzvah is it's a schoa for B it is not scha it's a schoa found in K and you see it in the itself you see AB host the guest they tell them the good news the isais has Alisha they tell her the good news and even though we don't understand but maybe could we explain a little bit why is it that the only Mitzvah of the 63 mitzah that we find beish like this that one is what's the explanation okay and now we come to the mitzah we perhaps may think that the mitzah of is be a nice guy so the first thing we have to debunk that notion has nothing to do with being a nice guy it's good to be a nice guy also you could still a good thing but you say okay maybe it's Hashem wants me then when I see somebody who needs something I should try to help them yeah Hashem does want you to try to help them but it has nothing to do with that's not the mitzah so what's the Mitzvah so you have to know where the mitzah comes from if you look around the world and you try to study who the Reon is well we know certain things about the ream he has certain mitv says to he has loves is he loves but there's one thing that is obvious and blatant in the world it doesn't say the one thing that if your eyes are open you'll see that this world is full of so where where is it show me show me the money oh he's so right now you could see yeah could you see only uh close distance like this camera or you could see mildes you could see up to the Moon see up to the Moon you see in color or only black and white see in color and what would have been so bad if you saw in black and white black and white it's not the same it makes Aina it's better it's more enjoyable okay okay you have automatic Zoom or you have to like push a button on your head to zoom in on something no it's automatic where do all the pictures go you have like a file cabinet at home that stores the bon no I have um I have a disc smaller than anything they have today that stores every picture I ever saw chip right Hashem could have made that you eat the same thing for breakfast lunch and supper a little pill every morning you take it you're full and to lunch you fil to created how many types of food how many types of drinks sweet salty crunchy mushy unlimited choices unlimited choices this today I wear this tomorrow I wear something else the if your eyes are open fulls the whole world it's predominant now the doesn't want you to feel like he's giving it to you so he sort of disappears and you just take it and you're not embarrassed cuz you don't even realize that there's a benefactor because if you would see all the was giving you every second I remember um I hurt myself on I was very upset because uh I night I wrenched my back I was in such pain I didn't think uh I couldn't even I couldn't move my fingers I couldn't move my fingers someone got me a really heavy pain color I was able to get out of bed but during the night I was in such terrible pain I couldn't squeeze I hurt my back I couldn't squeeze my hand and I'm thinking you know what this is really this is not fun why is this you know why okay should be kapar right but I realize it's really it's a big because 3 days later when I was able to come out of bed really every footstep I took I was very happy I I could walk I could walk every footstep is a every breath is a every heartbeat is and at at this moment you know how many doing for you billions of endless and was because we find that in Mas means he comprehended he hit him he understood he had a flash of lightning I will forever sing the of you know what I say to myself the world is built on now you should know that Victor Miller said he heard from his RAB that why did Hashem create the world to give us the greatest in the world the greatest is not to drink water even though it's a very big water is great nothing like a cup of water even though the breathing is a very big seeing is a very big but that's not why created us for the ultimate and that's if a person does created us that's why he made us now you'll say oh it's a good thing made us because before he put us in this world we were suffering so terribly and he saved us no he didn't we weren't we weren't here we didn't exist so now listen carefully Hashem created the world why to give us did we have a need and then hashm said oh I feel so bad for you let me give you eyesight let me give you a heart let me give you no we didn't need anything we weren't here Hashem was such a big that he created us in order to do you hear it's not that Hashem saw a miserable human beings and Hashem said oh let me have Rus on you so I'm going to I'm going to give you food I'm going to feed you no Hashem created us in order to do to us most now that's a very different kind of most of us think of as what if you see someone with a need you try to provide for them no that's not did he created now we know that one of our most important objectives in this world is to emulate the ways of hem right to emulate him to imitate him says in look at number 23 should walk in the ways of Hashem should walk in the ways of Hashem there's by the way there's another P that says you should cling to him and says could you go after but no what it means is follow his mid just like you should be you see people need clothing you should help them out not because you feel bad for them you should feel bad for them also but don't give people clothing just because you feel bad for them if that's your sole motivation you have not fulfilled you clothe people cuz you want to emulate hem if you see someone who's ill you don't visit them because well if I don't visit them then he's not he's going to be angry at me or I feel bad for him you visit him CU ream visited abah and you want to be like the ream when you go to a the should be buried I'm emulating the ways of have to go to that's the that is that's that is should be the main kavana when a person does by the way there's another yeah by the way I heard in the name of that why do I need two garas two one is that's one and you have another why do I need two why do I need a it's the same be like Hashem okay there are two there are two dimensions of being like Hashem they're the acts of Hashem and then you could have a guy that clothes every arum that's every that's cover every but in his mid and on his inside he's lacking in the mid he does the but he's not doing it with the and with the feelings that does so it's necessary to say it's not enough just to be like you have to be like and if we would just say just be you can have a lot of guys that have but when their friends are sick they have a lot of but they still don't go visit because they can't get it get it together and go visit so you need to emulate both and and very beautiful explanation okay but basically arino looks at the world and he sees did not have to create a world he created the world to do what's the is not only and it's important to be vior Miller wrote in his he told his family don't cry for me I lived a very happy life I ate three meals a day I had clothing I had a bed I had a house I enjoyed myself now his his and we should be on the M that we enjoy the the minimal amounts of things that gives us but that's part of the us to get so thinks to himself if I want to fulfill it's not enough just oh I see someone who needs something I feel bad for him let me provide saying that how can I emulate Hashem in the highest sense I want to do even before there's anybody who needs anything it's a hot day ab says perfect opportunity to emulate Hashem on this day that no one's coming outside and nobody needs anything I am going to emulate Hashem by engendering a desire to do even before I see the need and says and what kind of does hasem do hasem think of us what are we we're bam Wast his time by providing us with imagine how many different types of meals that you have this year if someone would serve you the same meal two nights in a row left over right how many different 365 days a year probably you had a few hundred different types of choices that the provided you with me little old meam is interested in in satisfying my worthless desires yeah that's that little old me says for me to emulate Hashem Hashem gives every that's the only way I have the only way to emulate hem is I take these three whatever they are and I give them I give them the tongue of a with no spear ribs is not good enough says in order to emulate I have to be able to give andem says oh wow you're not just doing because you feel bad for people you're doing on the highest possible D you're emulating me here there's no need nobody needs anything nobody could come out and you want there to be a situation just like Hashem said I created in order to be mative you also now can ab create to be mative no because look he's still B he can't create Anam to be native but says look I'll help you out I'll create who normally are not able to eat so that you could emulate me on the highest level we just like I created an and for me to be native through your I will allow you I will create for you so that you could emulate me on the highest level but I want to Sayes but still still did Abraham create them Reish created them so it's still not like theem says there's one Mitzvah in the where this listen to this says there many forms of but which type of said most mimics and emulates the of says you know why what's this world this world is a big hotel and says come I greet you into my hotel and in my hotel I provide what do you need you need food okay I'll give you you know your parents will feed you you need clothing they you'll get clothing you need what all your needs are taken care of in this hotel the act of that most emulates the you know why because in this world says beautiful number 30 this world we're all guests like the PK says in we're all guests here in this world and who's the so the best way to emulate the of is to bring someone into your home and to provide for their needs that most closely reflects and emulates the so yes there's but the Torah does not describe in detail any of those instead the Torah describes in detail because that's the type of that most resembles most resembles but says even if you do there's still one thing that you can't do to emulate me fully and that is create to be able to be M says if you do you that means you could bring people into the world to do to and now you can Mish emulate me on the highest AR wow so maybe you could say that the reason why this is the Mitzvah through which a person could be in this way is because since most closely resembles and especially where do we see this we see this from who was even though there were no he was even though nobody needed anything says you have reach the highest and you're only missing one small PR I'll seal the complete you're missing one thing maybe that's the reason why this mitvah is a for but I remember used to say you have it on your sheets here number 36 that anything you do anything you do you go make a living you should think ream takes care of people in this world you're making money to support your family like you clean he he would say you wash a diaper wases away even the most trivial things you do if you could be elevated to the highest form of a person thinks that they're doing it to emulate the Reish and this is the limit of abin it's not just be a nice guy go out of your way to help your friend we're talking on a completely a much higher plane this is the this is the Avenue of of emulating the ways have a wonderful day you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by Torah anytime.com