Answers to this Week’s Riddles

Answers to this Week’s Riddles

(For the riddles, please see back page)

1. I saw this novel question in the sefer Pikudecha Dorashti and he suggests several answers:

   1. A simple answer may be, Avraham Avinu didn’t want avodah zorah entering even under a tree inside his courtyard outside his tent, therefore, he told them to first wash their feet and only then enter under the tree. This is meduyak in the pasuk which says: רחצו רגליכם – first wash your first, and only then, השענו תחת העץ – enter under the tree.

   2. Another answer may be, the Medrash Rabbah (Naso) tells us: והשענו תחת העץ ­ שעשה להם סוכות – “They leaned under the tree - He made for them a succah”. When the malochim came it was Succos, and Avraham didn’t want to bring them into his succah, as avodah zorah disqualifies a succah. Therefore, he asked them to first wash their feet, and only then enter.

   3. Perhaps we can answer based on something R’ Chaim Kanievsky writes in Tama Dekra. The malochim came to visit on Succos (Rosh Hashanah 11a) and since Avraham Avinu kept the entire Torah, it seems: עץ תלוש היה והיה סוכה – “It was an uprooted tree and it was a succah.” Perhaps, since the tree was uprooted, it didn’t do what the Zohar describes, and only when Avraham’s tree was connected to the ground was it able to determine who served avodah zorah, and who believed in the Ribbono Shel Olam.

   4. Finally, perhaps we can suggest that Avraham did in fact bring them under the tree, and he saw straight away that they didn’t serve avodah zorah, and the reason he asked them to wash their feet was in order not to change from his custom of asking all guests to wash their feet. Like the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh writes: “Perhaps he didn’t want to change from the accepted custom of asking guests to wash their feet due the concern of avodah zorah”. Perhaps, because of the above, the Chizkuni suggests a different reason for why Avraham wanted the malochim to wash their feet. He writes: It was very hot, and the water was for them to wash the sweat off their feet.

2. The Seforno (21:1) writes that most children born to elderly parents are girls. Since Avraham and Sorah were 100 and 90, respectively, when Yitzchok was born, he should have statistically been a female.

3. I saw this question in the sefer Pikudecha Dorashti and he suggests several answers:

   1. The Chizkuni quotes a Medrash which says that Avraham was very worried that Yitzchok would become a ba’al mum [wounded] – he was worried that the Sotan would try and wound Yitzchok by throwing stones at him, therefore, he hid him. If Yitzchok was hidden away, we can understand very well why he never helped.

   2. We can also answer, that Yitzchok was an olah temimah [unblemished olah offering] therefore, Avraham didn’t want to violate the issur of meilah by using him.

   3. According to the Netziv that the mizbayach that Avraham built was built in accordance with the halachos of a real mizbayach. Presumably the special mitzvah of building the klei hamikdosh [utensils used in the Beis HaMikdosh] was given to kohanim and leviyim. Avraham was a kohen, and Yitzchok wasn’t, therefore, he wanted to do the mitzvah himself.

   4. Perhaps we can suggest another answer, based on something the Ayalas HaShachar writes. There is a machlokes when the Akeidah took place, it was either on Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur. Either way, it was on a day where there is a prohibition to work, so how was Avraham Avinu who kept the entire Torah allowed to build a mizbayach on a day which it is forbidden to work? Avraham was a Ben Noach, and certainly a direct command from Hashem overrides the prohibition of working on Yom Tov, therefore, it was ok for him to build.