Out of Hiding
Now, when Avraham saw that everything in the world is kindliness, he became obsessed with this model that Hashem was showing him. After all, Hashem is mysterious; entirely invisible. He doesn't show anything of Himself. But all of a sudden this one thing He does show.
And not a little bit. He shows by tens of thousands of examples that He wishes to make people happy, to give them enjoyment. He gives us red apples and golden bananas. He gives us bread to eat. He gives us milk to drink. He gives us watermelon to relish. He gives us fresh water and fresh air. He gives us fingers that bend and eyes that are better than the best color cameras. All good things He gives us.
The whole world is built for the purpose of chessed! You want to be convinced? Just walk outside in the street and what do you see wherever you look? Soil! A remarkable material! Soil is a ness! Go out and try to make soil. You can't create it.
Now, there's no soil on the moon. There’s no soil on Mars. But here, on Earth, Hashem laid down a layer of soil for our benefit, so that we’d always have food. From this soil, He takes out for us bread and everything else to eat. It’s kulo chessed, a wonderful material.
Chessed in the Depths
And when you come to the end of the soil, you see the sea, the oceans. Oceans also are nothing but chessed. Why do we have oceans? Pass by a fish store and you'll see why there are oceans. You see in the window fat juicy fish lying there; carp, salmon, trout. The world lives off of fish. Hundreds of thousands of tons of fish are harvested from the sea just like they harvest crops from the land. Every day more than a billion fish are being taken out for people to eat. Not million—billion with a b. A thousand millions!
You know, Rabbeinu Saadya Gaon says in Sefer Emunos Vedeos that the whole world is made for eating. Hashem made all creation for food; to make us happy, to make our stomachs happy. And we are all taking Hashem up on the challenge; we’re all busy eating.
But not only food. The whole world, all of Hashem’s creation, is supplying for mankind their needs. Cotton is always growing. Linen is growing. The sheep are constantly producing wool for us. The cows are producing leather exactly suited to our needs. The forests are replanting themselves, and the trees are giving us lumber, furniture, paper.
Chessed in the Air
Even the air is a made-to-order chessed material. Air is a cocktail; it’s not just one thing. It's a mixture. If you want to make a cocktail—I never did it, but I imagine you have to have a certain amount of alcohol, a certain amount of fruit juices to flavor it, and whatever else you put in and you mix it. That’s what air is, a cocktail mixture. It’s about 20% oxygen—had it been more, you would have become intoxicated when you breathe. You would become dizzy and drunk. So Hashem puts it in a base of nitrogen, an inert gas. It's like when they make a medicine cream. The medicine itself is a very small percentage; it's in a base of petroleum jelly. If you didn't have petroleum jelly, just the medicine itself, it would burn a hole through your skin. So the medicine is put in petroleum jelly so it has the effect on you that you want, but not too much. And so the air is just 20% oxygen. That's what you need. And the rest is almost all nitrogen.
Now not only that. In that cocktail is mixed a little bit of carbon dioxide to give it a tang; just three parts in 10,000. Carbon dioxide stimulates your breathing; a tiny little bit of carbon dioxide mixed in. And there are other gases too, traces of other gases. It's the perfect cocktail.
That’s why if you're ever discouraged—pay attention; I want you all to hear this following advice—if you ever feel discouraged, open up a window. Don't think of jumping out. No. Open up the window and breathe deeply as much as you can. It's a special mixture, a lifesaver. Breathe deeply and enjoy this great gift. Fresh air is a medicine that’s going to change your attitude.
And it's not a rare item that you have to go to the drug store to find. Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the great Chemist, the great Apothecary, has mixed it to make us happy. That's what it's for. And you have two hundred miles of it straight up. The whole world is under a mantle of two hundred miles of chessed, two hundred miles of air!
An Ingrate Guest
Now, I just began the list. The world is stocked with all good things and that’s what Hashem is showing us of Him, a whole world of nothing but chessed. You don’t think so? What is it my fault if your mind and your senses have been dulled because of a lack of thinking? If we drink water and don’t remember that it’s Hashem pouring it down our throats, so you’re stifling your awareness and your happiness. And the wind and the sun and the air and everything else, the fact you’re an ingrate and fail to notice them, whose fault is it?
It’s like the man who comes into a restaurant where they serve him the best—a big menu of all delicacies they give him—and he leans back and says, “Feh! It's a rotten menu they have here.” Whose fault is it that he has ruined his appetite; he maybe ruined his health, his teeth, and he’s not capable of appreciating what they’re serving him. And therefore, whatever you think, the truth is that there’s nothing in the world more conspicuous than this demonstration that Hakadosh Baruch Hu wishes to do kindness to mankind!
Avraham’s Important Conclusion
And Avraham concluded that if this is the most prominent thing we can see of Hashem— if Hakadosh Baruch Hu shows nothing of Himself except strawberries and blueberries and gooseberries and cherries and oranges and apples and peaches and thousands of other chassodim, so that demonstrates that this is what Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants you to know about Him.
Some people, I know, want to know more about Hashem; they want to know secrets. But it won't help us to know more about Him because we're not capable of understanding more. Only this one fact, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is intent on giving everyone the things that make him happy, that we are capable of understanding. And that fact is the most important for us to know: You satiate every living thing with what he desires. You give him his desires! That's what Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants us to know about Him more than anything else; that He’s a chofetz chessed, that He desires to do kindliness.
Choosing a Monument
And when Avraham Avinu came to this conclusion, so he made a revolutionary decision—in order to demonstrate the chessed Hashem, zecher l’chasdei haMakom, Avraham wanted to set up a monument in honor of the kindliness of Hashem.
Now, how do you set up a monument? Suppose there was a general on horseback who led his soldiers in a charge that conquered the enemy. And now you want to build a monument to honor him. So you won’t make a bronze statue of him, let’s say, sitting behind a desk with a typewriter—even if he does that too once in a while, that’s not what the statue will be. If you want to memorialize his greatness you’ll put him on a horse, galloping into battle. That’s the pose in which he was when he accomplished his great feat.
And so Avraham said, “I’m going to make a monument of what Hashem does most in this world.” And he planted an orchard in which all beautiful and luscious fruits grew. Avraham spent time on it. Avraham planted a garden (Bereishis 21:33). An orchard doesn’t fall from the sky; it doesn’t grow by itself. Avraham gave part of his life, a lot of time and attention, to develop that orchard.
A Benison of Kindliness
And then he invited people into his garden, that famous garden of delights, and they lay on the grass under a tree to relax. Avraham had studied already the chessed of a tree and he understood that Hashem intended a tree as a shady blessing. On hot days especially, a shady tree is a benison of kindliness. And so Avraham imitated what he saw, the chessed Hashem he saw in nature and he said, “Sit down and lean against the trunk and relax in the shade of the tree” (ibid. 18:4).
And as they reclined there there was grass too. The grass is a green carpet, with a deep pile; it’s a pleasure to lie on grass. That's what it’s for! Grass is not only for goats. That’s a good thing too—if goats eat grass they can turn it into milk and butter and cream and cheese, it's also good; it’s also chessed Hashem. But humans can also use grass in other ways—they can recline on the green carpet.
And so Avraham’s guests rested there and looked up at the beautiful blue sky—like you're looking in a fancy dining room at an expensive ceiling—and as they’re enjoying the view Avraham was plucking delicious fruit for them and serving them. And he slaughtered oxen for them and also gave them the best wines.
The Garden of this World
And after they had had their fill and they got up to proceed on their journey so they said to Avraham, “We must thank you our host for all that you bestowed upon us.”
“But I’m not the host.”
“What?! Who’s the host?”
So Avraham said, “There’s a Master of this great banquet hall. The One Who made a blue ceiling for you and He hung the great light that shines down on you and warms you. And He is the One Who gave us these trees and this carpet. Only that I looked at what He did in the world and I’m just emulating Him. So instead of thanking me, thank Him.”
And that was Avraham’s accomplishment; that's what he wanted from his orchard. It was a demonstration. Of what? It was a demonstration of the kindness of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That was
