In Mesichta Kiddushin (32b) an episode that took place at a certain wedding is related: It happened that three Chachomim were present at the wedding feast of the son of Rabban Gamliel. The Nasi, Rabban Gamliel, was marrying off his son, and many of the great Tanaim, the Chachmei Hamishna, were there to participate in the simcha.
And when the festivities began Rabban Gamliel was standing over the Chachomim, and he was pouring wine into their cups. He was serving them. But when he handed a cup of wine to Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Eliezer refused to take it. He didn’t feel it right that the Nasi should serve him. But when Rabban Gamliel poured for Rabbi Yehoshua, so unlike his friend Rabbi Eliezer, he accepted.
So Rabbi Eliezer said to Rabbi Yehoshua, “What is this Yehoshua?! We should sit and Rabban Gamliel should stand and serve us?” After all, Rabban Gamliel was the leader of the whole Am Yisroel. And so Rabbi Eliezer was surprised at his chaver: “Yehoshua! Are you going to let the head of the Am Yisroel, the chief of the Chachmei HaTorah, stand over you and serve you?”
So Rabbi Yehoshua answered, “Why are you surprised? We find an even greater man who served his guests. Avraham was the greatest man in his generation, and it’s written about him that, ‘he was standing over his guests under the tree, serving them as they reclined and ate’ (ibid. 18:8). So if Avraham Avinu could stand and serve his guests, then why shouldn’t Rabban Gamliel stand and pour into our cups?”
Rabban Gamliel and Avraham
Now, the truth is that Rabbi Eliezer had a very good point. Was it right for Rabban Gamliel to demean himself like that? He had servants, waiters, who could have done it just fine. You say Avraham did it? So it’s a question on Avraham too. Is it proper for a person who is superior, to be servile and make himself lowly before ordinary strangers?
Avraham’s guests after all weren’t, in his eyes, any virtuous people. Yes, we know they were malachim but they appeared to Avraham like ordinary Arab nomads. And he went all out for them!
And he didn’t do it because he happened to see some poor wanderer and so he had no choice, like when a meshulach catches you in a corner and makes a holdup. No! Avraham went looking for them. Everybody knows the story. When the day was hot, Avraham sat at the door of his tent; and his eyes were peeled, looking for wayfarers whom he could take in and feed (Bereishis 18:1).
Grabbing Customers
And when he saw people passing by, he ran towards them to haul them in. If you ever went shopping in the olden days on the East Side to buy a suit, so as you were walking into one store, the man next door ran to catch you. “Come to my store!” That’s what they used to do. Maybe they still do it. “Come into my store. Have I got a deal for you!” So Avraham when he saw travelers he ran to meet them, to convince them to come into his tent.
But not only convince them; he fell down on his face and he begged them, “please don’t go away from your servant!” Because that was Avraham’s business! That was his store, to take people in off the road and feed them. And in case they were reluctant, so he cajoled them. “Only for a moment. Just a little bit of water take! Sit down under my tree for a little while. Take a little rest, then you keep on going if you want.”
A Tent of Chessed
And when they consented to stop in for a little while, so he went into action. Not his servants; he himself! He ran to the cattle and began slaughtering cattle. Now, to slaughter a big ox for a few guests means that the meat is going to go lost. There was no refrigeration in those days.
And Sarah got busy baking too. Now Sarah, like Avraham, had very many servants; she had hundreds of female servants, but she wanted to do it with her own two hands. It’s like the woman who has plenty of kosher bakeries to buy challah, but she wants to bake for Shabbos herself. She bakes her Shabbos challos herself. So this great couple got busy now getting their own hands dirty. And all because these random visitors consented to drop in for a minute.
That’s a picture of Avraham’s household. And he did that always; not just this one time. These pessukim in the beginning of our parsha are a picture of Avraham’s daily activities. That’s a guideline of understanding Torah; like it states in the Gemara in Yoma, you learn what’s not explained from that which is explained. It’s not explained in the Torah what Avraham did every day. And so in one place where it does explain, that explains everything. He always did that. That’s what he did to everybody.
Too Much Chessed?
That’s poshut pshat in the Chumash, that Avraham went all out to do chessed all the time. And that’s something that has to be explained. Avraham Avinu, after all, had very many things to do. He had to make himself busy doing chessed for nobodies? He had to spend his life in servile acts of gemillas chassodim, lowering himself in front of every Tom, Dick and Harry?
Avraham wasn’t a liberal faker who just wants to assuage his guilt for being wealthier than others by helping the underprivileged—for that you can just make a token donation or write an editorial for the New York Times knocking the wealthy. That’s enough to clear the conscience of a liberal. But that wasn’t Avraham Avinu.
And so we have to understand the principle, the motive behind what Avraham did. We accept it because we learned it when we were children, but actually it’s not a simple matter.
The Punchline at the Chasunah
So we go back to Rabban Gamliel’s chasunah and we look at the end of the beraisa, the punchline of the story. Because there was a third chacham sitting there, Rabbi Tzaddok, who had been silent until now. And when he saw that Rabbi Yehoshua was praising Avraham Avinu for standing over his guests and feeding them, so he spoke up and he said, “How long will you neglect the honor of the Almighty, and you’re busy with giving honor to human beings?”
You’re talking about the honor of Avraham, his greatness that he stood over his guests, and that Rabban Gamliel is imitating him. But there’s a much more important subject. Why don’t you mention Hakadosh Baruch Hu?! Hakadosh Baruch Hu causes winds to blow and He transports clouds, and from them He brings down rain, and He causes the earth to sprout with vegetation, and He sets a table before everyone in the world. For us He does all of that and much more! So why shouldn’t Rabban Gamliel stand over us and serve us too?
At His Table
It means that in this world, everyone is seated at the table of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu is serving him. And so why, Rabbi Yehoshua, do you have to go to Avraham Avinu for a precedent? You should go to Hakadosh Baruch Hu Himself. He was the first One, the first model of doing chessed.
Rabbi Tzadok was pointing out that it’s not really Avraham that Rabban Gamliel was imitating. He was imitating Someone even greater than Avraham; he was imitating the Borei, the Creator of the World. And so if you want to defend Rabban Gamliel for standing over us and pouring wine for us, there you have it.
And we’ll see now that this is the answer to the puzzling behavior of Avraham. Because it’s not a question of his dignity anymore. Certainly a man shouldn’t lower himself just for the sake of nobodies. But when you’re doing it because you want to emulate your Creator, so you're not doing it just for them—you’re doing it for Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Avraham did it for a very great and sublime purpose. He did it because Hakadosh Baruch Hu did it! He saw a revelation from Hashem and was living according to what he saw.
Conclusion Number One
First of all, he discovered that this world didn't happen by accident. That’s out of the question. Because when he studied the seeds and the plants and the sun and the clouds and the trees and the processes of the bodies and a thousand other things, the first conclusion that Avraham Avinu reached was that this is a purposeful world; that there is a Creator with an infinite intelligence Who is very much interested in His creations.
Whatever you hear in this place or whatever you read in a big science book is nothing compared to what Avraham Avinu discovered in the early years of his life—he saw a thousand times more than we see now. And that's when he was a child. As an adult he saw hundreds of thousand times as much as we see.
And therefore, it became a strong conviction, an overwhelming and pressing awareness, that there is a Great Intelligence here, an Infinite Intelligence, that created the world.
Now that study of Avraham’s, the Awareness of the Creator by means of His creations, is something that was spoken about here once and the subject won't be mentioned any further tonight. Because Avraham went a step beyond that and this step is even more important.
The Higher Step
Because when Avraham picked up an apple and looked at it he didn’t just see Intelligence and Wisdom. He saw also how beautiful it was. It's like a glowing painting. It looks like water flowing, but it’s painted in red. Like the water is flowing out of the sides of the apple, but it's in red. It even has air dots in it, all over. Air dots, like in flowing water. It looks so beautiful, you just want to bite into it.
Now, Avraham asked himself, “What was the purpose of the Creator in making apples so beautiful? Had he made apples with the same color as potatoes, people also would eat them. What can you do if you have nothing better?”
Now, that’s a klutz kasheh that most people would ignore, “it just happens that way”. That’s how the klutz thinks. But Avraham Avinu had a better head and so he pursued the subject. Why is it that the meat of the watermelon has a beautiful red color? And why do oranges have to become golden yellow? Why can't they remain colorless?
And Avraham understood when he studied the fruits that the purpose of Hakadosh Baruch Hu was chessed, kindliness, so that people should enjoy it more. Because anything that looks beautiful is more enjoyable to eat. What’s the purpose? To make us happy.
A Well-Stocked World
Avraham noticed also that besides colors there were also fragrances, a variety of pleasant fragrances, connected with foods. And of course tastes. Thousands of various tastes! All fruits could have had one taste. Apples and cherries and watermelons and peaches could have all had one taste. But each one has a different taste, each one intended to make us happy; each one a different kind of happiness.
And so Avraham saw that this world was stocked with so many things that were planned for pleasure. He didn't see ten or twenty such phenomena. He noticed hundreds of thousands of them. And each and every one was intended as chessed, as kindness to us.
Now that's my poor little mind trying to retrace the footsteps of Avraham Avinu—one little footstep of a very great man. I’m sure it was much much more, but at least we should get into our little heads a little bit of what that great man had in his head. And there’s no question that Avraham’s head was filled with this ideal of Hashem’s kindliness in the world.
