In the Merit of Mamreh:
Sefer Ohev Yisroel quotes Rav Moshe of Pshevorsk zy”a as saying that this pasuk teaches us the great humility of Avrohom Avinu. He was so humble that he thought that he was unworthy of having the Shechinah rest in his tent. He believed that the Shechinah was there in the merit of the tzadik, Mamreh, who served Him devotedly.
Accordingly, the pasuk is saying: “Vayeirah ailav” – and it appeared to him. It seemed to Avrohom that the following was true: “In the fields of Mamreh” – that He lived in the fields of Mamreh, meaning that Hashem’s presence was there in the merit of Mamreh, and not because of him, as he believed that Mamreh was on a higher level than he was.
The pasuk continues: “And he sat at the door of the tent.” He thought that he was only “at the door” and was not yet worthy of entering Hashem’s abode.
Rav Moshe said that this is the way tzadikim live. They spend their lives serving Hashem but still believe that they have yet to reach the lofty level of being worthy to enter His house.
He Needed Guests:
Rashi notes that the word “yoshev” is spelled as “yashav”, without a vav. The Sifsei Chochomim explains that the word is “chasar” (missing a letter).
Sefer Chosen Yeshaya (written by the Rov of Edelin zy”a, a son-in-law of Rav Shayala of Kerestir zy”a) writes that Avrohom Avinu was used to having many guests. Now that he had no guests, he felt like he was missing something. This is hinted to by the missing letter.
Avrohom Ran to do it Himself:
The Ramban asks why Avrohom ran. He answers that he did so out of his great desire to do this mitzvah.
Avrohom was an old, sick man. He had many servants who he could have asked to do it. Still and all, he ran himself to the tent to tell Sarah to make bread. He then ran to the cattle to choose a fine cow to feed his guests.
He didn’t ask any of his servants to do it because of his enthusiasm for welcoming guests and will to do it on his own.
The Reward for Hachnasas Orchim:
Rabenu Bechaya (Sefer Kad Hakemach, Erech Orchim) writes that we can learn from this pasuk that the reward one receives in this world for welcoming guests is children. Anyone who does this mitzvah will be blessed with offspring.
We see that Avrohom was physically unable to bear children but after he did this mitzvah, he was granted a sin. This is hinted to from the fact that the pasuk says that he was in “ailonei Mamreh”. The word “ailoni” has the root of “ilan” (a tree), which symbolizes that although Avrohom was old and “dried up”, Hashem transformed him back into a vibrant tree that is capable of bearing fruit.
Sarah’s Gemilus Chasadim:
The Chasam Sofer explains this pasuk by citing the words of Chazal (Tana D’Bei Eliyahu 1) that giving tzedakah lengthens a person’s life.
Chazal also say that women are stingy with guests. This leads us to ask as follows: It can be said that Avrohom merited a long life in the zechus of his tzedakah and chesed that he did with his guests, but how did Sarah merit to have a long life if she is described as being stingy with guests?
The pasuk answers this question by saying that “Sarah stopped having the ways of women.” She was not like other women who are stingy with guests, which explains how she lived so long.
The Hachnasas Orchim of Villagers:
A resident of a small village once asked Rav Moshe Tzvi of Savrin zy”a why it is that when a guest comes to his village, everyone runs to greet him with a smile and to provide him with food, drink and lodging, whereas when one of them goes to a big city, he isn’t given any of those things.
The Rebbe answered, “Don’t be upset about this. This is simply the way of the world. It has always been this way. The proof of that is that the Heavens are a ‘big city’ and earth is a small village in comparison.
“In the time of Avrohom Avinu, the malachim came down from the ‘big city’ of Shomayim down to the ‘small town’ of earth. Avrohom Avinu, a resident of the small village, welcomed them into his home and fed them well. After Kabalas Hatorah, Moshe Rabenu, a resident of the small village, went up to the big city of Shomayim and was a guest there for 40 days, and he ate no bread and drank no water because they didn’t give him any.”
Hashem Provides Us With Guests:
After the angels told Avrohom that he would have a son, the pasuk says (18:11): “And the men got up and they looked upon Sodom.” The Zohar Hakadosh (104A) states: “Rav Elazar said: Come and see how Hashem acts kindly to all creation, and all the more so with those who go in His ways. Even in times when He wants to judge the world, He grants those whom He loves the merit of first doing mitzvos to protect the world and save it in that merit before bringing about the decree.”
The Zohar explains that when Hashem loves a person, He sends him a gift. What is that gift? He sends him a poor man to be kind with as a means of earning merits. When the person does chesed with the poor man, Hashem places a “string of chesed” upon him that He attaches to his head as a sign that when judgment comes to the world, the damaging forces will keep away from him.
An example of this is that when Hashem wanted to send down His judgment upon Sodom, He first sent a zechus to Avrohom, which served to save his nephew, Lot. Therefore, it says that Avrohom “remembered Avrohom” and saved Lot from the inferno. It does not say that He remembered Lot, as Lot was only saved in the merit of Avrohom’s kindness towards the three angels.
The Zohar concludes by saying, “A person is given the merit of doing an act of tzedakah in times when the world is being judged so that he can be saved from the judgment, as is stated (Mishlei 10:2): ‘Tzedakah saves from death.’”
Avoiding Stinginess:
Chazal say (Bava Metziah 87A) that Avrohom said to bring “kemach” (regular flour) but Sarah said to give “soles” (fine flour). They learn from this that women are stingy with guests. This is hard ot understand, as “soles” is more expensive than “kemach”. If so, how do we see from this interaction that women are more stingy?
The Baal Shem Tov zy”a (cited in Keser Shem Tov, Chelek 2, Ois 414) explains with a moshol of a lion who called his children and said, “You should know that we are the strongest animals in the world and all other animals fear us.”
One day, the young lions, who believed themselves to be the fiercest animals in the world as their father had told them, came across an empty ruins of an old palace. They went inside and saw many paintings on the wall. One of the paintings was a picture of Shimshon Hagibor killing a lion and ripping it apart. When they saw this, they ran for their lives.
They hurried back to their father and said, “You told us that we are the mightiest creatures in the world but we saw a picture of a man ripping one of us apart. How could this be?”
Their father replied, “On the contrary, you can see our strength from this picture. This only happened once in history. There was only one man who ever lived who could defeat a lion, which is why this unusual event was painted and hung on the wall!”
Accordingly, the pasuk is recording this conversation because it was an unnatural event. In this rare incident, Sarah said that they should give something better to the guests than what Avrohom suggested, and this was so unusual that it was recorded in the Torah. This is proof that, in most cases, women are more stingy than men.
Forgiving Sins of Those Who Overlook Faults of Others:
Sefer Tiferes Shlomo asks two questions on this verse. Firstly, it does not say who was crying out in Sodom and Amorah. Secondly, why does it reiterate that their sins were “very heavy”?
He answers that, in addition to hurting outsiders, the people of Sodom acted cruelly to each other as well and even murdered each other. Thus, they themselves cried out when they were harmed by their fellow residents of Sodom.
The pasuk (Micha 7:18) says that Hashem “carries sins and overlooks transgression.” The Tiferes Shlomo explains this to mean that Hashem forgives a person of his sins if that person overlooks the transgressions of others and treats his fellow man kindly. However, if friends do not treat each other well, then the “heaviness” of their sins are, so to speak, too much for Hashem to carry, and they are punished for all their aveiros. This is what the pasuk is referring to when it says that the sins of Sodom were “very heavy”.
He uses this concept to explain Hashem’s words to Kayin (Bereishis 4:7): “If you are good, you will be forgiven.” Hashem was saying that if he is good to others, he will have sins forgiven. For this reason, Kayin cried (ibid:13), “My sin is too great to carry.” Since he killed his brother, he felt that his sin was too heavy and could not be forgiven.
He also uses this idea to explain the verse (ibid 2:8): “It is not good for man to be alone. I will make him an eizer k’negdo (helpmate).” It is not good for a man to live in solitude because he will have no way of being forgiven for his sins. Therefore, he needs a friend to be kind to and to tolerate, even if he embarrasses him, which will be a source of atonement for him.
Embarrassment Atones:
In this vein, the Tomer Devorah (Perek 2) writes: “What is the best form of suffering one can have in this world? The type that does not disturb him from serving Hashem. The most beloved form of this is when one is embarrassed by his friend but does not respond. This does not make one sick and does not sap his strength. It does not cause him a lack of food or clothing, children, or good life. Therefore, one should desire this.
“One should say: Why should I fast or strike myself or afflict my body, which takes away my strength and ability to serve Hashem? It is better to suffer embarrassment, which does not remove any of my strength.
“Therefore, when one is shamed in public, he should rejoice.”
We see from his words that if one would realize how embarrassment can purify the soul, he would run after it and pay a fortune to get it in order to atone for his sins.
Welcoming Guests in Sodom:
Rav Dov Berish of Alesk zt”l (a son of the Magid of Skal, Rav Shlomo Latzker zt”l, and a devoted student of the Magid of Chernobyl zy”a, as well as the rebbi of the Sar Shalom of Belz zy”a) once arrived late at night at a certain city along with his attendants. The attendants began knocking on doors, in search of a place to spend the night but no one was willing to let them into their home, with each homeowner giving a different excuse.
After a full hour of wandering around in the streets with nowhere to go, Rav Berish went over to one of the windows, knocked on it firmly and called out, “R’ Lot! R’ Lot!”
The homeowner peaked out of his window and said, “Who are you looking for?”
R’ Berish replied, “We are looking for R’ Lot!”
The man said, “There is no one in this city with that name.”
R’ Bersih responded, “That’s not possible. Everyone knows that there was a big machnis orech in Sodom named Lot. Since this city is just like Sodom in the sense that no one invites guests, can you at least show me where Lot lives so that we will have a place to spend the night?”
Yeshuos Through Stories of Tzadikim:
My grandfather, Rav Tzvi Hirsch of Kretchnif zy”a (Gilyon Kol Emunah 5776), explained by citing the pasuk in Tehillim (106:2): “Who can say (yemalel) the mighty deeds of Hashem? Who can make heard all His praise (tehilaso)?” The Rebbe Rav Zushe zy”a (quoted in Teshuos Chen, Parshas Vayigash) explains that the word “yemalel” literally means to “grind up” (as in Beitzah 12B; “Hamolel melilos”, which is referring to grinding wheat by hand). Thus, the pasuk is saying that if one wants to grind up and annul Hashem’s “mighty deeds” – meaning that he desires to cancel harsh decrees – he should “make heard His praise (tehilaso)”, which he understands to mean to complete the entire Sefer Tehillim.
Put simply, one can annul harsh judgments by reciting the entirety of Tehillim.
The Kretchnifer Rebbe explains the pasuk somewhat differently. He says that when harsh decrees are issued against Klal Yisroel, tzadikim have a custom of relating stories of righteous men from the past who experienced similar difficult times and managed to sweeten the harsh circumstances until the troubles were transformed into manifestations of Hashem’s kindness and mercy.
Accordingly, the pasuk can be understood to be saying that by “hearing Hashem’s praise”, i.e., by relating stories of Hashem’s salvations sent to tzadikim of the past, one can re-arouse these zechusim and “grind up” harsh decrees.
With this in mind, he explains the pasuk in this week’s Parshah to mean that one can grind up and annul (milel) harsh decrees through “Avrohom”, i.e., by bringing down the middah of Divine chesed that is represented by Avrohom.
The pasuk continues to say that one can also do this by relating the story of how Sarah miraculously had a baby in her old age. Although it was physically impossible for this to happen, Hashem’s midas hachesed overrode nature and created this miracle. And through relating stories like this, we can annul difficult judgments in our own times.
The Holiness of Har Hamoriah:
The Divrei Chaim of Sanz zy”a asks: There are two historic mountains – Har Sinai, upon which we received the Torah, and Har Hamoriah, upon which the Akeidas Yitzchok occurred. Why was Har Hamoriah chosen to be place for the Bais Hamikdosh to be built, rather than Har Sinai?
He answers: A place where a Yid stuck out his neck to be slaughtered in sanctification of Hashem’s name is even holier than the place where Hashem revealed Himself to the entire nation and gave us the Torah.
The Benefit of Doing Mitzvos in the Morning:
The Divrei Yisroel (Parshas Tzav) quotes his grandfather, the Rebbe of Zhvolin zy”a, as asking why Avrohom had to get up early to chop wood before he left on his journey. Wouldn’t it have been easier to cut down the trees and take them along with him, and then chop them up in the place of the akeidah?
He answers that Avrohom was afraid that the yeitzer hara would get involved and try to stop him from fulfilling Hashem’s command, as it ultimately did (see Tanchuma, Vayeirah 22). Therefore, he chopped up the wood early in the morning so that the yeitzer hara would have less of a chance to obstruct him when he got to the site of the akeidah.
Getting up Early:
Many Sefarim Hakedoshim speak about the great benefit of waking up early to serve Hashem and say that this improves one’s entire day. Students of the Baal Shem Tov zy”a use this concept to explain the words of Chazal (Sanhedrin 74A): “If someone comes to kill you, get there early and kill him.” They understand this to be referring to the yeitzer hara, with Chazal saying that one should get up early to defeat him, as the best way to beat the yeitzer hara is by rising from bed early in the morning. This is because when one rises like a lion to serve Hashem, the yeitzer hara has no power over him for the duration of the day.
This is hinted to from the pasuk that says that Avrohom got up early in the morning and saddled his donkey (chamoro). This can be understood to mean that because he got up early, he was able to conquer his “chumrius” (his earthly desires).
Tzadikim of past generations used every minute of the early morning hours to serve Hashem. Sefer Abir Haroim relates that he was told by the chasid R’ Moshe Dod’l of Sochatchov that he once had the privilege of serving as the attendant of the Avnei Nezer zy”a. Early one morning, the Avnei Nezer told him, “Moshe Dod’l hurry and bring me water. Please do it as fast as you can because at this time, the air is free of sins and it is a good time to learn. Please do not interrupt me and if anyone comes to see me, even if he has ‘a golden head’ don’t let him in right now!”
One Hour in the Morning is More Valuable Than Several Hours in the Afternoon:
The Yaabetz writes (Hanhagos Haboker 1): “As soon as you wake up from your sleep, strengthen your heart over your desires like a lion to get up at the very least half an hour before daybreak so as to connect the day and the night through Torah and tefillah. Instill in your heart the knowledge an hour before daybreak is more valuable than several hours during the rest of the day. When one accustoms himself to doing this, after four or five times it will not be difficult.”
A String of Chesed:
The Yaabetz adds that when one learns at night, a string of Divine chesed surrounds him all day and he is called “a servant of Hashem”. The Shechinah is with him and he will be rewarded with Olam Haba on the highest level. All damaging forces will be afraid of him and harsh judgments will not affect him.
Learning from the Yeitzer Hara to Rise Early:
