If
you open to the beginning of a chumash
with Rashi, you’ll see the first comment that Rashi offers is one
he learned from his father. In this way he pays the highest honor he
can to his greatest teacher. In coming to this parshah, I'd like to share with you a drashah (one of few to have been preserved given the largely extemporaneous way he tended to deliver sermons) about the importance of hospitality, of welcoming, taken from the
teachings of my mentor, Rabbi Meier Schimmel, zichrono
livrachah. This comes from the early 1960's but applies just as much to synagogue life today as it did then.
Today, as we think about "welcoming" and synagogues - we must consider the experience of him or her who comes for the first time. Or who longs for a Jewish connection but never comes into the synagogue at all. - Rabbi Schimmel, teaching about Abraham, teaches us a lesson about these people:
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Vayera
elav Adoshem b’Elonei Mamre.
“And the Lord
appeared unto him, Abraham, in the Grove of Mamre.” As he was
sitting at the entrance of his tent, in the heat of the day we see a
picture of mercy – courtesy – brotherly love and hospitality.
Our Father Abraham.
With Abraham we see the beginning of higher
spiritual life in humanity. He planted an eshel
in B’er Sheva. What is the meaning of eshel?
Some interpreted eshel
as an inn – others as a park. But the three letters in eshel
stand for three meanings:
Alef
for achilo
– eating,
Shin for
sh’teyoh
–drinking,
Lamed
for linon
– lodging.
He
built this eshel
let us think of it as a sort of pavilion – open on all sides so
that from whichever direction a traveler might come – the open door
invited him to enter and rest.
Abraham
recognized no distinction of class or creed, race or nationality.
All were welcome – and were greeted, baruch
habo – “blessed
and welcome are you.” He put his guests at ease, and made them
feel that in accepting his hospitality, they were honoring him.
The
Torah lays stress upon consideration for the stranger – that sense
of loneliness, of being unwanted, stirs Jewish compassion, to open
the doors of our heart. So we must take the homeless to our homes
and the stranger to our heart.
Returning
to the opening verse of our sidro
– what was the 99 year old Abraham doing at the door of his tent in
the heat of the day?
He
is looking for strangers –
Despite
the heat and his physical weakness, Rashi tells us it was the third
day after his circumcision. He lifted up his eyes and saw three
persons approaching. He runs to meet them – and entreats them –
do not pass by – come into my dwelling – wash your tired feet and
rest in the shade of the trees until I can provide you with food and
drink.
He
rejoices when they accept his invitation. He hastens into the tent
of his wife Sara – asking for the best food to be prepared. He
serves the food himself urging them to take their fill. Blessing
them as they leave. This was Abraham our Forefather.
Can
you visualize this act of love? What a wonderful feeling and
satisfaction Abraham must have had –
This
is our heritage - in his footsteps we should walk.
In
our daily prayers we say:
Elu
d’varim sh’adam ochel perotehem b’olam hazeh, v’hakeren
kayemet b’olam habah.
“These
are the things – the fruits of which a man enjoys in this world –
while the stock remains for him, for the world to come: honor father
and mother, the practice of charity, timely attendance at the house
of worship, and to bring in orchim
- haknasat orchim.
The
good deed, mitzvah,
is to take care of an oreach.
Oreach
means stranger – and it is no surprise that the term also refers to
a poor man – when one is lost and alone – even if he has money
and possessions – he is poor. Therefore we must open our
door and above
all our heart
to welcome him with baruch
habo – “welcome
is he who cometh.”
Yet
this is difficult to do. It is difficult to be a stranger, and it is
also frequently difficult to welcome the stranger, it forces us
outside of ourselves, yet this is what Abraham sets for us as an
example, for what God would have us do.
Let
us remember – when an oreach,
a stranger – whoever he may be – enters our synagogue – we must
greet him with the warmth of our heart – to mean it fully, baruch
habo,
“welcome are you.” Sholom
aleychem, “peace be
unto thee.”
Let
us also recognize that the oreach,
need not be a literal stranger, he or she could be a long time member
but someone who for whatever reason feels distanced from the
community. In that case we must find the ways to say “welcome
back,”
and “share in this peace which is yours,
too.” Similarly the oreach
could be someone who is quite active, but whose good deeds and good
efforts have gone unrecognized, unacknowledged, unrewarded. In that
case, too, we must learn the proper ways to express the sense of
honor we feel at having such a person in our midst and as a part of
our community.
Therefore,
members of this holy congregation, consider, how well will we be able
to rest and find peace – when we know we gave rest and peace to
others – as it is written,
V’ahavtem
et hager, “Love ye
then the stranger,” ki
gerim hayitem beretz Mitzraim,
“for you have been strangers in the Land of Egypt.” And as you
would like to be treated – so treat thy fellow man. Let me wish
you all a Shabbat Shalom!
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