Jewish academic and Hebrew scholar Irene Lancaster reflects on hospitality and compassion through the lens of Abraham’s welcome to strangers and Elisha’s care for a grieving mother.
‘Vayera’ (‘And G-d appeared …’ Genesis 18-22:24) is the fourth Torah portion in Genesis. It is filled with foundational narratives of divine revelation, radical hospitality, moral argument and supreme testing.
The key themes are first of all, Abraham’s hospitality. Although G-d ‘appears to Abraham in the heat of the day by the oaks of Mamre (Genesis 18:1),’ Abraham interrupts his direct communion with G-d to run and welcome three weary strangers (v 2).
The second theme is Abraham’s willingness to argue with G-d. When G-d shares with Abraham that He intends to destroy the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham steps forward. ‘Will the Judge of the earth not do Justice (Genesis 18:25)?’
Jewish commentators from Rashi (1040-1105) onwards highlight that Judaism encourages moral dialogue and pleading for human life, even on behalf of notoriously wicked cities.
The third theme is the birth of Isaac and Hagar’s exile. Abraham’s wife gives birth to Isaac in very old age (Genesis 21:2 ff), fulfilling the covenant promise, which eventually leads to the painful dispatching of Sarah’s handmaiden and her son Ishmael into the desert (Genesis 21:14).
Commentators explore the emotional and ethical tension of these family dynamics, together with G-d’s attentiveness to Ishmael in his distress (21:17 ff).
The fourth theme is the Akeda story (the Binding of Isaac: Genesis 22). The climax of the Sedra is G-d commanding Abraham to offer his much-beloved son, Isaac, as an offering on Mount Moriah.
Commentators wrestle deeply with the theological implications - why Abraham obeyed; the redefining of human sacrifice; and the enduring test of absolute faith.
Let’s circle back to the beginning: why does G-d appear to Abraham in Genesis 18:1?
According to Rashi, G-d was ‘visiting the sick’ after Abraham’s circumcision in old age!
Then the visitors arrive with the news that Sarah will have a child in very old age. After that, Abraham has his big conversation with G-d about justice and the punishment of the people of Sodom.
Whatever the reasons, the fact is that G-d appears to Abraham, but Abraham interrupts G-d in order to offer hospitality ‘in the heat of the day’ to the three guests, who turn out to be angels!
Was G-d testing Abraham by sending him the guests just at that very moment in the hope that Abraham will understand that human need overcomes spiritual heights? If that is the case, it is a very bold step in the history of human religious development.
Only at Genesis 18:17 does Abraham return to his conversation with G-d. G-d even asks Himself: ‘Shall I hide from Abraham what I’m doing? And, what is more, Abraham is surely to become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed through him, for I am very close to him (v 19).’
Why is this the case? Abraham is to become both great and blessed, because the children of Israel are compassionate, retiring and benevolent. The practice of charity is particularly important, according to Rambam (Maimonides 1135-1204), because it is the characteristic of the true descendant of Abraham.
There is a link with hospitality, unexpected childbirth and even resurrection of the dead in the accompanying Haftorah for this Sedra.
In II Kings 4:8 ff, the prophet Elisha travels to Shunem, near present-day Afula in the Haifa district of Israel.
‘A prominent woman … insisted that he should break bread’. This became a habit with Elisha, so she told her husband that they should ‘make a small walled attic and put in it a bed, table, chair and lamp, so that whenever he visits us he can turn in there.’
Elisha asks what he can do to repay her hospitality and she says that she doesn’t have a child. Elisha blesses her with a son.
This little boy dies suddenly and Elisha revives him by placing himself on the lifeless body.
This miracle teaches us that we should try our utmost to breathe life into everything we do. We must try our hardest, just as Elisha did, and Abraham before him. We shouldn’t just wait for others or give up at the first hurdle.
Whether we are a patriarch or a prophet, or even an ordinary citizen, no small task is too insignificant for us. And sometimes, like Abraham and Elisha, we have to give up our important appointments to attend to the seemingly less important or hopeless human cases.
