[Avodah] Who Could Avraham Expect?

[Prof. L. Levine]

Bereishis 18.1

And God appeared to him beneath the trees of Mamre, as he was sitting before the door of histent in the heat of the day.

Who could Avraham expect to come?  Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch tells us in part of his commentary on this pasuk that is below.

Our Sages teach us that Avraham’s sole concern — and this is
what prompted him to sit before his door in the heat of the day —
was that now, following his circumcision, people might avoid him: (Bereshis Rabbah 48:9). Our Sages teach us this so that, from Avraham’s example, we should learn that “Providing hospitality to guests is greater than standing before the Divine Presence” (Shabbos 127a). And who were the guests Avraham was expecting? Uncircumcised idolaters! (He could have expected no others.) [Emphasis added by me.]For their sake he left God’s Presence; he ran to greet them, to fulfill the duty of acting with
lovingkindness toward one’s fellow man.

Note the manner in which he fulfills this duty. Avraham here
pursues charity and kindness more eagerly than people pursue monetary
gain! He seizes the opportunity, as the first circumcised Jew, to
show kindness to his fellow man. He involves his wife and his son,
indeed, his entire household, in the fulfillment of the mitzvah. He has
everything freshly prepared — as though he had no other refreshments
at home to offer three wayfarers. This is the reception that was given
to the first guests to present themselves to the first nimol.

The foregoing demonstrates Avraham’s joy and relief at the dismissal
of his fear that he would be isolated from his fellow men. Our
Sages Z"L are the ones who discerned this fear. Their insight reached
into the depths of his heart.

This section is juxtaposed to the section on milah. The people of
Avraham, isolated by circumcision, are to become the most humane of
men. In essence they are a contrast to the rest of world; nevertheless,
they are to be ready at all times to realize every universal human
value. Toward this end they became a people that dwells apart — to
foster within themselves this pure humanity. As the herald of this
spirit, Avraham became an Av and a wing of hamon goyim, a spiritual
father and a force of moral uplift for a multitude of nations.
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Does not the above tell us how we should relate to and deal with non-religious Jews and with non-Jews. Should not politeness and menschlichkeit be characteristic of how we deal with ​all​ people? Yet, I have heard all too often stories of how supposedly frum people have treated non-religious Jews or gentiles as, at best, second-class people.

Professor Yitzchok Levine


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