29 Oct Dvar Torah with Rabbi Josh – In the Parsha | Opening Up
ב״ה
A guest remembers all his days the host who shows him kindness…
~ Homer, Odyssey [Book 15, line 54]
In the Parsha, we meet Avraham sitting at the edge of his tent and waiting for guests to arrive. We become aware of the complexity of the idea of hachnassat orchim/welcoming guests. The Talmud [b. Shabbat 127b] teaches that “hachnassat orchim is greater than the welcoming of the Divine Presence.” The ability to truly welcome the other into our private spaces and to give the outsider a place in our home finds its roots in the legendary tent of Avraham and Sarah, which was open on all four sides, with entranceways in place of walls. Instead of barriers, we find an invitation for guests to come in. At its core, hachnassat orchim represents the possibility of extending our idea of home to outsiders.
We might think that hachnassat orchim could in some way threaten our concept of home, perhaps disturbing its familiar order and ways. However, through the example of Avraham and Sarah we learn the opposite: the welcoming of guests instead enriches and expands the concept of home and family. The Angels they welcome in bear the happy news that a child will be born to them and their family will grow. In order for the concept of family and home to avoid becoming static and stagnant, this mitzvah of hachnassat orchim signals renewal and excitement. It teaches us how to navigate the tension between the crucial privacy, protection, and boundaries that define “home” and the importance of openness and connection to the other. This tension quite obviously extends beyond the literal concept of our homes into concepts of community, nationhood, and the exchange of ideas. Hachnassat orchim is not simply a single mitzvah, but rather a mindset that defines us as a people, following the example of Avraham and Sarah. It is therefore not for naught that in a day school Chumash curriculum, it is this Mitzvah that is one of the very first that is taught to children.
Later in the Parsha, we are brought to the city of Jerusalem for the first time, the site of the Binding of Isaac. After that harrowing encounter, the location is dubbed “The Mountain of God”. Further away in history, the prophet Isaiah will also call this place “The Mountain of God” [Is. 2:2]:
And it shall be at the end of the days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be firmly established at the top of the mountains, and it shall be raised above the hills, and all the nations shall stream to it.
This is a vision of hachnassat orchim in universal terms, during the messianic age, in which our most sacred home – the Temple – will open wide to receive all the nations of the world in harmony and unity of purpose. May we merit to witness that vision in our time.
*This D’var Torah is adapted from Rabbi Noam Samet of Yeshivat Siach Yitzchak’s “Siach l’Parsha”