At the beginning of Parsha Vayera,
Avraham and Sara (who are 99 and 89 years old) make an effort to make their
guests (who they don’t even know) feel welcome.
Rav David Stav points out that
unfortunately, many Israelis are focused on their own families and close
friends and don’t pay attention to the members of the community at large who
may appreciate being hosted. In Israel there are many new Olim (immigrants) who
don’t have any family or friends and would appreciate being hosted. They talk
about how when they lived in the Diaspora, they invited Israelis who were
visiting, and now that they are in Israel, nobody invites them!
When we made aliya 18 years ago, a
native Israeli family noticed that we were new and invited us over for Shabbat
meals on a regular basis as well as to all of their Smachot (happy occasions).
We appreciated their warmth and we are still friends with them.
There is now an organization called
Keep Olim which has a No Oleh Alone program to make sure that Olim are invited
for meals for the holidays. The organizers decided that instead of waiting for
native Israelis to invite them, they would make arrangements themselves.
Avraham and Sara were Olim as well,
and they came to the Land of Israel to make a difference. They went out of
their way to invite others even though nobody invited them.
Although hosting Olim may not be on
the radar screen for many Israelis, there are those families, both native
Israelis and immigrants who, like Avraham and Sara do make an effort to host.
Hopefully, when Jewish people all
over the world read this parsha, they will be inspired by how gracious Avraham
and Sara were and take the cue to invite newcomers into their homes.
