Sponsored in Honor of
Dov Ber’s Bar Mitzvah by Sharona, Josh, Moshe and Yehuda Halickman
In Parshat Vayera, Avraham, who is recovering from a Brit
Milah (circumcision at the age of 99) is happy to welcome three unexpected
guests to entertain.
When the guests arrive, Avraham gives them water to wash
their feet. He then tells them that he is going to bring some bread for them to
eat before they continue on their way.
Rambam points out that even though Avraham only said that he
would bring them bread, he rushes in order to put together a whole meal.
Avraham exemplified the words mentioned in Pirkei Avot 1:15, “Say little and do
much.”
Avraham hurries to Sarah’s tent and says (Breisheet 18:6)
“Hurry! Take three measures of the finest flour (kemach solet); knead it and
make cake-rolls (oogot).”
According to Radak, they needed three measures of the finest
flour (a large amount) so that each one of the guests would get his own
“challah”. The flour that they used is known to bake quickly so that the guests
wouldn’t have to wait too long for the bread to be ready.
Chizkuni believes that the bread that was served was
actually matzah. When you bake matzah, you don’t have to wait for the dough to
rise so it is made much quicker than regular bread. The visitors were in a
hurry (since they were really angels and they had an import mission to attend
to) and Avraham didn’t want to keep them waiting too long.
Avraham then went to get a tender, choice calf. Rashi
comments that there were three calves so that each of the guests could eat an
entire calf’s tongue (a delicacy for kings and princes). Chizkuni adds that it
was quicker to cook the tongue than to try to prepare the entire calf.
Avraham then brought them the food and they ate.
We can learn from Avraham the importance of fulfilling the
mitzvah of welcoming guests even when we don’t have a lot of time to prepare
for them. Avraham quickly did what needed to be done in order for the guests to
have a good meal before continuing on their way.
