GEN900 Jewish tradition derives several still-binding principles of hospitality and good manners from Abraham’s behavior:   Receive your guests warmly and enthusiastically.   … By displaying such enthusiasm, Abraham made his guests feel welcome.  Think first of what your guests most need. [water, food, rest, etc.]   …  Deliver more than you promise. … The Talmud Baba Metzia 87a infers from Abraham’s behavior that one of the “distinguishing characteristics of righteous people” is that “they say little but do a lot.”   [See, also, Avot 1:15 – AJL] In addition, by telling guests that you are preparing only a little, they’ll feel less self-conscious about accepting the invitation.  Personally attend to your guest’s needs.  Abraham had a large staff Genesis 14:14, but he waited on his guests himself Genesis 18:8. We learn from this that even if you have maids and other employees, make sure to do some of the work for your guests with your own hands.   TELVOL 2:44-45

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GEN990 God chose Israel to make known His existence to the world, and to make known that God’s primary demand of human beings is ethical behavior.   Indeed, in Amos’s understanding, even chosenness, which many people assume correlates with an Israelite sense of superiority, does not entitle Israel to special rights, but rather special responsibilities.  “You alone have I singled out of all the families of the earth.   That is why I will call you to account for all your sins.”   Amos 3:2.   TELVOL 2:267

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GEN992 In the verse, justice is equated with keeping “the way of the Lord.” TELVOL 2:404

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GEN1013 The Torah makes it clear that its greatest heroes were concerned with all suffering, not just that of their own people. [This verse]. Later, when Moses sees the Midianite male shepherds mistreating Midianite female shepherds trying to water their flock, he stands up for the women and secures their rights.  Exodus 2:16-17.  It is fitting, therefore, that Jews have played such a prominent role in leading the campaign to stop the genocide in Darfur.   TELVOL 2:287-8

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GEN1025 Moses and Aaron confront God as well with a challenge in the name of justice.   When many Israelites refuse to take sides between Moses and the rebel Korach, God, disgusted by the Israelites’ behavior, says to Moses and Aaron, “Separate yourselves from this community, and I shall annihilate them in an instant.”   The two leaders challenge God, “Shall one man sin, and You be wrathful with the whole community?” Numbers 16:20-22.   God relents and restricts His punishment to Korach and his followers.   TELVOL 2:404

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GEN1057 Eventually, God establishes to Abraham’s satisfaction that there are fewer than ten righteous people within the city (for whom God sends angels to lead out) and that no one else living there is worthy of being saved.   (Had there been ten or more righteous people there, Abraham would have gone on arguing to save the whole city, evil people included.  With a core of good people, there is reason to hope that the evil people will also be affected.)  Still, Abraham’s question, in insisting that God, no less than human beings, is bound by the demands of just behavior, establishes the unique biblical emphasis on this virtue.   Even in late medieval England, a king’s unjust behavior went unchallenged on the grounds of the “divine right of kings,” which was widely understood as meaning that the monarch, who was seen as serving by the grace of God, had the right to do whatever he wanted.   Abraham (and the Hebrew Bible’s theology) was quite different.  For Abraham, justice is a value to which “the King of kings” Himself is bound.   TELVOL 2:404-5

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GEN1074 The Bible also believes that a society’s lack of charity makes it worthy of destruction.   Thus, although there are few details in the Torah about the condemned city of Sodom (except for its extreme inhospitality to visitors, see Genesis 19:4-10, later biblical teachings interpret God’s decision to destroy it as due in part to its lack of generosity: “She [Sodom] and her daughters had plenty of bread and untroubled tranquility; yet she did not support the poor and needy” Ezekiel 16:49   TELVOL2:160

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GEN1075 The Rabbis describe the evil city of Sodom as filled with dishonest judges.   They tell a story about Eliezer, Abraham’s righteous servant, who, while visiting Sodom, was beaten severely; his assailant even drew blood.  Yet when he brought the man into court, the judge ordered Eliezer to pay his attacker for having bled him (bleeding sometimes was performed as a medical procedure on sick patients).  In a rare Midrash with a humorous ending, the Rabbis report that the infuriated Eliezer picked up a stone, threw it at the judge, and opened a big wound.   He then said to the judge: Now, go and pay the fee you owe me for bleeding you to the man who attacked me.”   Sanhedrin 109b; Bialik and Ravnitzky, Book of Legends, 36.  TELVOL2:422

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GEN1168 In addition to biblical laws, several events depicted in the Torah underscore how important a person’s treatment of animals is in assessing his character.   When Abraham dispatches his servant (assumed to be Eliezer) to find a suitable wife for Abraham’s son, Isaac, he give him no explicit guidelines, other than that the woman should come from the areas in which Abraham was raised.   Eliezer promptly departs for the city of Nahor with ten camels.   He decides, perhaps along the way, that kindness—to both human beings and animals—is the most appropriate first criterion to look for in a spouse.  TELVOL 2:305

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GEN1266 It is perhaps so obvious that it does not need to be said, but people will feel blessed by coming in contract with Jews only if their encounters with them are blessed, and not if they feel treated in any way unfairly.   TELVOL2:287

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