GEN915 Why, in relation to Abraham is it written: “[They immediately said] Do so, as you have spoken,” and in relation to Lot Genesis 19:3: “And he entreated them exceedingly, and [only thereafter] they went unto him”? R. Elazar said:  “From here we see that a lesser man is to be refused, but not a great one” [bracketed explanations are from Sefaria.org] Baba Metzia 87a TEMIMAH-GEN 81

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GEN919 Since proper speech is so important and it is so easy to sin by speaking harmfully about others, it is preferable in Judaism to speak as little as possible.  According to the Mishnah Avot 1:15, one should say very little but do a lot.   A person’s actions should speak for that person.  It is much better to promise a little and deliver a great deal rather than vice versa.   Abraham promised his guests a little water and bread, but gave them an entire feast fit for a king.   In addition to minimizing the potential for hurting someone, by promising less than one intends to do, a person does not raise false expectations.  Rabbi Shimon said Avot 1:17 that the best speech is no speech at all—silence.   Ecclesiastes 3:1 and 3:7 clarifies this notion when he says that there is a time for speech and a time for silence.  A person must train himself or herself to know when it is proper to be quiet and not say anything.  AMEMEI 278-79

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GEN918 Our teachers have long pointed to hospitality as a favorite example of the open, generous heart. It is easy to understand why. Not so long ago, the world was not equipped to welcome outsiders. There were few roadmaps or atlases, no hotel or restaurant chains, and certainly no plastic to substitute for currency. Although inns existed, they were poor alternatives for genuinely offered hospitality after a long day. Travelers welcome the sight of an open door and a friendly face. Strangers became friends when invited to “break bread” together. Even those with little to spare stretched their meager provisions for the sake of hospitality.  [Author Borowitz] fondly remembers how newcomers were soon seated around the kitchen tables in his grandmothers’ tenement apartments. As the sage R. Dimi taught: “Hospitality to wayfarers is greater than welcoming the Shekhinah” [Divine Presence] Shabbat 127a. Yehiel b. Yekutiel, the 13th century Roman ethicist, suggests that this is so natural, we might even learn nedivut from the rooster: “When he chances on something to eat, he calls his fellows to eat with him. Sometimes he even chooses food and places it before them” Sefer Maalot Hamiddot.    Because our patriarch Abraham showed legendary hospitality to the three men/angels who came to his tent, the rabbis name Abraham as the classic example of nedivut: [this verse and 18:7] The rabbis note that Abraham did not send a servant, but he himself “ran” to provide his guests with food.   Our teachers cannot praise Abraham’s nedivut enough: “All who possess these three attributes are disciples of our father Abraham: a good eye, a humble spirit, and a modest soul” Avot 5:22 The medieval ethical work Orhot Tzaddikim says: “There are three kinds of generosity: generosity with money, generosity with one’s body, and generosity with one’s wisdom—and all three are found in Abraham.” The Hasidic rebbe known as the Yehudi, Yaakov Yitzhak of Przysucha, goes even further, attributing to our first patriarchal almost Divine capabilities: ‘Abraham stood over the Angels and they did eat’ Genesis 18:8 Angels have virtues and flaws, and men have virtues and flaws. The virtue of angels is that they cannot deteriorate, put their flaw is that they cannot improve. Man’s flaw is that he can deteriorate, but his virtue is that he can improve. However, someone who practices nedivut acquires the virtues of his guests.   Thus Abraham acquired the virtue of angels, that of not being able to deteriorate. And so he stood over and above them” Buber, Tales of the Hasidim, bk. 2, The Later Masters. BOROJMV 94-5

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GEN917 As soon as a guest comes to your house, give him refreshments.   Rabbi Yisroel Salanter points out that Avraham immediately told his guests that he would give them some bread.   Even though he planned to give them an entire meal afterward, he realized that they might appreciate some light refreshment which would stay their hunger until he would be able to prepare their meals.   Chayai Hamuser, vol. 1, p. 69.   PLYN 66

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GEN920 When speaking to his guest, a host should be careful not to let the guest feel that he is causing his host imposition.   Avraham was afraid that the three strangers who passed his tent might refuse to visit him because they would not want to bother him. He therefore offered them some bread, a simple enough meal.   Once they had agreed to stay, he prepared an elaborate feast. (Rabbi Akiva Sofer in Daas Sofer. PLYN 67

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GEN916 Say little and do much. Pirkei Avot I:15   Abraham provides the classic illustration of this dictum. He said to his guests, “I will fetch a morsel of bread, and do you sustain your hearts.” [this verse] Yet what did he really do? Not only did he serve bread, but also milk and butter and later meat and wheat cakes. There are many people who do the reverse: they say much, promising many things, but actually do very little there are others who base their talk on some real performance, but then boast of what they have done out of all proportion to the actual deed.   In fact, many people seem to live in a world of verbalization, a universe of words, recounted and repeated to friends and acquaintances. One trivial incident can serve as the source of a spate of words that runs through five cocktail parties and six marathon telephone conversations. So Shammai reminds us: the world of reality is still the world of deeds. The arena for achievement is still “doing.” Hence, “say little and do much.” Even in the field of learning, do not pose as a scholar simply because you have memorized a few passages from Scripture. Say “little”: consider that you have studied only a bit; “and do much”: let this stimulate you to achieve much more.  SINAI1 99

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GEN921 Where there is no flour [bread] there is no where there is no Torah, there is no flour [bread] Pirkei Avot III:21   … Some commentaries on Avoth see in this dictum a historical allusion. They read, “If it were not for flour there would be no Torah.” We have leant in our Oral Tradition that when Moses ascended to Heaven to receive the Torah, the angels protested, asserting that mere mortals were not fit to be entrusted with the resplendent Divine Word. The Midrash relates that they were ready to attack him, when the Almighty altered his appearance so that he looked like Abraham the Patriarch. And then the Almighty asked the angels: “Are you not ashamed to attack the one in whose house you ate and drank?” (See Genesis 18:2-8. In the Talmud and Midrash it is accepted without question that Abraham’s visitors were three angels (see Torah Shelemah, there)).   Turning to Moses, the Alight said, “On account of the merits of Abraham have you come into possession of the Torah!” Exodus Rabbah XXVIII,1  Moses could be thankful that Abraham the patriarch had given Sarah orders to “make ready quickly three measure of fine flour.” [this verse] Hence, “without the flour” of Abraham’s hospitality, there would have been no Torah: Moses would have failed to get it.  In the economic situation of the world, the condition of “no flour” – inadequate provisions – is always a relative one.   The sub-marginal conditions and diets of America might be considered “upper middle class” conditions in India. What one might consider, beyond question, “intolerable poverty,” another person, with a different set of values, might regard as a good living standard.   Now, a person who is thoroughly imbued with Torah will always be able to find a level of happiness, a sense of meaning, achievement, and esteem even in the most dire situation in the most precarious condition.   Therefore, our mishnah could mean: Because there is no Torah, there is a sense, a feeling, a conviction of “no bread.” Because a person has no allegiance to any higher values, but has rather sunk all his interest and regard into his natural possessions, he is constantly dissatisfied with his present conditions and complains of “no bread”: he remains dissatisfied and hungry He may go on thinking his hunger is for more ‘bread,” money, possessions, when it is actually a hunger for the spiritual verities of Torah.   A man came to Rabbi Israel Salanter and asked, “If someone has only ten minutes a day to study, to what branch of Torah should he devote himself in this short period: Bible, Mishnah or Talmud?” The Lithuanian Sage wisely answered, “Let him study mussar,” the system of personal soul-searching and moral chastisement to come nearer to the Holy One, “for then he will soon discover that he can spare more than ten minutes a day to study Torah.”   There is a similar lesson that we can learn from this mishnah: Study absorb its immutable values and profound truths, and you will soon discovery that “there is bread”: in the words of our Sages, “He who gives life will also give the sustenance for life.” (A Jewish folk-saying in the Aramaic of the Talmud, based on the Talmud’s aphorism, “When the Compassionate One grants abundance, it is to the living that He grants it” Talmud, Ta’anith 8b. It may also have been suggested by the Midrashic dictum, “The One who has created the day has created its sustenance” M’chilta, Vayyassa 2, etc.).  SINAI1 342-3

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GEN922 In the Bible’s quite patriarchal tradition, Abraham is zerizut’s [zeal] great exemplar. We note how his zeal emphasizes velocity as he provides hospitality for God’s messengers: “Abraham went quickly into Sarah’s tent and said, ‘Hurry, make cakes.’ Then Abraham ran to the herd to select a tender and choice calf, and gave it to his servants, who hastened to prepare it.” [this and following verses] Some sages find zeal in Abraham’s response to God’s awesome command to sacrifice Isaac: “Abraham rose early the next morning, saddled his ass, took two lads and his son Isaac, the wood for the offering and set out for the place ...” Genesis 22:3   No wonder the classic description of proper religious vigor is zerizim makdimim le-mitzvot, the diligent rush to do a mitzvah Pesachim 4a. Judah b. Tema states this dramatically: “Be as strong as the leopard, soaring as the eagle, fleet as the hart, and mighty as the lion to do the will of our Father in Heaven” Avot 5:23   And of course we must mention those five diligent B’nei Brak rabbis who got so engrossed in performing the maggid (storytelling) step of their seder that they continued their discussion until dawn. As we read each Pesah, “everyone who extends the telling is praiseworthy.” But the rabbis did not promote religious zerizut unconditionally.  Consider the enigma of the highly esteemed second-century teacher Ben Azzai, who said: “run to fulfill even a slight precept as you would to perform a great one” Avot 4:2, a clear invitation to scrupulosity. When Ben Azzai died, the religious leaders of the day called him “The last of the industrious scholars” Sotah 9:15 But for some reason, he was never ordained. Did they sense that his devotion had subtly evolved into a compulsion to feed his pride? Whatever the case, in eight separate talmudic citations the rabbis debate whether taking on special stringencies of observance, humrot, leads to pridefulness, a grievous vice that should be shunned.   It is possible to become so meticulous about observing a law that one loses all sense of its never-changing purpose: building a Jewish relationship with God. One famous late-medieval Lithuanian halakhist, Solomon Luria, recorded the opinions of those who believed that it made no difference whether such practices were done publicly or privately—The person who did them should be put under a ban. Yam Shel Shelomo [the Sea of Solomon], Bava Kamma chapter 7, par. 41. Luzzato summed it up well: “No one should carry zeal or confidence to excess” Mesillat Yesharim BOROJMV 89-90

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GEN923 People who do acts of generous sustaining benevolence are not all the same.   The Mussar tradition points out that some people are moved to acts of chesed whenever they are confronted by someone who is in need of their help.  Others, however, don’t wait for that sort of opportunity to arrive on their doorstep, but rather search out any chance to act generously in ways that sustain others.   This is what the sages meant when they wrote that the way of those who do chesed is to run after the poor.   Shabbat 104a.   Abraham was the paragon of what it means to pursue chesed because the Torah tells us that he actually ran to do kind acts for others.  MORINIS 189

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GEN924 The deeds of the righteous are always carried out speedily. … Shlomo HaMelech [King Solomon], may peace be upon him, said Proverbs 22:29: “Have you seen a man who is quick in work? He will [ultimately] stand before kings; he will not have to] stand before those who are lowly.” And the Sages of blessed memory attributed to him [Shlomo HaMelech] this selfsame praise for his speedy work in building the Beis HaMikdash [Temple] without indolence or delay.   Through a homiletic interpretation Shir HaShirim Rabbah 1:2 they also attributed it to Moshe, may peace be upon him, for his speedy work with regard to the Mishkan [Tabernacle].   You will also find that all of the deeds of the righteous are always done speedily.   Regarding Avraham, it states [this verse and 18:7] … If you probe further, [you will see] that just as alacrity is influenced by the arousal from within, this arousal itself is influenced by alacrity.   For if one is enthusiastic in his performance of a mitzvah, he will find that when he quickens his external [physical] movement he will thereby cause his inner fervor to be aroused, and his yearning and desire will progressively intensify.   However, if he reacts with lethargy when moving his limbs, the inner drive of his spirit will also wither and be extinguished.   Experience will confirm this as true.   PATH 43-4

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