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