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Parsha and Chagim ideas from the rabbis of Kerem B'Yavneh
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אברהם אבינו is a paragon of חסד,
and of course,
we try to learn from him and to emulate his amazing חסד,
his giving to not only people who are like him,
but people not like him,
people who are random travelers.
And that is a מדה that of course we are always trying to develop.
Something that we can derive from אברהם אבינו that we perhaps don't think about
as much is how that מדה of חסד drives him at all stages in
life and through so many setbacks.
אברהם אבינו at the beginning of the פרשה is set up very close to
the city of סדום.
It's clear in the תורה that אברהם's's location in חברון is very close to
סדום.
We see that from how the מלאכים,
they walk out of אברהם's's house,
and almost immediately,
וישקיפו על פני סדם.
And אברהם later,
after סדום is destroyed,
he comes out,
and he goes back to the place where he stood,
and he,
himself,
looks out on סדום.
We see that from how רש״י tells us that for the מלאכים to leave
אברהם's's house in the middle of the day and arrive at לוט's's house in
the ערב,
they were also must have been a short walk away.
And we see that as well from רש״י,
who tells us that after the destruction of סדום,
אברהם picked up and moved because he was close to סדום,
and he was on the road near סדום,
and the travelers who used to go to סדום were no longer coming to
him.
We see that אברהם אבינו,
he was very familiar with the city of סדום,
and he must have been very familiar with its evil ways,
and yet,
with all that familiarity,
it didn't it didn't deter him from serving all the travelers.
Those people were going to סדום,
people who were were close enough in מדה to the people of סדום that
they would do business with them.
אברהם אבינו invested all of his tremendous כחות,
we see from the beginning of the פרשה how he runs to serve guests,
how he expends tremendous money and energy feeding his guests huge portions of food.
If we work out the amount of flour that אברהם אבינו was serving his
three guests,
it comes out to more than a more than a dozen kilo.
It comes out to huge amounts of loaves of of of of bread.
According to רש״י,
he שחט three whole he שחט three whole cows for the sake of his
guests.
All that tremendous money and energy that אברהם אבינו pours into his guests are
for who?
For guests who are on their way to to סדום.
It doesn't stop him it doesn't stop him knowing that these are people who
are not on his level,
not even close to his level,
people who would go and do business with the רשעים of סדום who deserved
to be destroyed by הקדוש ברוך הוא.
Not only not only does אברהם אבינו engage in that חסד,
but even after סדום is destroyed,
and אברהם אבינו says to himself,
"You know,
people aren't going to be coming here anymore."
He doesn't say he doesn't say,
"You know,
maybe my project of חסד has come to an end.
Maybe I've invested too much.
Maybe I had too much faith in humanity."
He doesn't say that.
Instead,
he goes,
and he goes near גרר,
and again,
he has an unfortunate incident with the people of גרר.
And אין יראת אלקים במקום הזה.
The the people in גרר,
they don't have יראת שמים.
And אף על פי כן,
אברהם אבינו sets up tent,
he sets up his camp near גרר,
ויטע אשל.
And again,
he says,
"I'm going to be קורא בשם ה׳.
I'm going to display,
I'm going to spread God's name in this world by engaging in חסד.
I'm going to have a place where people come,
and they see my חסד,
and they appreciate through me all the good that הקדוש ברוך הוא does.
That's going to be my mission in this world."
And even after the disappointment of him not having any impact on סדום,
he tried to be on the road near סדום,
he tried to influence that that area by spreading שם ה׳,
and guess what happened?
That whole area got destroyed.
The message just didn't get through.
סדום was full of חטא,
it was full of people who were the antithesis of אברהם אבינו in their
lack of הכנסת אורחים,
in their lack of חסד.
And he אברהם אבינו says,
"You know what?
So,
I'll go somewhere else.
I'll go near גרר."
And even though in גרר,
initially,
there's great disappointment,
there's no יראת שמים in that place,
he still he invests.
He tries to change the world.
Again and again,
he continues his mission of חסד to change the world.
What a remarkable מדה,
not just the fact that he has the מדה of חסד,
not only that he has the מדה of trying to influence,
trying to promote goodness,
trying to promote שם שמים in this world,
but that he persists.
He continues with that mission no matter no matter how many setbacks there are,
he continues,
and he tries to change one person at a time,
one community at a time,
and ultimately,
the world as a whole.
בעזרת ה׳,
we can try to take from אברהם אבינו to adopt his מידה of חסד,
to adopt his מידה of אמונה in our abilities to promote הקדוש ברוך הוא's
name in this world.