Healing Waters

When, at the beginning of the parasha (18:4) three angels approach Avram, the ailing patariarch runs out to greet them.  It is a powerful moment as the reader marvels at this man’s ability to run with alacrity three days after having undergone a circumcision!  He exclaimes, “Let some water be brought to wash your feet before you rest under a tree.”

Avram then gathers a magnificent feast for his guests.  One cannot help but wonder why it seems Avram was so stingy with water and so effusive about serving the travelers every possible food.  Midrash Lekach Tov noted that Avram was tight with the water because he asked his servants to do this task and did not want to overburden them.  Regarding the food, he went to prepare that alongside his wife so he was more giving.

Contrast that story with the scene that occurs when two of those same angels came to Lot in Sodom.  Lot tells the visitors, “Spend the night here, wash your feet, then get up early and be on your way” (19:1).  Unlike Avram, Lot does not assist his guests with their washing at all.  Further, he makes it clear they are not wanted in his home any longer than they have to be there.  Is it any wonder then that the angels decline to stay with Lot altogether prefering to spend the night in the street?

Soon afterward, the angels warn Lot to flee Sodom with his family.  One angel advises them "Flee for your life!  Do not look behind you, nor step anywhere in the Plain; flee to the hills, lest you be swept away" (19:17).  Why shouldn't they look back?  What difference could it possibily make? Rashi comments, "let it suffice you to save your lives; do not give a thought to your possessions."  In other words, these messengers of God knew the character of Lot and his family.  They understood their deep attachment to physical things.  Lot and company were miserly to their core.

Avram and Lot are a study in human behavior.  One is giving without out thought to his persoanl wealth.  Avram understands the essential mission of life as stated by Winston Churchill, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” In the Midrash we are taught that this is the reason why Avram was elected to be the progenitor of this new people.  God saw inside this man a willingness to share whatever he had with others. God does not make us into saints or villains.  We choose those roads for ourselves.  Yet, we understand that God keenly watches how we behave toward one another because that is the determinant of character. 
And what did God see?  He saw that Avram believed that “to do is to be” and not vice versa.  The Holy One, blessed be He, witnessed in Avram that the power of tzedaka is the bonding force that heals the world. 
And what is tzedaka as defined by our text? It is the way we treat people not as fortunate as ourselves (think of the servant with the water); it is the way we respond to strangers who are in need of food or companionship; it is the genuine “givingness” that comes from the heart; it is valuing people over things.
Perhaps no other message is more fitting for this day when we honor a man who takes his cues from Avram in the way he nurtures all souls in this community, how Aaron protects us from threats, how he has served this community as well as congregation in a way that would make Avram proud.