Parshas Vayera 5772

‘Parsha Growth Spurts’

Rabbi Dani Staum

Parshas Vayera

(18:4) “Please take a little water, and wash your feet, and lean beneath the tree.”

Rashi explains that Avrohom was under the impression that his visitors were Bedouins who worshipped the dust. Therefore, he would not allow them into his home until they washed the idolatrous dust off of their feet.

During one of his popular Thursday night question and answer sessions at the end of his weekly shiur, someone asked Rabbi Avigdor Miller zt’l why it was prevalent for people to worship the dust in those days? Were they that naive and simple-minded as to believe that the dirt had divine powers?

Rabbi Miller replied that the question demonstrates a lack of appreciation for the incredible greatness of dirt. He explained that dirt is one of the most remarkable things we have on earth. We are the only planet that has dirt, and our bodies are formed from dirt. One spoonful of dirt has more living things in it than the population of greater New York. Although we surely shouldn’t worship the dirt, we should be excited and enthralled by it. 

Rabbi Miller was legendary for living with this level of appreciation and sense of wonder. On one occasion, one of his grandsons came to visit him, only to find his grandfather’s face submerged under the running kitchen sink. After a few seconds, Rabbi Miller quickly lifted his head from the sink and gasped for air.

When his grandson asked him for an explanation, Rabbi Miller explained that as he was walking home he overheard someone make a comment about the dank smell in the air. Rabbi Miller was annoyed that for a moment he concurred with the man’s comment. So he decided he needed to remind himself how valuable the gift of air is every moment of life.

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(18:27) “Avrohom answered and said, ‘Behold, now I have begun speaking before G-d, and I am but dust and ashes.”

Rabbi Meir Shapiro zt’l noted that dirt contains limitless potential for growth. When a seed is planted in the earth it can bear fruits, which contain seeds to grow other fruits, in a continuous cycle. In that sense, dirt symbolizes the potential of the future. Ashes are what remain after something is destroyed in a fire. Therefore, ashes symbolize the remains of the past.

The Jewish People possess a strong memory of our glorious ancestry and history, as well as obdurate hope and confidence for the messianic future. Thus, the words Avrohom stated here define his progeny, “I am but dust and ashes” – the father of a nation that combines past and future.

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(22:2) “And it was after these matters, and G-d tested Avrohom… Take your son, the sole one, that you love, Yitzchok, and go to the land of Moriah, and bring him up there as an elevation offering, upon one of the mountains which I will say to you.”

After successfully demonstrating his unyielding love and devotion to Hashem nine times, Hashem challenged Avrohom with the final climactic test of Akeidas Yitzchok – the ‘binding’ of his beloved son Yitzchok.

The mental image we typically have of the Akeidah is of Avrohom standing atop Har Hamoriah, knife in his hand, eyes closed in deep fervor and concentration, with the deep emotions of the Kohain Gadol about to enter the Kodesh Kodashim on Yom Kippur. But the Zohar relates that that was not the case. At the moment when Avrohom began to ascend the mountain all of his spiritual greatness, all of the lofty levels that he had spent a lifetime achieving, were suddenly stripped from him. Inexplicably Avrohom suddenly felt like a spiritual pesaent, as distant from Hashem as a sinner.

The Zohar explains the pasuk, “And he saw ‘Hamakom’ from a distance” that Makom refers to the Omnipresent (as we say by the seder ‘Baruch Hamakom’, and to a mourner, G-d forbid, ‘Hamakom Yenachem’). Avrohom saw Hashem as being distant and far away. The challenge of the Akeidah was whether Avrohom could serve G-d on the highest level despite the fact that he felt so spiritually distant.

His passing of the test, and our constant recounting of the merit of that event, is a symbol for us that even in our spiritually darkest moments we can – and we must – serve Hashem. And when we do so, we can be sure that He will imminently draw us close to Him again. 

(Sources: Harav Avidor Miller – Questions and Answers with Rabbi Miller; Harav Meir Shapiro – Imrei Da’as; Zohar and idea about akeidah – Harav Moshe Wolfson shlita – derasha Shabbos Parshas Netzovim-Vayelech 5771)