At the beginning this weeks parsha we see Hashem Coming To Avraham Avinu in the form of the melachim dressed as men. This event takes place three days after Avraham has performed Bris Mila on himself!
At the time of these three men coming to him he is in discussion with G-d himself. “He lifted his eyes and saw” these three men standing there.
Without even saying anything to Hashem He gets up and runs out to them and bows and welcomes them in to his tent.
He started making food along with his wife Sarah. If you read the english at the beginning of this parsha you get a real sense of how much Avraham rushed along with his servants and his wife Sarah o prepare food for the guests. He even shechted 3 animals says Rashi – Thats a whole Bull each!!! We can learn from this portion of the parsha a few things.
Imagine coming outside your tent and talking to Hashem and suddenly you see three men dressed like desert wanderers. What would you do?? I know i would have thought Hashem was much more important, but we see that Avraham would rather do the mitzvah of gemilus chassodim and look after his guests then to talk to Hashem. So there we see how important the mitzvah of chesed – kindness is!!
However this is no normal kindness, we see as Rashi points out that there were extra things Avraham did that he never needed to do. He rushed around three days after mila and even shechted THREE bulls not just one but THREE!! he went well beyond the call of duty to look after these three strangers – how much more so should we go beyond the call of duty to do the mitzvah of gemilus chasodim to our friends and people we do know!!.
