Bostoner Torah Insights: Bostoner ‘Chassidus’ in Hebrew and English: Parshas Vayeira – 18 Marcheshvan 5783
Bostoner Torah Insights - Yerushalayim
Bostoner Torah Insights
Bostoner ‘Chassidus’ in English
Parshas Vayeira – 18 Marcheshvan 5783
Bostoner Rebbe shlit”a – Yerushalayim
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“He (Avraham) lifted his eyes and saw that behold three men were standing before him” (Beraishis 18:2). Rashi (to 18:1) explains that these three men were Melachim in the guise of human beings. Rashi (to 18:2) further explains that one was to inform Sarah that she would have a child, one was to overturn Sodom and one was to heal Avraham from his Bris Milah. He only identifies Raphael by name as the one who came to heal Avraham, as well as the one who continued on to Sodom to save Lot along with the destroying angel. Rashi doubles down when commenting on the two angels that came to Sodom, saying that the angel who came to save Lot, was the same angel that healed Avraham.
However, the Gemara (Baba Metzia 86b) is more explicit that Michael came to inform Sarah, while Gavriel was the destroying angel that came to carry out the destruction of Sodom. It then explicitly states that it was Michael who traveled with Gavriel to Sodom to save Lot. There is no comment of Rashi on these words of the Gemara even though they contradict his commentary on the Torah, which makes us wonder if perhaps Rashi had a different version of the text. Tosfos cites the Midrash (Beraishis Raba 50:2) that asserts it was Rafael that was sent to save Lot, in accordance with Rashi’s commentary on the Torah.
The same Gemara (B.M. 86b) teaches that one should not publicly deviate from the customs of the locale that one is visiting. When Moshe went up to Shamayim to receive the Torah he did not eat or drink for those 40 days. Similarly, when the angels visited Avraham in Elonei Mamrei they ate. The Gemara asks how it is possible for angels to eat food. The Gemara answers that it looks as if the angels were eating and drinking, as Rashi in his commentary on the Torah (Beraishis 18:8) points out as well.
Toward the end of Parshas Ki Tisa, we find the prohibition of Basar B'Chalav, the mixing of milk and meat. "Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk" (Shemos 34:26). The next section of the Torah begins, "Hashem said to Moshe, 'write these words for yourself, for according to these words have I sealed a covenant [Bris] with you and Yisroel. He remained there for forty days and forty nights, he did not eat bread and he did not drink water, and He wrote on the Tablets the words of the Bris, the Ten Commandments" (Shemos 34:27-28).
The Hadar Zekaynim, asks why these two sections of Torah are juxtaposed. What does the prohibition of Basar B'Chalav have to do with the writing of the Ten Commandments? He suggests based on the Pasuk, "What is mortal man that you should remember him? A human being that you should be mindful of Him" (Tehillim 8:5) and the Midrash (Socher Tov Tehillim 8) on these words were uttered by the angels when Moshe ascended Har Sinai to receive the Torah, because they did not want the Torah to leave 'Heaven' and be given to Bnei Yisroel who would violate the Torah (a similar version appears in Shabbos 88b). Since the angels wanted to harm Moshe, Hashem changed Moshe's appearance to that of Avraham Avinu. The claim was made against the angels that they violated the prohibition of milk and meat themselves when they visited Avraham Avinu in Parshas Va'eira, as it says, "He took cream and milk and the calf which he had prepared and placed these before them. He stood over them beneath the tree and they ate" (Beraishis 18:8). Thus, it was because Bnei Yisroel would separate milk and meat, whereas the angels did not, that the merited to overcome the challenge of the angels and receive the Torah
The Steipler Rav questioned why the angels did not object that eating milk and meat that is not cooked together is only a Rabbinic violation. He suggests that throughout Tanach, angels are described as being made of fire (see Yechezkel 1:1-28, Yeshayahu 6:2-4, Tehilim 104:4, et. al. It is logical that if the angels were in a physical form that was visible to Avraham, their bodies were composed of fire, and when they acted as if they were eating, they were cooking and consuming the meat and milk together within their bodies of fire, which would be a Torah prohibition.
I would suggest that the reason why the Torah adds the words ‘lifted his eyes’ rather than simply stating that Avraham ‘saw’, is because he recognized that the angels that stood before him were on a higher spiritual level than he. He ran to them, bowed to them and said (according to the first explanation in Rashi) to the leader of the group, “If I find favor in your eyes now, please do not continue onward from your servant” (Beraishis 18:3). Avraham explained to the men that he recognized that they were angels and that he wished to obtain their spiritual levels. After he brought his guests food and drink the Pasuk says, “And he stood over them beneath the tree and they ate” ( Beraishis 18:8), implying that by fulfilling the Mitzvah of Hachnasas Orchim, Avraham reached a spiritual level greater than that of the angels.
May Hashem grant us the level that we are meant to attain in our Tefillos and in our Torah studies and in our Mitzvah performance and in that merit may we speedily see the coming of the Geulah Shlayma.
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