In 2014, two University of Chicago psychologists asked commuters to do something most of us try to avoid: talk to a stranger on the train.
Some commuters the researchers spoke to predicted that conversation would make their journey less pleasant. They were wrong: commuters who talked enjoyed the journey more than those who kept to themselves. Those making predictions had underestimated how much we want to talk to other people.
In this week’s Torah portion, Vayera, Abraham makes no such mistake. Sitting at his tent’s entrance “in the heat of the day,” he sees three strangers and runs to greet them. He offers “a little water” and “a morsel of bread,” then hurries to prepare cakes and a calf—a feast fit for kings. The Talmud draws a lesson from the gap between his offer and the meal: “the righteous say little and do much.”
Before any of this, though, Abraham does something more peculiar. God appears to him, but Abraham sees the travelers and greets them first. From this the Talmud draws a startling rule: “Hospitality toward guests is greater than receiving the Divine Presence.”
As Rabbi Sacks put it, Abraham’s faith meant seeing “the trace of God in the face of the stranger.”
Why should welcoming a person outrank meeting God? Rabbi Judah Loew of sixteenth-century Prague, known as the Maharal, answers that even Moses was told by God, “No one can see Me and live.” God's presence is so overwhelming that even the greatest prophet can encounter it only in part.
But since every person is made “in the image of God,” others allow us to encounter something of the Divine in a form we can actually engage with.
So Abraham never really left the Divine Presence. He moved from an encounter with God, one that even Moses could not fully experience, to an encounter with God's image in another human being—someone he could welcome to his table.
Somewhere this Shabbat there will be a new face at synagogue, or on the train, or wherever else you find yourself. The offer needn’t be more than a little water and a morsel of bread, or even just some small chit-chat. Don’t worry - even God will wait for us while we welcome them.
Rabbi Matt Marks is Executive Head of Tribe UK, the youth arm of the United Synagogue, and a PhD researcher specialising in the thought of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. He lives in Brighton & Hove with his wife and their four daughters, where he also serves as a Strategic Adviser for Jewish Life and works with the UK Jewish Chaplaincy team.
This essay was written as part of our collaboration with The Rabbi Sacks Legacy Sacks Scholars.
