In Hot Pursuit

“Please let water be taken to wash your feet, and recline in the shade of the tree. Let me take for you some bread…”

Once they accepted his invitation, Avraham served the three angels a meal fit for a king, replete with the choicest meat, fatty cream, fresh bread and milk.

Our Chachomim learn from this that a Tzadik says little and does much. Hence, Avraham’s offer for “a little bread” was, in the end, much, much more.

The question is raised: For a Tzadik who spoke little and did much, why did Avraham elaborate so much in the beginning of his invitation. “Please let water be taken, so that you can wash your feet, and rest under the tree.” Surely, a short, “Please come wash your feet and rest” would have sufficed.

***

A Chosid of the Rebbe Rashab once opened a factory for the manufacturing of galoshes. In a short time, the endeavor to sustain a livelihood overtook his entire being to the extent that his Davening, learning, and Chassidic pursuits were lacking as a result.

The Rebbe Rashab commented: I have heard of people who put their feet in galoshes. But to put one’s head in galoshes…?!”

The Yetzer Hara says: “Hashem commands a yid to make a keili within which to receive Hashem’s blessings. It follows that the more you do – the bigger the keili –  the more blessing you will have!”

As such, people are oft to lose themselves in the endless pursuit of monetary wealth and never-ending quest to make a bigger Keili with which to acquire more and more Gashmiyus.

However, in truth, it is not the size of the Keili but the action of making the Keili alone, with true Emunah and Bitachon, that harnesses Hashem’s blessings.

***

The story of Avraham and the three angels took place three days after Avraham’s Bris Milah, when his pain was at its peak. In order to help Avraham rest, Hashem made it extra hot that day. The intense heat would keep travelers off the roads so that Avraham would be able to rest, instead of busying himself with looking after the needs of the many passersby.

When Avraham saw three men travelling the desert on such a hot day, he presumed that these three men must be businessmen who don’t know how to take a day off. He figured that their thirst for money and lust for riches drove them to venture outdoors on such a hot day in search for additional business.

This, then, was the message in Avraham’s invitation:

“Please take some water and wash the dust off of your feet...”

Taste from the water of Torah, and wash off the worldly “dust” that drives your feet to pursue more and more riches.

“Rest in the shade of the tree...”

Learn Torah, from the Tree of Life, and find comfort and blessing in its shade. Learn in it that Hashem provides one’s needs a nominal, minimal Hishtadlus, and realize that the endless pursuit of riches does not afford one any more blessings than that which Hashem has allocated for him.

Adapted from Brimstone and Fire by Rabbi J.J. Hecht, OBM.