Parashat Vayeira: Seeds of Kindness
Avraham Avinu had just undergone his bris milah/ circumcision. He was recovering, sitting at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. On the most painful day post-op he saw three visitors approaching, he did not remain seated and wait for them to come to him. He got up and ran to greet them.
He gave them water to drink and to wash their feet. He sat them under a tree so they would be protected by its shade. He hurried to Sarah’s tent, asked her to prepare food, and ran to the herd to find an animal to serve his guests. Even in his physical discomfort, Avraham was determined to welcome them and care for their needs.
This was more than hospitality. It was a willingness to push beyond his own limitations and pain in order to do chesed / kindness.
The rewards for Avraham’s kindness were not necessarily immediate. Our Sages connect the hospitality of Avraham and Sarah with the blessings that sustained their descendants in the wilderness: the manna, the well of water, and the Clouds of Glory. The kindness of one man and one woman became a source of blessing for an entire nation, generations later.
The water that came from the rock in the desert started as a seed of Abraham giving water to these 3 visitors. The clouds of glory that protected the Jews in the desert started as a seed of Abraham sheltering the travellers under a tree. The manna that fell from heaven started as the seed of kindness when Abraham and Sarah made and fed their visitors bread.
Avraham planted seeds of chesed / kindness. He could not have known how that seed would grow, when it would blossom, or who would eventually be nourished by its fruits. The generation that wandered through the wilderness benefited from the seeds of kindness planted by Avraham and Sarah long before they were born.
There is a beautiful tradition associated with the calf Avraham prepared for his guests. According to the Midrash, the calf fled into a cave, and Avraham followed it. That cave was the Cave of Machpelah, the burial place of Adam and Chava, and the place where Avraham and Sarah, together with other fore-fathers and fore-mothers would eventually be buried. The cave is thought to be where the entrance to Gan Eden is. His act of kindness took him somewhere he could never have anticipated or planned to go.
Avraham runs after a calf because he wants to feed his guests. His immediate intention was to provide a meal. Yet that pursuit led him to a place of extraordinary spiritual significance, a place that will become the eternal resting place of the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Jewish people.
We may see the kindness we are doing now, but we cannot see all the places it will take us, or all the people who will eventually benefit from it.
Sometimes we plant the seed, and others are privileged to nurture it. Sometimes we plant the seed, and generations later, people we will never meet are fed by its fruits. We ourselves, too, are sustained by the merits of those who came before us. We are beneficiaries of kindness, sacrifice, and devotion that began long before our own lives.
This gives our everyday acts of chesed a significance we may never fully appreciate. We may make an effort for someone who never knows how much it cost us. We may offer support without seeing the difference it makes. We may do something small and ordinary, never realizing that its influence will reach people we will never meet.
And sometimes, the kindness itself is difficult. We are tired, uncomfortable, preoccupied, or simply not in the mood. Avraham teaches us that being kind is not only about having a generous heart. It is about being willing to get up and act, even when it would be easier not to.
We cannot always know when the reward will come, what form it will take, or who will benefit. Our responsibility is to plant the seeds of kindness, trusting that G-d can bring them to fruition in ways beyond our imagination.
We may never see our kindness blossom. We may never meet those who will be nourished by it. But we can keep planting the seeds, knowing that no act of chesed is ever lost.
Shabbat shalom
With love
Elissa
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