וירא אליו, “He appeared to him;” Rabbi Chama son of Rabbi Chanina, claims that this appearance occurred on the third day after Avraham had circumcised himself. (Talmud Babba Metzia 86, and quoted by Rashi.) G-d “visited” him as one visits a sick person. The interpretation by that Rabbi is plausible as we do not find anywhere else that the word: וירא is used without the purpose or message of that appearance being spelled out by the Torah. Other commentators believe that G-d’s appearance to Avraham was necessary in connection with revealing to him what He intended to do to the inhabitants of Sodom and the cities associated with it. The angels’ appearance to Avraham interrupted what G-d had planned to tell him at that point, seeing that one of them at least was charged with saving Lot. A third interpretation: The substance of the word וירא was the visit paid to Avraham by the three angels. It is not unusual for angels to be referred to as “G-d, Divine beings;”the author cites some examples of this being: Exodus 23,21, where G-d explains to Moses that His name his integral to the angel He plans to send ahead of the marching Israelites, and that this is a reason the people must be especially cautious not to offend him. The angel has the authority to react without first obtaining specific permission from G-d to do so. At the burning bush we find another such occasion where G-d and the angels are referred to interchangeably; we also find it at the binding of Yitzchok, when “G-d” is portrayed as commanding Avraham to offer his beloved son as an offering, whereas an “angel” orders him not to harm his son.

באלוני ממרא, according to Rashi that location was named after Mamre, who had been the only one of Avraham’s three allies who had advised him to go through with the command to circumcise himself. As a reward, Avraham experienced a revelation in the property belonging to Mamre. Mamre’s argument had been that seeing that G-d had saved Avraham miraculously from Nimrod’s furnace, surely He had only Avraham’s best interests at heart all the time. Proof lay in the fact that He had even enabled Avraham with only 318 soldiers to defeat four mighty armies. Some commentators are of the opinion that all the three allies of Avraham also circumcised themselves. There is even an opinion that those three died as a result of circumcising themselves. (Our author does not reveal his sources for these latter statements.). Yet another opinion holds that Mamre advised Avraham on how to heal the wound that he had inflicted upon himself. והוא יושב פתח האהל, “and Avraham was seated at the entrance to the tent.” Close to noon, close to the hour when most learned people consumed their main meal of the day. He was looking in all directions if he would find someone to share his meal with. If so he would invite him indoors.

כחום היום, “during the hottest part of the day.” This detail has been added in honour of Avraham who, at a time when the chance of potential guests being out in the sun was extremely slim, nonetheless positioned himself in that heat in such a way that he could not fail to notice anyone being out in the sun. This is why after begging the angels, (whom he thought to be weary travelers) he added that as soon as they had refreshed themselves he would not detain them any longer. After all, it was midday; when these angels came to Lot he offered them lodging for the night as it was too late to continue their journey on the same evening. (Compare 19,1.)

והנה שלשה אנשים, according to Rashi, these “three men,” were in fact three angels with different tasks to perform. One was Rafael, whose task it was to heal Avraham from the wounds of the circumcision. (this is based on Talmud Baba Metzia 86. He then went on to save Lot.) Of the two angels who proceeded on to Sodom, one was Michael. If it had been so this would contradict the statement of our sages that an angel is assigned only one task at a time. Some Rabbis consider saving Lot as similar in principle to healing Avraham, so that there would be no contradiction.

נצבים, interrupting their walk by assuming a position which invited enquiries by anyone seeing them. Our author quotes Exodus 34,2 ונצבת לי, as a similar use of this verse; i.e. Moses is invited by G-d to stop climbing the mountain and wait until He gives him the inscribed set of the second Tablets. וירץ לקראתם, “he ran toward them, having understood that this was the reason why these men had suddenly halted for a purpose.

ויאמר: אדוני, “the vowel under the letter ד is a kametz, to indicate that the word is used by someone who was aware that he addressed a messenger from G-d, not just a plural ending; (Minchat Shay) [For practical purposes this means that the word must not be erased as it is one of the holy names of G-d. Ed.]

אל נא תעבור מעל עבדך, “please do not continue without stopping by at your servant.” Avraham addressed the most important one of them. To the question how he knew which one was the most important one, the answer is that the other two appeared to walk alongside him on either side in the manner that students do when they accompany their Rabbi. We know this from the Talmud, Yuma 37. The text there reads as follows: when the three angels appeared to Avraham, Michael walked in the center and Gavriel and Rafael on either side of him. (Our sages supplied us with the order of the hierarchy of the angels. (Compare an interesting edition called malachey elyon, by Rabbi Reuven Margolit, published by Mossad Harav Kook.) Rashi adds; “even though the Torah reports Avraham as running to meet them after he had already addressed them, the Torah did not report this in the chronological sequence. He had run to meet them before, as otherwise he would have had to shout at them. You might disagree by quoting the Talmud in Pessachim 6, according to which the principle of the Torah not being bound to report in chronological sequence only applies when two or more different occurrences are discussed, and here we are dealing with a single occurrence; but according to Rashi, the system used by the Torah here, is the one known as מקרא מסורס, “a truncated verse.”

ורחצו רגליכם, “and wash your feet.” This all occurred during the season of the desert winds, known as sharaf, as explained by Rashi. According to Rashi, G-d had made the day especially hot, so that the feet of travelers would be soaked in sand and sweat.

כי על כן עברתם על עבדכם, “for surely that is the reason that you passed by your servant;” Avraham indicated that it was not the habit of travelers to skip the main meal which is normally consumed at noon. He indicated that he realised that they were modest and bashful, and had not asked for any food or drink.

כן תעשה כאשר דברת, “yes, you may do as you have proposed to do.” They agreed to accept the absolute minimum as suggested by Avraham. Nonetheless, he did not deny himself the opportunity to prepare a sumptuous meal for these guests. It was the custom for guests of distinction to invite their host to share the meal with them. An alternate interpretation of the words: כן תעשה. The expression is a wish that the party addressed may continue to conduct himself in the manner just demonstrated; in other words: “may you have frequent opportunities to play host to guests.”

מהרי “hurry!” seeing that the men still had a distance to walk in order to reach Sodom before nightfall, they did not have much time to spend at Avraham’s tent. [Did Avraham know that Sodom was their next destination from the direction in which they were headed? Ed.]

שלש סאים קמח, “three measures of flour;” this was the amount of average quality flour from which it was possible to distil the amount of superior flour (1 tenth of the tree measures known as saah) to bake cakes for three adults such as these. קמח, according to Rashi, Avraham instructed Sarah to use the kind of flour used for covering the pots, an expression known in the Talmud Pessachim 37 as “bread baked from ground flour.”Other commentators understand Avraham’s instruction to Sarah here to mean that she should bake the entire amount of flour, all three measures. He did so as this was the maximum capacity of the ovens they used. Our sages add that the quality of bread baked in a full oven is superior to that which was baked when the oven was half empty.

לושי, when the angels arrived at Lot, (Genesis 19,3) he is described as having baked the unleavened bread. From this it is deduced that the women made the dough, kneaded it, whereas the man did the actual baking.

ועשי עוגות, “and make it into cakes;” something that does not take long to bake. He was conscious that these “men” were in a hurry to get going.

בן בקר רך, “a calf which is soft and can be cooked quickly.” Rashi here comments that the reason why he insisted on slaughtering three calves, [surely more than they could consume even if they had not been in hurry, Ed.] was because he wanted to serve them only the best part of animal, i.e. the tongue (seasoned with mustard). (Based on Talmud Eyruvin 28) In earlier eras tongue was not served with pepper, as pepper was not universally available.

ויקח חמאה וחלב, (meanwhile) “he took butter and milk;” our Rabbis (in Bereshit Rabbah 48,9) state that it is understood that Avraham also served them bread, seeing that he served them things he had not even promised. Although we have no proof for the fact, as one does not usually eat cheese when expecting to be served meat shortly thereafter, and not in the reverse order, the order in which the Torah lists the menu makes this a plausible assumption.

ובן הבקר, “and the calf;” according to Rashi, the Torah should have written “and the calves;” (pl) some commentators justify the use of the singular by pointing out that Avraham started serving as soon as the first calf was ready to be served. The three lads whom Avraham had charged with these tasks did not all work at the same speed.

ויאכלו, “they ate;” according to the Talmud, which says the angels had been told by G-d to behave on earth as do the earthlings, we may understand this literally. According to the aggadah, they pretended to eat in order to make Avraham feel that he had fulfilled the virtue of being hospitable. Concerning the first interpretation, G-d is supposed to have criticised the angels that even babies are more discriminating than they, as babies who have been circumcised refrain from eating meat (cooked) with milk. (Based on Pessikta rabbati at the end of this Parshah.)

ויאמרו אליו, according to Rashi, when the dots above the three letters איו, as well as elsewhere in the Torah when the complete word is longer than the number of letters having dots, we are to look for an interpretation for the letters that have no such dot. If you were to ask why the letter ל in this word does not have a dot? This fact prompts us to assume that the angels had first asked Sarah where Avraham was before they asked him where Sarah was. This cannot be correct, as clearly they had not even seen Sarah until after they had eaten. Now that the word has only three dots, it is clear beyond argument that they had first seen Avraham. Subsequently, they asked Sarah where Avraham was. This would also conform to Rashi’s commentary in Deuteronomy 29,28 where he says that the dots teach us that this verse was not written in its proper place, i.e. that the law promulgated there did not become effective until after the Israelites had stood at Mount Gerizim and Mount Eyvol. [It appears that Rashi’s point here is that it is good manners for a guest to enquire after the wellbeing of both one’s host and one’s hostess. This sentence has been omitted in our author’s quotation of Rashi’s commentary on this verse. [Seeing that I do not have the author’s Italian original, I prefer to assume that the Hebrew translator omitted it. Rashi’s commentary is based on the first opinion offered in Bereshit Rabbah 48,15 Ed.]

שוב אשוב אליך, “I will definitely come back to you to visit);” the angel speaks about two separate occasions when he will return; one in Tishrey, the other in Nissan. [According to Rabbi Chavell’s annotation, these words need to be understood in conjunction with verse 12; the prediction of the angels was made in Nissan, and when by the time of the month of Tishrey, Sarah had not experienced signs of pregnancy she despaired. At that point G-d [when the angel returned the first time. Ed.] challenged her attitude asking Avraham why she made fun of the prediction. The prediction was repeated, confirmed, and by Nissan of the year Sarah had become a mother. כעת חיה, [usually translated as “at this time next year,” Ed.]. The expression is so unusual that we must revert to the fact that angels live forever. Were it not for that fact, how did they know that it was in their power to return again, maybe they would have died in the interval? This must be contrasted with a similar statement by the prophet Elisha who was a mortal human being and who promised only “at this time next year,” without mentioning that he would return to witness this fact. (Compare Kings II 4,17 and mentioned by Rashi there.)

כעת חיה, according to Rashi, seeing that the letter in the word כעת, does not have the vowel sheva under it but the vowel kametz, the prediction does not refer to “at the same season.”

והוא אחריו, according to the Jerusalem Targum this means that Ishmael was standing (unseen) behind the angel and overheard all this. Another explanation - the angel was standing there to ensure that Sarah would not be alone with what she presumed were male strangers.

ואברהם ושרה זקנים, “and both Avraham and Sarah were old;” seeing that the Torah tells us in Genesis 24,1 that Avraham was old and advanced in years, what is the point of the Torah telling us here that Avraham was old? The answer must be that in the interval G-d had restored a degree of youthfulness to Avraham, so that in chapter 24 we are told that by then he had become “old” again. (Compare Bereshit Rabbah 48,16.

זקנים באים בימים, “old advanced in years.” We do not find a single reference to old age in the Torah anywhere before this point. Avraham was the first human being described as having “aged.” The Midrash attributes the fact that the Torah here refers to Avraham’s age as due to his having said to G-d: “with all respect, G-d, when father and son walk together and come to a town where neither of them is known, how will they know to honour the father, seeing that they both appear as equally youthful? If You were to “crown” elderly people with a visible sign of their being old, they will know to whom to pay their respects first.” G-d answered Avraham that he had presented a valid argument and that therefore he would be the first human being upon whom this distinction would be bestowed. Along similar lines, the Midrash points out that before Yitzchok, no one was afflicted with physical handicaps, (such as Yitzchok’s blindness) Yitzchok was afflicted with such a handicap at his own request, having said to G-d: “if a human being dies without ever having endured physical handicaps and pain, the attribute of Justice will present a strong case against him by saying that he had never had to suffer any pain for any of the sins he had committed while alive. These pains would have been deemed as punishment so that upon death he could proceed to the regions of eternal bliss in the celestial regions without further delay. G-d agreed with him, and made him the first human being to be thus afflicted. We have not read about anyone falling sick before Yaakov requested that sickness become part of life on earth. Yaakov argued that unless sickness precedes death, a person would not have an opportunity to allocate his estate to his various beneficiaries. G-d agreed with him, and thus he became the first person of whom sickness preceding his death is reported in the Torah in Genesis 48,1. The two or tree days that his sickness lasted, gave him an opportunity to arrange his affairs. This is the reason why the Torah informed us that Joseph was given notice that his father was sick. Otherwise, seeing that he had 11 other sons around him in Goshen, why did special notice have to be sent to the capital where Joseph resided? To sum up: Avraham introduced the concept of old age; Yitzchok introduced the concept of people becoming afflicted with serious physical handicaps. Yaakov introduced the concept of sickness due to approaching death.

חדל להיות לשרה אורח כנשים, the Torah emphasises that although other elderly women had stopped menstruating, Sarah had continued to experience menses, as Rashi has explained on the line; “he took butter and milk,” i.e. that he could not take bread as on that day Sarah had become niddah, had menstruated, thus causing the dough she had handled to become ritually unclean.

ותצחק שרה, “Sarah laughed;” when the month of Tishrey began, six months after the prediction of the angels, and she had not experienced signs of pregnancy, she abandoned all hope of that prophecy becoming true, as there were only six months left for it to become true. Contrary to her husband Avraham, she had lost faith in the prediction. The reason that Avraham maintained faith in the prediction was that he had heard it from G-d directly, (the angel had spoken to him in the name of the Lord), whereas Sarah, had only been an eavesdropper, and possibly she had not heard correctly. She had assumed that the angels speaking to Avraham had been ordinary human beings. She took a look at her belly and asked mockingly whether such a belly could possibly produce a fetus. As soon as she had done so, in Tishrey, G-d asked Avraham why Sarah had reacted in such a manner, adding that at the time appointed, i.e. when a year had passed at the time of Passover, in the following year, the angel would return and she would have become a mother. In practice this means that the first time she heard the prediction she had heard it from the mouth of an angel whom she had believed to be a mortal human being. The second time Avraham heard it from G-d directly, i.e. 'ויאמר ה, “the Lord said;” this was followed by G-d adding: “Is anything impossible for the Lord to do?”Support for this interpretation can be found seeing that when the angels on the same evening met Lot, Lot offered them unleavened bread, matzot for supper, a hint that the date was the date that would later on become the night of the Seder of the Jewish people.[This is not far fetched at all, as the night when Avraham had fought and secured Lot’s freedom, had been the corresponding date, and Lot therefore had good reason to observe it as an anniversary of great significance for him also. Compare the numerous commentaries on Genesis 14,15, ויחלק עליהם לילה, “He divided the night for them.” Ed.] In the Talmud Rosh Hashanah, 11 both Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yoshua are quoted as in agreement that three previously barren women, i.e. Sarah, Rachel and Chanah, all became pregnant on Rosh Hashanah.

בקרבה, “in her heart and mind;”

לאמור, what is the meaning of this word, which literally means: “to say;” [apparently contradicting the previous word, Ed.] According to the plain meaning we should assume that this word here is no different from elsewhere where it appears and means that certain thoughts were to be voiced by mouth. Sarah then would have prepared to voice her opinion of the prophecy which had not come true. In other words: she was ready to voice her ridicule publicly. This would account for the fact that the Torah took her to task for her disbelief more so than it had taken to task Avraham in Genesis 17,17, where he is reported to have reacted similarly to the promise by G-d that Sarah would become the mother of a son of his. However, he had not intended to go public with his doubts.

אחרי בלותי, “after I have ceased menstruating?” Sarah is almost incredulous that nature would reverse itself in her case. She adds that even assuming that she has experienced this kind of rejuvenation, she knows from her personal experience that her husband has not experienced such symptoms. This latter thought of Sarah is the one the Torah did not reveal to Avraham, not wishing to cause friction between Sarah and her husband by revealing that she considered him impotent. If you wonder about the Torah’s choice of the expression היתה לי, “I have experienced,” in the past tense, instead of the expression תהיה לי, in the future tense, this is something we find quite often in the Holy Scriptures.

למה זה צחקה, “why is it that she ridiculed, etc.?” [the author now repeats something he had already explained, at the top of this page, offering an alternate explanation. Ed.]“If you were to ask why G-d did not rebuke Avraham when he entertained similar doubts in Genesis 17,17, the answer is that seeing that Sarah is considered as on a lower spiritual level than her husband, it is considered as clear that if even her doubts were criticised, her husband’s doubts were deserving of a rebuke even more so, without the need for the Torah to spell this out. Our author uses a parable to demonstrate this point, writing that when a wise woman wishes to rebuke her daughterinlaw for something both she and her daughter had been guilty of, she rebukes only her daughter instead, allowing her daughterinlaw to draw the necessary conclusions about her own behaviour. If G-d had rebuked Avraham in Sarah’s presence, he would have felt ashamed; He therefore did so in an indirect manner.

ואני זקנתי, “seeing that I am too old?” According to Rashi the Torah changed what Sarah had actually said out of concern for the harmony existing between Avraham and Sarah. What Sarah had actually meant was: “what good does it do for me to have been rejuvenated as long as my husband cannot be rejuvenated also?” How can I become pregnant from his seed? Had the Torah conveyed this thought to Avraham it would have meant that it was only Avraham’s inadequacy that prevented Sarah from having a child.

היפלא מה׳ דבר, “Is there then anything that goes on in My world that I am not aware of or in charge of? G-d teaches Avraham that He can hear even laughter that has only occurred in the heart or mind, without ever having crossed one’s lips.

למועד, the numerical value of the letters in this word when totaled amounts to the same as the numerical value of the word: בפסח, i.e. 150. (Compare what we wrote on verse 12)

ותכחש שרה לאמור, “Sarah denied the accusation, saying, etc.” this is the origin of the Rabbinic ruling that in most matters women are not acceptable as witnesses, as our matriarch Sarah had been guilty of lying to the Almighty. [How much more would women lie to judges? Their lies are not due to their using falsehood as a way of life, but they are more easily intimidated than men, so that sometimes they tell lies to escape a harsh fate. Sarah, when becoming aware that her innermost thoughts were known to G-d, was suddenly very fearful, possibly recalling other occasions when she had had unbecoming thoughts though she had not voiced them. Ed.]

כי יראה, “for she had become afraid;” some commentators, Rashi in the Talmud Gittin folio 90 included, claim that every time the word כי occurs in the Torah it ought to be translated as ארי, meaning that just as the word כי can have four different meanings in the Hebrew language so it has the same four different meanings in the Aramaic language.[The author proceeds why this must have been the meaning of Rashi; seeing that readers who have neither command of the Hebrew or the Aramaic language will not appreciate these nuances, I have omitted translating them. Ed.]

וישקיפו על פני סדום, “they looked down at the city of Sodom facing them;” according to Rashi, every time when the expression: השקפה occurs in the Holy Scriptures it has a negative connotation with the exception of Deuteronomy 26,15: השקיפה ממעון קדשך, “look down benignly from Your holy residence in heaven.” Our author questions Rashi by quoting Song of Songs: 6,10, מי זאת הנשקפת, “who is she who shines like the dawn,” as not having a negative connotation; he also quotes: Lamentations 3,50: עד ישקיף ויראה, “until He looks down from heaven and beholds;” a third example where the word השקפה occurs in a benign mode is Psalms 85,12 וצדק משמים נשקף, “and righteousness looks down from heaven.”

הולך עמם לשלחם, “kept walking with them to see them off.” According to Rashi, the reason that the Torah uses this formulation is that Avraham still thought that these creatures were his guests. He thought so in spite of the fact that they made a [for mortals presumptuous] statement that they guaranteed that they would return at that time in the following years, a statement that no mortal can make and be taken seriously. He assumed that though the person making this promise was mortal, he was a prophet and spoke as a messenger of G-d.

ואברהם היה יהיה....כי ידעתיו, “seeing that Avraham is destined to become....for I have become intimate with him, etc.;” the word: ידע describes special fondness someone has. A well known example is Ruth 3,2 where Naomi tells her daughterinlaw Ruth that Boaz was a close relative of hers, מודע לאיש, and that it was fortuitous that she had collected leftovers in hjs field. G-d explains that seeing that Avraham will become the founding father of a great nation, and many branch families, it was no more than fair that He should take him into His confidence. This included first and foremost how G-d was planning to deal with the city of Sodom and its inhabitants.

למען אשר יצוה את בניו ואת ביתו, “in order that he will command his sons and the members of his household, etc.” He should point out to them that unless they followed their father’s or master’s tradition, they might wind up just as the people of Sodom would in short order. [Note that here as well as at the time of the deluge, G-d was not punishing these people for their paganism but for not dealing fairly with one another. Ed.]

.הכצעקתה הבאה אלי עשו, If they really have acted as wickedly as the complaints that have reached Me;” while it is true that everything is an open book for Me, nonetheless the attribute of Mercy has requested that I exercise My power of Mercy for them;

ואם לא אדעה, but it not, i.e. if some excuse can be found for their behaviour, I will take note of it, “and will have mercy on them at this time.” The formulation here is parallel to Exodus 2,25, when G-d took pity on His people.

בתוך העיר, “within the city;” a reference to the city of Sodom itself. The King of Sodom was chief over satellite towns also, even though these satellite towns had nominally “kings” of their own.

!חלילה לך, “far be it from You!” Rashi’s comment on these words [their repetition, Ed.] based on Tanchuma, is: לעולם הבא, “even in future generations.”

לך, seeing that this word was also repeated by Avraham we may assume that the first time he addressed the masculine attributes of the Lord, and the second time he addressed the feminine attributes. [Avraham does not imply that G-d could judge unfairly; he like Moses after himreminds G-d of how He will be perceived by His subjects, i.e. as subjecting them to collective punishment. The fact that the first time the letter ל is vocalised with a semi vowel under the letter, and the second time that letter is vocalised with a full vowel kametz, was the nuance leading to this interpretation.

אם אמצא שם ארבעים וחמשה, “If I find there 45 just men,” if you were to ask why Avraham, who apparently was haggling, lowered the ante by five, whereas after going down to 40, he lowered it by ten each time? We must remember that his requests were not the same each time. He had never intended to ask for any town to be saved if it did not contain at least ten just men. How was this to work? First Avraham asked for the 5 towns to be saved on the understanding that each town had at least 10 just men. He then asked that if in each of these towns there were only nine such just men that G-d Himself would consider Himself as the tenth. He then tried to save the maximum number of people by asking that the towns not be considered collectively but individually, i.e. that a total of 40 just men evenly divided between four of the town should save these four towns. This is why he stopped when assured by G-d that even only ten men, as long as they were all part of one town, would be enough to save the inhabitants of that town. He thought that Lot, his wife, his four daughters and four sonsinlaw, would make up this quorum of ten people. A different version of what Avraham had in mind: when Avraham saw that G-d agreed to his first two requests, he realised that a total of 45 just people would suffice to save the inhabitants of aJi these five towns and their respective inhabitants could be treated as five separate units. He proceeded to treat each town as a fifth of his total request. This is why he explored what the minimum number of just people had to be to secure the survival of the inhabitants of at least one of these towns. In practice, Avraham at first asked for very little, making a greater demand on G-d’s mercy every time he continued to reduce the total number needed to save part of these communities.

אל נא יחר לאדני ואדברה, “may my Lord not become angry if I continue to bargain;” in the verses 30,31,and 32, the word אדון is to be treated as one of the names of G-d, i.e. the attributes which must not be erased in a Torah scroll.