Parshat Vayera-‘Angelic insights’-“It’s a ‘mefuresher Rashi’-based on a shiur from Rabbi I. Bernstein zal in London in 1993

Rabbi Shlomo Kluger ((1783– 1869) was the Rav in Brody in Poland and was known as an outstanding Talmid Chacham and community Rabbi. Many people came to him to do ‘shimush’ and his books are studied keenly to this very day.

When he began his rabbonus in Brody, in the first week there, there was a sad event taking place. A woman had just given birth to a boy and her husband was dying and the question arose as to whether to delay the Brit Milah for a few hours (the doctors had given him only hours to live), so that the child could be named after the deceased father. Rabbi Kluger heard about this and insisted that a minyan be gathered to perform the brit immediately and not wait for the outcome of the father’s illness. In fact, within a short period of time the father made a full recovery. The people in the community were so taken aback with the Rabbi’s handling of the situation that they started to claim that he was a ‘baal mofes’ meaning a ‘miracle worker.’

Rabbi Kluger heard about this reaction of the community and he called a meeting of the elders of Brody to explain his actions. He told them that this is nothing to do with being a ‘baal mofess’ but it in fact a ‘mefuresher Rashi’ in Parshat Vayera.

When the angels were sent to Avraham, Rashi explains that one angel was sent to heal Avraham and then go on and save Lot from there. Rabbi Kluger explained that clearly Lot did not have the merit to have his own angel to save him and had to rely on another angel who was going to do one action and would be ‘available ‘to do a second action if required (see Tosephot who explain that even though Rashi says that one angel cannot do 2 agencies, this only applies in the same place but not if the actions are in two different places, as it was in this case. Also see the interpretation of Chatam Sofer on this Rashi).

In the situation of the sick father,Rabbi Kluger argued that our tradition is that Eliahu, the ‘malach/angel of the brit’ will be at the circumcision and will be performing his regular agency at that time. The hope is that maybe he will also ‘look in’ on the father and aid the healing process in the merit of the mitzvah and this is exactly what happened.

The community now realized what a great scholar they had as their Rav and he stayed there for many years.

Another question raised about the angels is said in the name of Dayan Yechezkel Abramsky zal, who was the head of the London Beth Din and eventually made Aliya in 1951 and died in Israel in 1976. He notes that each angel had a specific task which required visiting the person in question. The angel curing Avraham had to visit Avraham and the angel bringing news to Sarah had to visit Sarah. However the angel going to destroy Sedom did not need to go to Avraham first, but needed to go to Sedom and do its bidding there. Why did the angel go via Avraham?

Dayan Abramsky answers by explaining that the angel may have had a complaint to God about the command to destroy Sedom. Why are they different to the rest of humanity who are also evil:

‘I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth’ (Gen 8:21)

God replies by telling the angel to visit Avraham and see the nobility of his home and his lifestyle. After this, the angel can ‘understand’ that mankind can achieve greatness and that Sedom deserved their punishment. This is the meaning of the pasuk in the parsha which states:

טז  וַיָּקֻמוּ מִשָּׁם הָאֲנָשִׁים, וַיַּשְׁקִפוּ עַל-פְּנֵי סְדֹם; וְאַבְרָהָם--הֹלֵךְ עִמָּם, לְשַׁלְּחָם.

16 And the men rose up from thence, and looked out toward Sodom; and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way.

Rashi comments that the word ‘vayashkifu’ means ‘to look on with a bad intent’. The pasuk says that the angels arose from being with Avraham and now they understood why Sedom deserved to be destroyed, as they saw the nobility of the house of Avraham and therefore their ‘hashkafa’ changed.

At a time when so much of our ‘history’ is being challenged by the enemies of Israel, it is important for us to become stronger in our own awareness of our history and traditions and these insights into the parsha should give us the ‘chizuk’ to know who we are and what we represent in the world. The zeal of Avraham and also his lessons of compassion on the wicked society of Sedom who he prays for, even though they were so corrupt, should be shining examples for us to look up to and emulate and understand that our tradition is a beautiful and vital Mesora. This is who we are and we should never make excuses for the high standards which we are expected to live up to. This is the true legacy of Avraham and the other patriarchs/matriarchs of our people.

Shabbat Shalom.