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Drash for Shabbat Vayera By Wayne Anderson - October 26, 2007 In this Torah portion we see contrasting accounts of hospitality - Abraham's example versus that of Sodom. Between these accounts we find Abraham's negotiation on justice: the very heart of hospitality is justice. Thirty-six times in the Torah we are warned against mistreating strangers. In their commentaries, the Rabbis debate whether rendering hospitality is as important or more important than studying Torah. Let's talk for a moment about hachnasat orchim - hospitality - in our congregation. As a whole, we are both open and welcoming. Our rabbis, volunteers, and staff create an atmosphere of welcome for all. Glance around you. Sitting in this sanctuary are visitors, non-Jewish partners, and parents raising Jewish children. They have all been welcomed here by the staff and volunteers. What about you, though? Have you, like Abraham, left your own comfort zone to make strangers welcome? Have we individually added to their discomfort instead? - A rabbi (not present) took a non-Jewish mother raising her son as a Jew to task for not coaching him in trop for his bar mitzvah. Her reaction? She memorized his parsha and drafted his non-Jewish older sister to coach him. At his bar mitzvah, his absentee father chanted the Torah blessings while she and the older sister looked on. - Every week, a Christian father brings his Jewish children to religious school and ensures they do their homework. He is actively involved in and committed to their Jewish education. Every week during religious school, he sits alone. - My own daughters - born Jews - have had their credentials questioned because they "don't have a Jewish-sounding last name." Our text opens three days after 99-year-old Abraham circumcises himself. He is in front of his tent at midday communing with God. When he sees three strangers he stops, stands up and runs to them, falling at their feet. He hurries to make them comfortable and feed them. Imagine his pain three days after circumcision. This is our model and ideal of hospitality. Now think about the examples I outlined: are we emulating Abraham when we belittle or ignore parents raising Jewish children? Should we dare to question the credentials of Jewish children based on their family name? Our tradition commands us to treat the stranger who sojourns with us as one of our own. Our tradition also teaches us that it is wrong to even ask whether a fellow Jew is a convert. Every Jew here is a Jew-by-choice. I believe we're commanded to be hospitable because hospitality is an opportunity to increase holiness in the world. Every human being is a reflection of God. When you come here, I challenge you to emulate Abraham and find and foster that divine reflection in yourself and the strangers around you through your hospitality. Shabbat Shalom.
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