Hospitality to Guests

One of the important and prominent mitzvot within the system of mitzvot between man and his fellow is the mitzva of hakhnasat orḥim (hospitality to guests). So great is its importance that the Torah devoted many verses to it in order to teach us in detail how our forefather Avraham, peace be upon him, fulfilled the mitzva of hospitality (Bereishit 18:1-8).

If so, it is fitting that we too follow a little in the path of our forefather Avraham in fulfilling this mitzva. First, the timing: three days after he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin, while he was still ill from the circumcision, he already went out to the entrance of his tent – to look for guests. And when, to his joy, he saw three men, he forgot his illness, immediately ran toward them, and urged them to come and be guests in his home.

From the timing we move on to the guests themselves: who were these guests? We know today, and our forefather Avraham also knew afterwards, that they were angels; but when he ran toward them, he thought they were ordinary people. Moreover, our Sages of blessed memory tell us (Bava Metzia 86b) that they appeared to him as Arabs who were accustomed to bow down to the dust on their feet, an especially repulsive kind of idolatry, and in order to remove them from their error, he asked them to wash their feet. But in any event, this fact, which makes these guests people of the lowest level, did not deter our forefather Avraham, who nevertheless ran toward them, brought them into his home with joy, slaughtered cattle in their honor, and served them butter and milk.^¹

After that wondrous act of hospitality, our forefather Avraham received the tidings of the birth of his son Yitzḥak.

Similarly, it is told of the father of the Ba’al Shem Tov, R. Eliezer, that he was very meticulous in the mitzva of hospitality, and he would station a paid messenger at the edge of the village to invite poor wayfarers to his home. He would feed them and give them drink and provide them with lodging generously.

In Heaven, great joy was aroused by the good deeds of R. Eliezer, until the Satan came and prosecuted, saying that in order to know whether his deeds were truly for the sake of Heaven, he needed to be tested. It was decided to test him, but in the merit of the mitzva they had mercy on him and determined that it would not be the Satan who would test him, but rather Eliyahu the Prophet.

One Shabbat afternoon, a Jewish wayfarer arrived at R. Eliezer’s home, his pack on his shoulder and his staff in his hand – a complete desecrator of Shabbat. And to make it clear that Shabbat had not been forgotten by him, the poor man greeted R. Eliezer with a festive “Shabbat shalom.”

R. Eliezer did not want to embarrass the poor man, so he overlooked the desecration of Shabbat, invited him to the meal, and gave him of every good thing. The next day too, when he parted from him, he did not rebuke him, but parted from him in peace with great warmth. He even added that from now on, every time he passed through the place, he could come and be a guest in his home.

At that moment Eliyahu the Prophet revealed himself to R. Eliezer and announced to him that in the merit of his love of Israel and the mitzva of hospitality, a son would be born to him in his old age who would illuminate the eyes of Israel – none other than R. Yisrael Ba’al Shem Tov.