Parashat Veyera begins with an Avraham Avinu being visited by Hashem, on the third day of his Berit Milah. This is where the Torah chooses to describe the hallmark of Avraham Avinu, which was his Hesed. We are told at length about what he did, how he ran, and all of the details of this hesed.
There are two questions asked about this:
Firstly, why does the Torah wait until Avraham Avinu was 99 years old, after his Berit Milah, to describe his middah of hesed, which he had been doing his whole life?
He’d been taking in guests for years. So why wait until now to discuss it?
Secondly, when his hesed is finally described, one would think it would be about an act that actually accomplished something. But in the end, Avraham Avinu’s hesed was ultimately for angels that didn’t need to eat or drink. Why was this the time to describe Avraham Avinu’s greatness?
Those are both questions asked by Rav Sadok HaKohen.
He answers with the following principle: We don’t do hesed because somebody else is in need. Hashem can take care of everyone. We should do hesed because we want to, because hesed is a middah inside of us. That’s why Rabbenu Yonah says that we call it Ahavat (love of) Hesed. We have to love doing hesed, but not because someone else needs it.
Avraham Avinu went out looking to do hesed. He needed a recipient, and there was no one there to receive it.
Why is this the ultimate act of hesed? Because we learn hesed from Hashem. Hashem doesn’t do hesed because people are lacking. There were no people in the world to be lacking. Hashem went and created a world so that He could give.
As the Ramchal says, --דרך הטוב להטיבThe way of the good one is to do goodness. And that is Hashem. Hashem is the Ultimate good, and He wants to do goodness. That is what we are supposed to be, and that was Avraham Avinu. Yet Avraham Avinu only graduated to that level after his Berit Milah. After his Berit Milah, he became connected to the upper worlds, and he graduated to the true kindness, which is like that of Hashem.
But there is an even deeper concept to this. Whatever we do is ultimately enhancing ourselves. When we do an act of hesed, of course the other person needs, and we want to give them, but we become Baalei Hesed when we do hesed. Everything that happens, happens within ourselves. Therefore, we grow, regardless of what happens around us. It’s all within us. That’s part of this message of the Avraham Avinu. It’s about us. We are connected, we are growing, and we are developing in a spiritual way. That has a lot to do with the Avodah of Bitachon.
Bitachon is not just to get what you want. It’s not about a way to get some place. It’s who you are becoming. As they say, it’s not the destination, it’s the journey.
It’s not what I am trying to get out of it, it’s who I’m trying to become. Hesed is not about who I’m giving, it’s about who I’m becoming.
That’s what we learn from Avraham Avinu. He didn’t give them anything, because they were angels. But look what he became from it!
Ultimately, when the Torah says that the Jewish people were taken care of in the desert, and given the manna, it was in the zechut of Avraham Avinu- the zechut of the hesed he did for the angels, which was seemingly a hesed that did nothing. That was the hesed that Hashem used, because it was this hesed that made Avraham Avinu into Avraham Avinu.
Let us appreciate our actions for what they do to us, and not necessarily for what they do to anybody else.
We become greater, we become more special.
Raising children, going through life, it’s not about the outcome. It’s not about what you see happen. It’s about what you became, how you became a better person.
B’ezrat Hashem, we will all continue to become greater, and better people.