Home Sweet Home

Of the three human necessities, food, clothing and shelter, the Torah places an even greater emphasis on shelter. Shortage of food makes us hungry. Lack of clothing renders us cold. Homelessness denies us our human dignity.

Overriding Greeting G-d

One of the most important forms of kindness is performed through Hachnasas Orchim-hospitality. Abraham, the first Jew, who had demonstrated his kindness in so many ways, outdid himself in this week’s Torah portion by serving his three guests, despite his infirmed state — recuperating from circumcision.

So powerful is the Mitzvah of Hachnasas Orchim, inviting guests into one’s home, that it even overrides greeting G-d Himself. This lesson was derived by the Talmud from the beginning of this week’s Parsha, which opens with the statement that G-d appeared to Abraham. No sooner does Abraham see his three potential guests, he interrupts his encounter with G-d, and instead runs towards the three people, disguised as angels, invites them into his house, takes care of their every need. Despite the fact that he was just communicating with G-d, Abraham realized that it was more important to perform the Mitzvah of hospitality.

Why is hospitality so great a mitzvah that it justified Abraham’s “ignoring” G-d, as it were, to entertain his guests?

Removing the Scourge of (Temporary) Homelessness

The answer lies in a better understanding of hospitality. The Mitzvah of hospitality is not simply inviting a friend over for a cup of tea, or even a full meal. That is also a Mitzvah, because any act of friendship expressed expresses and generates greater unity. However, the Mitzvah of hospitality applies primarily to inviting individuals into one’s home who are traveling and are therefore either permanently or temporarily without a home. Thus, when one performs the Mitzvah of Hachnasas Orchim, they remove the curse of homelessness from that individual.

The Talmud states that “a person who does not have a home is not a person.” It does not say that a person without food is not a person. Why is the lack of a home more fundamentally a repudiation of their humanity than the lack of other necessities? Also, why would the Talmud demean a helpless person who doesn’t have a home?

My Home is My Castle

A human being is a multi-layered creature. And only limited aspects of our personality are ever expressed. For example, when we are in a public situation, only that public or peripheral layer of our humanity is expressed. In a social setting, it is the social layer of our personalities that are being expressed. When we teach, for example, only the intellectual layer of our personality manifests itself. The core of who we are, the essence of our identities, however, can remain elusive even from ourselves.

Where does a person express himself the way he or she truly is? Where does one’s true humanity have the opportunity to assert itself? Only when we are in our own home can we be ourselves and express our innermost being.

Thus, when a person has no home, they lack the ability to fully express themselves; to be themselves. The innermost aspects of their personalities remain suppressed. When our Sages stated that a person without a home is not a complete person, it was not intended as an insult, but rather as a description of the full human potential that must be allowed to blossom by providing everyone with a home.

We can now appreciate the greatness of the Mitzvah of hospitality. When a person is on the road and lacks a place where they can dwell, the Mitzvah of hospitality not only provides them with a roof over their heads and with food and drink. It gives them a home away from home, enabling the guest to express a greater measure of humanity. We made a complete human being out of this person.

G-d’s Need for a Home

Our Sages in the Midrash teach us that G-d too needs a “home.” When we perform any of the Mitzvos (G-d’s commandments) we also, in effect, perform the Mitzvah of hospitality, by inviting G-d into our homes, so that He feels comfortable in our midst and that He can express His true essence.

This is why Judaism puts such a great emphasis on the coming of Moshiach, because at that time, G-d will finally have a permanent dwelling place in our world. Without this dwelling place, G-d only expresses His “outer” dimensions, when we perform Mitzvos and particularly in the Messianic Age, we will be able to experience the revelation of the very essence of G-d that can only be expressed when one has a home.

From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Vayeira by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.