When Abraham sat in the entrance way of his tent in the beginning of this week’s Torah portion Vayera, I am sure he had no idea the precedent he had just started. That simple action was not just a way of keeping cool on a very hot day, or healing after the circumcision he had just performed on himself as a 99-year-old (ouch!), but a whole way of being that Jews would be imitating hundreds of generations later. Every time we witness a wedding couple standing under a Chuppah, wedding canopy, or sitting in a Sukkah on Sukkot, or inviting a guest into our home, we are, in effect, sitting with Abraham and Sarah in their open tent.
And it is not an exactly easy thing our Biblical ancestors are asking us to do. Keeping our tents open also means we need to keep our hearts open as well. Especially at times like the ones we are currently living through, this can be especially hard. How can our hearts be open when we are in so much pain? Perhaps, a teaching by Rabbeinu Bachya, a 13th Century Kabbalist, can help us out. He writes about the verse that after the circumcision, Abraham “took advantage of the heat of the sun to act as therapy for his wounds. This is why he was outside at a time when normal healthy people stay inside to take advantage of the shade.” In other words, Abraham was sitting there not only to help others, but to help himself. By keeping our hearts open to the world around us, we allow our own hearts to heal.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex