Parashat Vayeira 5784

A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayeira
By Rabbi Cantor Luis Cattan (AJR ’20)

Rachel Edri served tea and Moroccan cookies to Hamas terrorists carrying grenades until police stormed her house in the south of Israel and rescued her on October 7, 2023. After an early-morning air raid siren, Rachel and her husband returned from a bomb shelter in her hometown of Ofakim to find a band of Hamas militants in her living room. As gunfire raged outside, Edri’s home saw a 20-hour tete-a-tete between hospitality and brutality. Says the AP report.

“I told him, ‘I am really like your mother. I will help you, I will take care of you. What do you need?’” Edri told Ynet. She served the terrorist canned pineapple, tea, and her signature Moroccan cookies. She sang them Arabic songs, and they replied with Hebrew ones. She offered the men Coke Zero — when they said they preferred Coca-Cola, she obliged.

She worried that if they were hungry, they would become even more aggressive. She fed them breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Rachel offered drinks and told them to relax.

“After they drank and ate, they became much calmer,” Edri said. “I started having conversations, and at one point, I even forgot for a moment that they were terrorists.”

In a TV interview, Rachel said, “Of course, I did it to save our lives, but this is how I was brought up. If you have visitors, you receive them and feed them. It came naturally. I saw ‘visitors’ in my living room, and I had to be a good host.”

After 17 hours, an IDF team was able to rescue Edri and her husband with the help of their son, Eviatar.

גְּדוֹלָה הַכְנָסַת אוֹרְחִין מֵהַקְבָּלַת פְּנֵי שְׁכִינָה,. Greater is hospitality than receiving the divine presence. (BT, Shabbat 127a).

Our sages in the Talmud discuss the importance of the mitzvah of Hakhnasat Orhim (hospitality) and try to define how to prioritize it when in conflict with other vital commandments, particularly Torah study. Rav Yehuda, quoting Rav, states that hospitality supersedes an encounter with the shekhinah itself.

In our Torah portion, Abraham, as he was in a dialog with the Divine, says: Would you please hold on for a moment? I see three strangers coming in my direction and want to host them. I’ll be back after tending to them.

What is so important about this mitzvah that a man gets his moment of revelation and prophesy and renounces it to care for three nomads?

According to Rabbi Dov Berl Wein, it is the profound realization that we all are, in fact, guests in this world.

The world is our temporary dwelling. If we acknowledge the temporary nature of our essence, the entire relationship between fellow human beings changes. When we realize that we are guests, we behave politely and with manners, bless our hosts, and express gratitude. The ways of the guests are “pleasant” (דרכי נועם). That is why Hakhnasat Orhim (hospitality) is greater than receiving the divine presence or rushing early to the house of study (Shabbat 127a). Human beings can’t receive The Divine if they don’t internalize that they are just guests in this world.

Perhaps this subconscious internalization made Rachel Edri perform a mitzvah, not for just strangers but for her captors. Radical hospitality saved her life. We cannot be so naïve to think that her motivation was other than survival. Still, in doing so, and in realizing at that moment that we are just “passengers” in this world, something divine appeared in the midst of the enormous tragedy surrounding Edri’s home. Because of her actions, the hostage became a host, and they all forgot, at least briefly, that they were killers and victims.

Perhaps because Islam and Judaism share the value of hospitality, the terrorists saw in Rachel the embodiment of a precept. “Welcoming a guest is a significant part of Islamic etiquette. It entails the concern and generosity of a host towards his/her guest. It is mandatory upon every Muslim to welcome his/her guest, no matter Muslim or non-Muslim, rich or poor, with a cheerful expression without the least hint of imposition or unpleasantness.” Maryam Hedayat, a columnist at Muslimvillage.com, says.

She points out how, in the Muslim community, hospitality has become less critical and how the material world and our comfort compete with one of the most essential values. She adds: “These days, many of us are over-committed, and life seems to be running on a fast track whereby the arrival of a guest is no less than a traffic jam or a blockage. Thus, hospitality seems to be disappearing and fading in some Muslim communities. Ethical behavior and the traditional hospitality it demands seem to have taken a back seat in this age of materialism. We seem to be transforming into machines with little feeling and affection for their fellow beings.”

We can say the same for the value of hospitality in our Jewish tradition. Isolation and the inability to break bread not just with strangers but with our own may result from all the distractions that communication, social media, and technology have brought us. Our responsibility is to find the right balance and return to some of the core values we, as humanity, share.

I can’t avoid thinking how shameful and sad it is that we are experiencing these attacks and confrontations even when we share the same values. I can only pray and aspire that the day will arrive when our shared values bring us closer to a peaceful co-existence. That the Rachels of the world can practice radical hospitality without a Kalachnikov on their heads.

I pray for the day that radical hospitality supersedes all radicalisms.
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Rabbi Ḥazzan Luis Cattan (AJR ’20) is currently serving at Sutton Place Synagogue in New York City. He is the Immediate Past President of the Cantors Assembly. As a native Uruguayan, he attended the Catholic University of Montevideo receiving his BA in Social Communication Sciences with a major in Advertising. He sought private instruction under the tutelage of renowned local teachers. Upon returning from Israel, where he spent a year studying, he started his Ḥazzanut training with different mentors in Uruguay and Argentina as well. He became the Head Ḥazzan at the NCI (the largest Conservative Synagogue in Uruguay). He also served as International Vice President of Mercaz Olami (Zionist Conservative Movement) as one of the founders of the Uruguayan Branch.