Vayera — He Appeared
Hebrew: וַיֵּרָא | Book: Bereishit (Genesis)
Summary
Angels visit Abraham; Sodom and Gomorrah; Lot’s rescue; the birth of Isaac; the binding of Isaac (Akeidah).
Chabad Chassidic Teachings
Abraham’s Hospitality and Chesed
The parsha opens with Abraham sitting at his tent entrance on the third day after circumcision — in physical pain — yet he rushes to welcome three strangers. The Midrash teaches that God visited him (as bikur cholim, visiting the sick) and Abraham interrupted the Divine Presence to welcome guests.
Chabad teaching: hospitality (hachnasat orchim) is so great that it surpasses even welcoming the Divine Presence — because chesed toward another person is actually a higher expression of chesed than abstract spiritual devotion.
The Akeidah — The Binding of Isaac
The akeidah (binding of Isaac at Mount Moriah) is the supreme test of faith. In Chabad:
- It represents the absolute surrender of the sekhel (intellect) before the Divine command — kabbalat ol (acceptance of God’s yoke) even when it contradicts one’s understanding
- Isaac represents the yesh (the created something) that is completely surrendered back to the ayin (the Divine nothing)
- The ram that replaces Isaac represents how, after total surrender, the physical itself is elevated to holiness
The akeidah established a cosmic channel of mesiras nefesh (self-sacrifice) that every Jewish soul can access forever.
Sodom as the Antithesis of Chesed
Sodom’s sin was institutionalized selfishness — laws protecting “my property” at all costs, refusing to share, transforming protection of the self into civic virtue. This is the spiritual opposite of Abraham’s chesed and represents the danger of taking natural self-preservation (nefesh ha-behemit) to its extreme.
Key Concepts
Sources Cited
Bereishit 18:1; Sanhedrin 103b; Zohar I:98b