Earlier this year I travelled from Jerusalem to Petra, the awe-inspiring Nabataean ruins hidden in the Jordanian desert. On my second day, early in the morning, I walked in the hills above the city. Two stray dogs accompanied me for hours as I traipsed through unexpectedly empty landscapes.
At the top of a small valley I spied a rudimentary house – a rough wall, breeze blocks, a tarpaulin stretched across – a Bedouin home. As I approached, the woman living there invited me in straightaway. I sat with her children and was given all the tea and biscuits I might have wanted. The welcome was warm, immediate, and, it seemed, intuitive.
I’ve often had the joy of receiving such generous hospitality in other countries, and nearly always from people who are materially poorer than I am. But in my everyday life it is the exception, rather than the rule. It seems that hospitality is not central to our lives today.
But in this week’s parashah, Vayera, we read the story of the welcome that Sarah and Abraham give to three angels who appear at their remote tent. Like my Bedouin host, Abraham and Sarah show absolute hospitality: they have the strangers sit back and relax while they serve them up a feast of hot bread, curds, and fresh meat.
May our Judaism help us imitate their hospitality, greeting strangers not with fear or suspicion but with optimism and welcome. Let us dare to show deeper hospitality: perhaps by inviting a friend in for tea; or a neighbour we don’t usually speak to; perhaps even somebody we don’t yet know at all. And when we invite anyone in – friend, family, or stranger – let us remember that, by giving a warm welcome, we are continuing a tradition stretching all the way back to our ancestors in the Land of Israel.
And, through the welcome that we show to others, may we, like Abraham and Sarah, be blessed.
Shabbat Shalom,
Tim
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