42 | NOVEMBER 14 • 2019 

T

he opening of this por-
tion is the well-known 
narrative of Avraham 
welcoming the three angels 
into his home and displaying 
the important Jewish value of 
hakhnasat orhim, welcoming 
guests.
Another Jewish 
value that comes across 
strongly in Avraham’
s 
behavior, both here 
and throughout the 
descriptions of his life, 
is zerizut — enthusi-
asm. Here, Avraham’
s 
enthusiasm to do the 
mitzvah of welcoming 
guests comes out in the 
speed with which he 
reacts to their presence. 
He runs to greet them; 
he runs to ask Sarah to 
prepare food for the guests; he 
runs to his herd to choose an 
animal for the meal. That is a 
lot of running for an old man. 
The truth is, all of 
Avraham’
s running is only 
one aspect of the zerizut he 
shows in the story. A midrash 
tells us that Avraham was 
always on the lookout for 
people wandering through the 
desert. He was always looking 
for the opportunity to per-
form the mitzvah of welcom-
ing guests.
If you look through the 
narratives of Avraham’
s life 
in the Torah, you can find a 
variety of moments where 
Avraham shows this. It is 
displayed in the fact that 
Avraham is always getting up 
and on with his day early in 
the morning: in the morning 
the day after God tells him, 
“Lech Lecha — Go forth from 
your native land … to a land 
that I will show you;” the day 
after God says, “Take your 
son, your only son … and go 

to the land of Moriah.
” It is 
this linking of Avraham with 
morning time that led our 
rabbis to say that our daily 
morning service was fixed in 
connection with Avraham. 
Why is Avraham always 
up so early? He is anxious to 
do God’
s will, to fulfill 
his purpose in life and 
to do the mitzvot. This 
sense of zerizut is not 
tangential to living a 
religious life; it is essen-
tial. Avraham shows us 
a path toward moving 
through our lives with 
purpose. 
When you see an 
opportunity to help 
someone, don’
t procras-
tinate; don’
t put it off. 
Who knows how long 
the opportunity will 
be available to you? When 
we procrastinate in the pres-
ence of a mitzvah, we show 
it to be less than important. 
It might seem that someone 
else will come along to take 
care of things. Maybe that is 
true. When that happens, the 
person who needed the help 
will be OK. The person who 
fulfilled the mitzvah will have 
achieved something. But what 
about us? We’
ll be the same 
as we were before, but in an 
unfortunate way. We will not 
have achieved something. We 
will not have helped someone 
in need. We will not have 
fulfilled that part of ourselves 
which was made to fulfill 
mitzvot. 
Wouldn’
t it be better to 
follow Avraham’
s model of 
zerizut? Better for you, better 
for others and better for our 
world? 

Rabbi Steven Rubenstein is rabbi of 
Congregation Beth Ahm in West 
Bloomfield.

Parshat 

Vayera: 

Genesis 

18:1-22:24; 

II Kings 

4:1-37.

Rabbi Steven 
Rubenstein

Spirit
torah portion

A Model Of 
Get-Up-And-Go

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