G

od appeared to
Abraham by the oaks of
Mamre, as he sat at the
entrance to his tent in the heat
of the day. He lifted up his eyes
and looked, and, lo, three men
were standing over against him;
and when he saw
them, he ran to
meet them from
the tent entrance,
and bowed down
to the earth…
Genesis 18:1–2
Thus, Parshat
Vayera opens
with one of the most famous
scenes in the Bible: Abraham’s
meeting with the three enig-
matic strangers. The text calls
them men. We later discover
that they were, in fact, angels,
each with a specific mission.
The chapter at first glance

seems simple, almost fable-
like. It is, however, complex
and ambiguous. It consists of
three sections:
Verse 1: God appears to
Abraham.
Verses 2-16: Abraham meets
the men/angels.
Verses 17–33: The dialogue
between God and Abraham
about the fate of Sodom.
The relationship between
these sections is far from clear.
Do they represent one scene,
two or three?
The most obvious possibility
is three. Each of the above sec-
tions is a separate event. First,
God appears to Abraham, as
Rashi explains, “to visit the
sick” after Abraham’s circum-
cision. Then the visitors arrive
with the news that Sarah will
have a child. Then takes place

the great dialogue about justice
and the imminent punishment
of the people of Sodom.
Maimonides suggests that
there are only two scenes: The
visit of the angels and the dia-
logue with God. The first verse
does not describe an event at
all; it is, rather, a chapter head-
ing. It tells us that the events
that follow are all part of a
prophetic revelation, a Divine-
human encounter.
The third possibility is
that we have a single contin-
uous scene. God appears to
Abraham, but before He can
speak, Abraham sees the pass-
ersby and asks God to wait
while he serves them food.
Only when they have departed
— in verse 17 — does he turn
to God, and the conversation
begins.

The interpretation of the
chapter affects — and hinges
upon — the way we translate
the word Adonai in Abraham’s
appeal: “Please Adonai, if now
I have found favor in your
sight, do not pass by, I pray
you, from your servant” (18:3).
Adonai can be a reference to
one of the names of God. It
can also be read as “my lords”
or “sirs.” In the first case,
Abraham would be addressing
God. In the second, he would
be speaking to the passersby.
The same linguistic ambigu-
ity appears in the next chapter
(19:2), when two of Abraham’s
visitors — now described as
angels — visit Lot in Sodom:
“
And the two angels came to
Sodom in the evening, and
Lot sat by the city gates. When
he saw them, he rose to meet

God and Strangers

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

Rabbi Lord
Jonathan
Sacks

42 | JANUARY 19 • 2023