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