And the Lord appeared to him by the terebinths of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; (Bereishis 18:1)

Avraham Avinu treated his guests royally. As a result, klal Yisrael merited many “perks” from Hashem (See Bava Metzia 86b). But did Avraham Avinu really do hachnasas orchim at all? After all, his visitors were really malachim in disguise who didn’t really need anything. So though he put in the effort, did he really fulfill the mitzvah? It is as if someone woke up early to put on tefillin only to discover they were invalid! A great amount of effort, but no mitzvah was actually done.

The Chofetz Chaim (Yisrael Meir ha-Kohen Kagan 1838-1933) addresses this question in his work Ahavas Chesed (chelek gimmel, 2nd perek in the footnote). Yet I would like to share with you a different approach which I saw. The Medrash tells us that Iyov, despite being a great host with a tent open on all four sides, still didn’t hold a candle to Avraham Avinu. But why was his hospitality considered that much less? The answer which I saw was that Iyov’s hachnasas orchim was reactive, done to take care of the momentary needs of his guests in difficult times. Whereas Avraham Avinu proactively looked for opportunities to do chesed.

For many years I had the following question: If there were no travelers because Hashem made it very hot, why did Avraham Avinu want guests to come? Let them all stay in their air-conditioned tents! The answer to this question is that Avraham Avinu wanted to do chesed because it is the way of Hashem to do chesed, and by doing chesed he will be emulating Hashem. Therefore, even though the guests had no real needs, Avraham still accomplished his goal of emulating Hashem.

This was the level of Avraham Avinu’s desire to do chesed. And due to this attitude, he was chosen as a representative of Hashem in this world.

Many times we also find ourselves in situations where we would like to do chesed. However, most of the time it is because we see a person in need, and our heart goes out to them. But this is not our pursuing chesed; rather, it is because Jews are by nature merciful, and we have difficulty seeing our fellow Jews in pain.  To be true children of Avraham Avinu demands that we are not merely concerned by someone else’s lack, but that we should be proactively chasing opportunities to do chesed, thereby emulating the ways of Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

For example, when we drive to a wedding, we often have room in our car, yet we don’t ask around to see if someone is in need of a ride. There may be many good reasons to not offer a ride, such as when we have a private phone call to make, or have designated this time to spend alone with our wife.  But instead of finding reasons why we can’t offer people a ride, we should be proactively looking for ways to do acts of chesed to make the world a better place. Even when we have legitimate reasons for not giving a ride, it should bother us that we weren’t able to do chesed.

This is the true mida of Avraham Avinu. And this is the type of chesed that will set us apart from the rest, turning us into the ultimate children of Hashem.