He saw three men standing near him. As soon as he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to greet them and, bowing to the ground, (Bereishis 18:2)

Rabbi Yoshe Ber Soloveichik, the Beis Halevi, would wear clothes befitting of an important Rav when he attended to matters in his community. But when he travelled, it was not necessary for him to give honor to his rabbinical position, so he chose to wear the clothing of the simple folk. There are many incidents recorded about people who treated him dishonorably, not realizing who this seemingly simple man was.

One of the incidents goes as follows: The Beis Halevi was travelling one night with his gabbai when a snowstorm began. Fortunately, they found a Jewish-owned inn, and knocked on the door. But the innkeeper was already asleep in his warm bed and wasn’t interested in any business due to the inclement weather. The Beis Halevi’s gabbai pounded on the door until eventually the innkeeper opened the door and begrudgingly let the Beis Halevi in. “You can sleep on the floor, in the hallway.” said the innkeeper, as he pointed to a cold, uncomfortable place.

Shortly afterwards, there was a great commotion at the door as a gabbai announced the entrance of the Koidonover Rebbe and his entourage. The innkeeper accorded these men great respect, but as the Koidonover Rebbe walked to wash his hands for the magnificent meal the innkeeper had prepared for them, he noticed the Beis Halevi sleeping on the floor. “How could you let this great Rav sleep on the floor and not give him proper accommodations!?” asked the Rebbe. The innkeeper immediately asked the Beis Halevi forgiveness for treating him improperly. The Beis Halevi responded, “You have given me an insight into understanding something in this week’s parsha. When Avraham Avinu treated the three angels royally, Chazal went to great lengths to praise this behavior. Yet when Lot gave refuge to his two angels, which put his own family in mortal danger, Chazal did not praise Lot.”

The Beis Halevi explained that Lot saw two refined gentlemen come to his home, and because they looked important, Lot gave them proper respect and accommodations. Whereas the three men who came to visit Avraham looked like lowly Arab peasants, yet he still treated them royally. This is the true meaning of chesed, as opposed to doing a mitzvah for self-glorification. The Beis Halevi concluded his rebuke to the innkeeper, “You too should do the mitzvah of taking in guests properly, even if they do not look like Torah greats.”

I remember how the Rosh Yeshiva of the Yeshiva of Passaic, NJ, jumped at the opportunity to honor the Torah when all his bochurim were avoiding this same opportunity: The toilet of the yeshiva backed up and flooded the hall. The bochurim ignored the problem and stepped around the mess, but as soon as the Rosh Yeshiva saw the problem, he began cleaning it up. The bochurim saw the Rosh Yeshiva doing this demeaning work, and offered to help, explaining that “kovod hatorah” would not allow them to permit the Rosh Yeshiva to do such work. The Rosh Yeshiva responded, “You already had your chance to honor the Torah by keeping the Yeshiva clean. Now I am going to honor the Torah and clean up this mess!”

We want to feel good when doing a mitzvah. But can we move out of our comfort zone and even do a mitzvah when it doesn’t make us feel good? I had a happy-go-lucky roommate when I was a young bochur, and he once brought back an interesting homeless character from the Kosel to our apartment to sleep. My other roommate was petrified to let the man in the door. “Where is your Ahavas Yisrael?” asked the roommate from the other side of the door. My roommate inside responded, “Yirah comes before Ahava!”

All of us should work to do chesed, even when it is not comfortable. These particular acts of chesed outside of our comfort zones elevate us to greater heights and definitely deserve honorable mention.