Avraham's Prophesy Elevated

 Parshat Vayera 

by Rabbi Avi Billet 

While we do not have a frame of reference that helps us understand how prophesy works, God’s response to the conversation of Miriam and Aharon in Bamidbar 12 gives us an inkling into the major difference between how Moshe would receive prophesy – like a conversation between people – and how every other prophet received prophesy – through visions and dreams. 

 This implies that even the forefathers received prophesy through dreams, a notion that is easily provable through all the times Avraham receives prophesy and then “Gets up early in the morning,” implying waking from the sleep in which he received the divine message. Yaakov’s major prophesies, with the ladder and in Beit El, as well as his references to God communicating with him that he communicates to his wives, all clearly take place while he is sleeping. And the same is true for the communication Yitzchak receives from the Almighty. 

 The challenge we have is Chapter 18, when God “appears to Avraham” at the beginning of the Parsha, and the subsequent conversation that He has with Avraham, which seems to take place while Avraham is awake and “standing before the Almighty.” 

 Rashbam’s commentary gives a very simple explanation that puts the opening chapter of Vayera into a clear-to-understand framework. 

The parsha begins with the words וירא אליו ה' – And Hashem appeared to him. Usually this phrase is followed by a vision or statement from God (see 26:2 &26:24), but in this case there seems to be nothing other than Avraham experiencing “the heat of the day.” 

Comes Rashbam and notes that the 3 “men” who come, who are soon after identified as angels when they depart and head to S’dom, are really all angels whose leader is כביכול being God’s representative, or perhaps even God Himself taking angelic form in human form. Consider the following excerpts from Rashbam: 

(א) וירא אליו י"י - היאך? שבאו אליו שלשה אנשים שהיו מלאכים. שבהרבה מקומות כשנראה המלאך קורהו בלשון שכינה כדכת' כי שמי בקרבו, שלוחו כמותו. וכן וירא אליו מלאך י"י בלבת אש מתוך הסנה, וכתו' שם וירא י"י כי סר לראות:	1. In what manner did God appear to Avraham? Three ‘men,’ who were angels, came to him. There are  numerous examples where an appearing angel are described as the Divine as it is written (Exodus 23,21) “as My Name is within him” – the agent is like Him. Or (Exodus 3 3,2) “an angel of Hashem appeared to him in the form of a flame of fire in the midst of the thorn bush.” And ibid, “when God (i.e. the angel) saw that he had turned to watch…”
(ט) איה שרה אשתך - אעפ"י שהיו יודעים, היו שואלים. כדרך שמצינו בשכינה שאמ' לאדם איכה.	9. Where is your wife Sarah? even though the angels knew, they asked, just as God did (Bereshit 3,9) when the Divine asked Adam about his whereabouts…
(יג) ויאמר י"י - המלאך. גדול שבהם:	13. And Hashem said - the angel, the senior of the three.
(יד) היפלא מי"י - ששלחנו אליך דבר? וכן וי"י המטיר על סדום גפרית ואש מאת י"י מן השמים, הראשון שבפסוק הוא גבריאל והשני שבפסוק הוא הק'.	14. Is it too wonderous of God - Who sent us to you – any thing [no matter how miraculous]? And also “God made it rain on S’dom sulfur and fire from God from the heavens…” , the first ‘God’ refers to the angel Gavriel, in the second instance to Hashem.
(טז) ויקמו משם האנשים - שנים מהם הלכו לסדום כדכת' ויבאו שני המלאכים סדומה, וגדול שבהם היה מדבר עם אברהם. וזהו שכת' בו וי"י אמר המכסה אני וגו', [וכן] ואברהם עודנו עומד לפני י"י. שני פסוקים אלו מדברים [ב]שלישי:	16. The men went up from there - two of them went on to Sodom, as is written, “the two angels arrived in Sodom” (Genesis 19,1) The senior one of the angels had been the one who had spoken to Avraham. This is implied by the verse “And Hashem said, ‘Shall I conceal from Avraham what I am about to do?’” and “And Avraham was still standing before Hashem.” These verses are speaking of the third angel.
(כ) ויאמר י"י - המלאך לאברהם, שלוחים הללו אני שולח בשביל זעקת סדום, כמו שאמר למעלה ואנשי סדום רעים וחטאים:	20. And Hashem said – the angel (was speaking) to Avraham, “these messengers are dispatched on account of the outcry in heaven over the sins of Sodom…”
(כו) ויאמר ד' - המלאך, [וכן] עומד לפני י"י, לפני המלאך לבקש פניו:	26. And Hashem said – [this was] the angel, and so too "and he [Avraham] was standing before Hashem” means before the angel, to appeal to it.

 In other words, the main “spokesman” for the “three men” is God Himself. But since He appears in angel-form-in-human-form, Avraham is able to converse with Him in a manner that comes across as a natural and normal conversation. This would be a perfect example of a different kind of “vision” that allows for this kind of prophesy to take place while Avraham is awake. 

 Once we see things through this lens, a few things become particularly clear! Asking of Sarah’s whereabouts was a ruse to throw Avraham off course of realizing he was speaking directly with the Divine. And yet, telling him that “I will return in a year’s time” was God’s way of stating “I’ll be there” at the time of Yitzchak’s birth without needing to reappear in human form or angel form. God asking Avraham in real-time about Sarah’s laughter makes so much more sense if that message comes from the angel (who is God) in this space (see 18:13), because God sees-all and knows-all even if the angel-in-human-form is not within earshot of her laughter. While Avraham goes to accompany them on their journey, we find out in the first verse of the next chapter that “2 angels came to S’dom.” Two?! Weren’t there THREE? Yes. The third angel stuck around in 18:17 asking rhetorically if it is possible to hide from Avraham what is about to be unleashed. The conversation which follows, in which Avraham advocates for 50, 45, 40, 30, 20, 10 righteous people makes so much more sense with Avraham being awake, and conducting this conversation face to face with a figure standing in front of him. God “departing” from the conversation after it was over (18:37) also makes much more sense if He was represented in physical form in Avraham’s presence. 

All of this makes the way Avraham refers to the angels – using the name “Adonai” which is written in the א-ד-נ-י format (which can be understood as “my masters”) as having a dual meaning. He is speaking to a group of men/angels while also talking to God himself. 

Whether one accepts Rashbam’s point of view, one point emphasized by a number of commentaries seems clear. This episode takes place in the immediate aftermath of Avraham’s circumcision in fulfillment of God’s tasking him with “Walk before me and complete yourself.” In other words, there is no doubt that Avraham’s essence as a spiritual person was raised manifold through his undergoing Bris Milah, which primed him to have a very different kind of encounter with God in the wake of that experience. 

 In what ways do we take to God’s instructions that were previously not part of our experience, and raise the bar on our spiritual connection with the Divine? Maybe we will not be zocheh (merit) to have such a special conversation with an angel or God Himself. But nonetheless, if we take special steps to elevate ourselves, we can become ever so much more connected to the Divine.