Vayeira
Rabbi Jablinowitz
We read in the beginning of this week's parsha (Chapter 18, Pasuk 1), Vayera Eilav Hashem. Gd appears to Avraham, but the Torah doesn't tell us what the purpose of the visit was. Rashi quotes the words of Chazal in the Gemara and teaches us that Hashem came to visit Avraham who was sick, recovering from his bris milah. This visit is the source for the mitzvah of visiting the sick, or bikur cholim. What is the significance of the fact that the source for the mitzvah of visiting the sick is derived regarding the mitzvah of bris milah?
We read in last week's parsha when Hashem appears to Avraham and commands him the mitzvah of milah (Chapter 17, Pasuk 3), Vayipol Avram al Panav. Avraham fell on his face and Rashi explains that he fell from the fear of the presence of Gd since he was an arel, he didn't have a bris milah yet. The commentators ask, this isn't the first time Gd spoke to Avraham before he had a bris milah, yet it's the first time we see that he couldn’t stand in the presence of Hashem. Why suddenly can't Avraham stand as an arel before Hashem?
The Meshech Chachmah answers that until Avraham was commanded to give himself a bris milah, he didn't have the status of an arel. He had been similar to a male child before the eighth day. Since he isn't yet commanded, he isn't considered an arel. But once Gd commands Avraham the mitzvah of milah, he is now an arel and he can't even stand up in the presence of Hashem.
The pasuk in Shir Hashirim (Chapter 2, Pasuk 5) says, Ki Cholas Ahava Ani. Bnei Yisrael are described as being "lovesick" for Hashem. The longing for the connection with Gd is so great that it makes us feel ill at the sense of distance. The Sfas Emes explains that before one has a bris milah, he is too much of a physical being to sense that longing for closeness to Hashem. One is too immersed in the physical world to realize what he is lacking by not having a connection to Hashem.
This is why the source for bikur cholim is precisely by Avraham Avinu after his bris milah. The illness of Avraham Avinu is the Cholas Ahava he was first truly able to sense after his bris milah. Before he removed his arlah, he didn't feel the distance from Hashem totally, though he began to sense his lacking. This first step was described in last week's parsha and began once Avraham Avinu was given the command for the mitzvah. He first began to feel his lowliness as a physical being before Hashem and he couldn't even stand up before Him. And now that he actually gave himself a bris milah, he was sick with longing to be close to Hashem. And the bikur cholim of Hashem didn't contain words; just being close to Avraham and allowing the Shechinah to dwell in his midst was a sufficient remedy for his illness.
A similar process transpires every week with Shabbos. During the week when we are so involved in our mundane activities we don't sense our lacking in not being close to Hashem. We are too involved in the physical world. But when Shabbos arrives and we receive our Neshamah Yeseirah, we feel that longing to connect to a higher level of feeling the presence of Hashem in our lives. And when Shabbos leaves we have a sense of "Voy Avdah Nefesh", woe to us for we have lost that spiritual connection of the Neshamah Yeseirah. And we need to be revived with the sweet spices of the Besamim, for at that moment we truly feel Cholas Ahava for Hashem.
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