Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Quickly prepare three seahs of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes.” Abraham ran to the herd, and fetched a tender and good calf, and gave it to the servant. He hurried to dress it. He took butter, milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them. He stood by them under the tree, and they ate.”
(Genesis 18:6-8)

This was not a speedy endeavour. Neither was it a small thing. Abraham perhaps didn’t personally do all these things, but it was his desire for them to be done. And clearly he and Sarah were involved in some way as well. It would have taken a LOT of servants to actually do them. And a LOT of time. Nothing here was speedy or insignificant. Which also points to Abraham realizing just who his visitors really were.

Three seahs of flour was a LOT of flour. It was equal to roughly 20 to 24 quarts (22 to 23 liters) by volume, which weighs approximately 25 to 30 pounds (11 to 14 kilograms). That’s about twenty loaves of bread.

A young beef calf weighs roughly 500 kg. After processing, the yield is about 60–65% of the hanging weight, or about 175 kg of edible meat. That’s a LOT of beef.

Abraham didn’t skimp. He took that bread, that beef, and some butter, and provided it to his guests. Way more food than they could have eaten. We can assume liquid refreshments had been given during their long wait. We can assume he provided them with water to wash their feet. We can assume they were given a place to sit in the shade, protecting them from the heat. Abraham was a good host. Food, refreshments, and recovery from their journey. Probably the offer to take provisions with them. He was open and giving. He sought to bless them and went the extra mile to do it. He was courteous and compassionate. He did not count it a burden to give them freely of his own possessions. He did not count it a burden to expend effort on them. Abraham was demonstrating a moral character that was an extension of his God-seeking heart. This is in total contrast to the peoples of Sodom and Gomorrah who were self-seeking, inhospitable, and had ungodly hearts that led them into perversions and terrible behaviour (Ezekiel 16:49-50; Genesis 19:4-5; Matthew 10:14-15).

The sage Chizkuni writes: ‘שלש סאים קמח, “three measures of flour;” this was the amount of average quality flour from which it was possible to distil the amount of superior flour (1 tenth of the tree measures known as saah) to bake cakes for three adults such as these. קמח, according to Rashi, Avraham instructed Sarah to use the kind of flour used for covering the pots, an expression known in the Talmud Pessachim 37 as “bread baked from ground flour.”Other commentators understand Avraham’s instruction to Sarah here to mean that she should bake the entire amount of flour, all three measures. He did so as this was the maximum capacity of the ovens they used. Our sages add that the quality of bread baked in a full oven is superior to that which was baked when the oven was half empty.’

The sage Rabbeinu Bahya writes: ‘ואל הבקר רץ אברהם, “while Avraham himself ran to the cattle, etc.” He could easily have sent one of his numerous servants to go to the stables and to select the animals for slaughter. After all, we know that he had a minimum of 318 male servants (14,14). He refrained from doing so, however, and went himself, and with accelerated gait, in order to honor his guests. All this in spite of the fact that he was both aged and weakened by the circumcision. The Torah reports all this to round out the picture of Avraham as a generous person. ויקח חמאה וחלב ובן הבקר, “he took butter, milk, and a young calf, etc.” No mention is made of Avraham serving the bread. Our sages (Bava Metzia 87) use this to surmise that at that time Sarah became a menstruant, (although she had long ceased to be), and that since Avraham was in the habit of eating even ordinary food only if it could have been eaten by a priest in a state of ritual purity, he did not want to offer such food to his guests either. Some people ask that seeing there was no halachic reason that Avraham should impose such restrictions on people other than himself, it seems unreasonable for him to not serve the very thing he had first said he would offer. These scholars suggest a different reason for Avraham not serving the bread. They claim it was the date on which Passover would occur in the future and that this was the reason he spoke of the bread in terms of עגות, cakes, i.e. unleavened cakes. Whereas in this instance the Torah spoke only of עגות, “cakes,” the Torah completes the expression by adding the word מצות, “unleavened bread,” when the same men arrive at Lot’s home in Sodom the same evening (19,3) and the Torah reports that this is what Lot served these men. It is typical of the Torah to reveal hints of something here and there. Something not made clear in one part of the Torah can often be understood properly only when comparing two different sections of the Torah.’

The sage Radak writes: ‘ויתן, he placed before them butter and milk as well as the young calf. He offered them the choice to eat either dairy or meaty. There was no need to mention the bread as it is understood that he first brought them the bread. After all, the very minimum one can serve guests is bread. When one entertains guests who appear to be distinguished people one most certainly does not fail to offer them bread first. Besides, the Torah had already mentioned that he prepared the bread in the guise of uggot, cakes. There was also no need to mention that he served them wine, another, staple at all meals.’

The sage Steinsaltz writes: ‘He took butter, milk, and the bullock that he prepared and placed it before them, the visitors. In his delight at the opportunity to welcome guests, Abraham himself ran to provide for all their needs. Although his household presumably had bread stored away, he wanted fresh bread for his visitors. The baking of bread and the slaughter of cattle in honor of guests were also ceremonial acts that displayed the host’s enthusiasm and goodwill. He stood over them, by serving them, beneath the tree, and they ate.‘