Sponsored in Honor of Dov Ber’s Bar Mitzvah by Sharona, Josh, Moshe and Yehuda Halickman 

In Parshat Vayera, Avraham, who is recovering from a Brit Milah (circumcision at the age of 99) is happy to welcome three unexpected guests to entertain.

When the guests arrive, Avraham gives them water to wash their feet. He then tells them that he is going to bring some bread for them to eat before they continue on their way.

Rambam points out that even though Avraham only said that he would bring them bread, he rushes in order to put together a whole meal. Avraham exemplified the words mentioned in Pirkei Avot 1:15, “Say little and do much.”

Avraham hurries to Sarah’s tent and says (Breisheet 18:6) “Hurry! Take three measures of the finest flour (kemach solet); knead it and make cake-rolls (oogot).”

According to Radak, they needed three measures of the finest flour (a large amount) so that each one of the guests would get his own “challah”. The flour that they used is known to bake quickly so that the guests wouldn’t have to wait too long for the bread to be ready.

Chizkuni believes that the bread that was served was actually matzah. When you bake matzah, you don’t have to wait for the dough to rise so it is made much quicker than regular bread. The visitors were in a hurry (since they were really angels and they had an import mission to attend to) and Avraham didn’t want to keep them waiting too long.

Avraham then went to get a tender, choice calf. Rashi comments that there were three calves so that each of the guests could eat an entire calf’s tongue (a delicacy for kings and princes). Chizkuni adds that it was quicker to cook the tongue than to try to prepare the entire calf.

Avraham then brought them the food and they ate.

We can learn from Avraham the importance of fulfilling the mitzvah of welcoming guests even when we don’t have a lot of time to prepare for them. Avraham quickly did what needed to be done in order for the guests to have a good meal before continuing on their way.