Page 230 - BERESHIT

After he circumcised himself, Avraham Avinu was forced into bed rest.
Hashem took the sun out of its natural casing and created a tremendous
heat wave, in order to keep visitors away from Avraham Avinu.

Instead of taking it easy and accepting it as a Heavenly sign to recuperate,
Avraham got up from bed, and began to look for guests. If he knew that
Hashem had sent the heat wave specifically to curtail his hospitality, why
did he search for company? Wasn’t this a defiance of Hashem’s will?

We know that “tzaddikim are never given rest, not in this world, nor in
the next.” Why then did Hashem want Avraham to take a break from his
Divine service?

I suggest that Hashem was testing Avraham to see how far he would take
his unaccustomed vacation. Was Avraham relishing his time off? Or
would he stand up to the nisayon and search for guests?

Avraham was not defying the will of Hashem. He was responding to the
mitzvah of hachnasat orchim, looking for those in dire need. Avraham
Avinu was wary of his unaccustomed ‘vacation’ and its tempting ebb of
inactivity. He realized that the road of life is full of ‘potholes,’ which deter
one from continuing his service of Hashem. A tzaddik cannot rest in this
world, and he is frequently faced with the nisayon of a forced rest, which
could very well hinder him from carrying out his usual broad spectrum of
Divine activities. This is what motivated Avraham to go searching for
guests and continue to do his prized mitzvah.

We should learn from Avraham Avinu not to rest on the laurels of our
past accomplishments. Despite infirmity and scorching heat, he did not sit
back and let another opportunity to invite guests go by. We should walk