Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/145

 Abraham's Hospitality

127

And through Isaac the long wished for son, Isaac. people Israel, Abraham's descendants, came to be; and hospitality has been, just as God blessed Abraham, one of the their

In

greatest Jewish virtues.

among

its

spirit

the Bible teaches that

God

the acts of service most pleasing to

are.

To deal thy bread to the hungry, And that thou l.ring the poor that are cast out to thy When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, And that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh.

And

the

rabbis

taught

that

the

table

which

stranger becomes an altar, meaning that this

giving unto God, as table,

just

if

God Himself were

is

house.

feeds the

same

the as

the guest at the

They unawares. He was Abraham's guest. "Let thy house be wide open to the poor, and

as,

also taught,

It is told that the the poor be as the members thereof". Prophet Elijah once sternly rebuked a renowned rabbi for having built a porch, so large and so magnificent that he could no longer hear the poor who stood at his door and let

cried for help.

As pitality

He

the above story told, the reward of

was

Isaac.

Not

that

Abraham's hos-

Abraham expected

a

reward.

had acted, just as in his dealings with the king of Sodom,

Yet every good deed brings a reward of some kind, although not always immediately, and not always recognized as the reward for that particular

without thinking of reward.

deed.

And Abraham's reward was

Isaac.

The rabbis told more brightly

that on the day of Isaac's birth the stm shone

than ever before or since, thereby proclaiming that he would

mankind, that he and

be a blessing to

all

would carry out

faithfully

be a blessing. for

all

mankind.

Therefore

God's it

was

command a

his

to

descendants

Abraham

to

day of great rejoicing