As the parsha opens, we encounter the chesed of Avraham Avinu. We would expect an elderly, ailing man, three days after a difficult surgery, to rest in bed and regain his strength until he recovers and can return to his routine. Yet the Torah describes Avraham's extraordinary activity: he sits at the entrance of the tent in the heat of the day, waiting for guests to pass by his tent so that he can invite them in and do chesed with them.

Yet he is not content with this; he exerts himself greatly, as the Torah writes: "וירץ לקראתם" — he ran to meet them; "וימהר אברהם" — Avraham hurried; "ואל הבקר רץ אברהם... וימהר לעשות אותו" — Avraham ran to the cattle… and hurried to prepare it. He also urges on his household: "מהרי שלוש סאים קמח סולת, לושי ועשי עוגות" — Hurry, three se'ahs of fine flour; knead it and make cakes. Avraham's haste and zerizut in these circumstances leave the reader utterly amazed.

There is no doubt that the title "איש החסד" — the man of chesed, which rests like a crown upon the head of Avraham Avinu, is drawn chiefly from what takes place in these pesukim.

After the special service Avraham provides his three guests, he realizes that they are angels who came in human form, and that each of them has a particular mission. One came to heal Avraham, the second came to bring Sarah the news of Yitzchak's birth, and the third came to overturn Sedom.

And here the great question arises, one that Rav Moshe Tzvi Neria zt"l already put to his students: Why does the third angel come to Avraham's tent? What business does he have there? He has no task at all to carry out with Avraham Avinu! He needs to reach Sedom and carry out his mission, so why does he stop at Avraham's before arriving in Sedom?

The answer Rav Neria gave carries an educational message of the first order. Let us take a mashal from the world of medicine. Suppose an organ in the body has stopped functioning and gangrene has set in around it. One must examine why blood is not reaching this organ, and there can be two reasons: either the problem lies in the flow of blood to the organ, and that is why it has become gangrenous; or the blood flow is sound and the organ itself is diseased, and it must be removed quickly so that the gangrene does not spread to other organs. After checking the function of the heart and the flow of blood through the body and finding that everything is in order, one concludes that the problem is localized and proceeds to remove the diseased organ.

The nimshal is clear: Sedom is a gangrenous limb in the body of the world. Its corruption and depravity had reached a peak beyond description. Sedom and its cities must be destroyed as quickly as possible, before the abomination spreads to further regions of Hakadosh Baruch Hu's world.

However, someone from the upper worlds or the lower ones could rise up with a claim: Perhaps not enough was done to show Sedom the right path? Perhaps the "heart" of morality and chesed in the world, Avraham, is not working energetically to spread goodness and morality, and that is why Sedom came to where it did. Perhaps the problem lies in the heart, and not in the gangrenous finger?

Therefore Hakadosh Baruch Hu sends the third angel first of all to Avraham's tent, so that he may see for himself, and everyone may see, the energy, the enthusiasm and the joy with which Avraham does chesed, and how things are done above and beyond anything one could expect. Then the claims of the accusers are silenced, and the clear conclusion is accepted: Sedom and its cities must be destroyed, for their wickedness has risen and their measure is full.

This, then, is the meaning of sending the angel who overturns Sedom to Avraham's tent: to prove before all that the problem lies with Sedom, and not, Heaven forbid, with Avraham Avinu.

May we merit to see the complete annihilation of evil in the world, and the restoration of justice, morality and chesed to the entire world.

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