Wednesday, November 08, 2006

did he know or not?

Parshat Va'Yeira

The parsha starts off with the story of the three angels who come to Avraham appearing as men. They eat, drink and make merry and give over the information they need to give over. In 18:9 the angels ask Avraham "Where is Sarah your wife?"

If Avraham did not know they were angels, how was he not curious how they knew he had a wife and her name was Sarah that they should ask about her? And if he did know they were angels, why did he bother with the trouble of making lunch for them, slaughtering a bull and baking bread, etc, knowing they would not eat it because they are angels?

Anybody?

2 comments:

Chaim B. said...

The Torah doesn't need to record every word of their conversation - mistama the fact that Avraham had a wife came up at some point, or Avraham may have been a well known personality (es hanefesh asher asu b'charan - also the rambam writes that he would travel around and attempt to teach people about Hashem, and Sarah did likewise).
With regards to eating, see Tosfos B.M. 86b that malachim indeed may have the capacity to eat.

Rafi G. said...

maybe. Also I remember someone says Sarah had been there and then left (because she started being in the womanly way) so they asked where she went. But Rashi does not say that and it is not pashut pshat. Maybe you are right.

I remember being told as a kid that they made it look like they ate because malachim cannot eat..