“And I will take a piece of bread, and you will sustain your heart, then depart, inasmuch as you have passed by your servant. They said: Do so, as you have said” (Genesis 18:5). “And I will take a piece of bread, and you will sustain your heart, then depart” – Rabbi Yitzḥak said: In the Torah, in the Prophets, and in the Writings, we have found that bread is the sustenance of the heart. In the Torah, from where is it derived?
“And I will take a piece of bread, and you will sustain your heart.” In the Prophets – “Sustain your heart with a piece of bread” (Judges 19:5). In the writings – “And bread sustains man’s heart” (Psalms 104:15). Rav Aḥa said: “Sustain your heart [levavkhem]” is not written here, but rather, “sustain your heart [libekhem].”
This teaches that the evil inclination has no authority over angels.25The word “heart” can be spelled with one bet (lev) or two (levav). When it is spelled with two bets it means to include both man’s good inclination and his evil inclination (Mishna Berachot 9:5). Here it is spelled with just one bet, indicating that angels have no evil inclination. That is in accordance to the opinion of Rabbi Ḥiyya, as Rabbi Ḥiyya said: “Direct your heart [levavkhem] to its rampart” is not written here, but rather, “libekhem” (Psalms 48:14).
That is what is said: the evil inclination will have no authority in the future.26As that verse is speaking of Messianic times. “Inasmuch as [al ken] you have passed by your servant” – Rabbi Yehoshua said: [Abraham said:] ‘From the day that the Holy One blessed be He created His world, you were foreordained to come to me,’ “inasmuch [al ken] as you have passed.”27The word ken appears numerous times in the account of creation: Vayehi khen, “and it was so.”
This is as it says [in Pharaoh’s response to Moses]: “So [khen], may the Lord be with you” (Exodus 10:10).28There, too, Pharaoh meant: If it is preordained that your people should leave Egypt, so be it. He, of course, believed that it was not so. “They said: Do [ta’aseh] so, as you have said” – they [the angels] said: ‘Eating and drinking do not apply to us, but you, for whom eating and drinking do apply, you shall do [ta’aseh] so for yourself; may it be His will that you should merit to prepare another feast for your male offspring that will be born to you.’29As recorded in Genesis 21:8.