The opening of Parashat Vayera—"And God appeared to him at the terebinths of Mamre" (Genesis 18:1)—seems straightforward. Abraham is sitting at his tent, and God appears. But Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk insists we are reading a description of mystical ascent disguised as a scene of hospitality.
First, he unpacks the phrase "entered in days" used about Abraham (Genesis 24:1) and later about David (I Kings 1:1). The "days" are not calendar days. They are the upper spiritual worlds. A tzaddik (a righteous person) who achieves true holiness literally "enters" those higher realms. As the Psalmist says: "He asked You for life; You granted him many days" (Psalms 21:5). The righteous person understands that life in this world is borrowed. Each day might be the last. That awareness drives them to deepen their holiness.
So when Abraham sits "in the heat of the day," the heat is not temperature. It is the burning intensity of his attachment to God—the fire of devekut, spiritual clinging. Though his body rested in Mamre, the essence of his being was in the upper worlds.
Rebbe Elimelech then introduces a remarkable principle from the Talmud (Berakhot 33b). Rav Hanina criticized someone who added excessive praises to the prayer service: "Have you finished all the praise due to your Master?" Yet we praise God constantly as compassionate, gracious, and righteous. The resolution: when a righteous person serves God with a particular trait—say, righteousness—that trait is aroused in the higher worlds. God is then called by that name. The tzaddik's behavior literally defines how the Divine is experienced in creation.
And Hashem appeared to him etc (Genesis 18:1) - we have to explain first the verse "And Avraham was old, entered in days" (Genesis 24:1). Behold, the upper worlds are called "days" and the tzadik in their kedusha reaches up to the upper worlds, and this is "Avraham was old/zaken" as in "this one acquired wisdom"/Zeh Kanah chochmah" (Sifra, Kedoshim 7:12); "entered in days" meaning, until he reached the upper worlds, and so too about King David, peace be upon him, it was said "And David was old, entered in days etc" (I Kings 1:1) and this is "He asked from You life; You granted him many days" (Ps. 21:5). That behold regarding the tzadik, the life they have in this world is not his, rather, it is as a borrowed thing for one hour, and because of this the tzadik goes and strengthens themself always in holiness, since the tzadik always thinks that lest today it will be the day of returning what was borrowed, and this is "he asked from You life", meaning, meaning, the tzadik who thinks that life is only borrowed from You, therefore "You granted him many days", through this the tzadik merits many days, which are the life in the world to come. And this is "and Hashem appeared to him at the terebinths of Mamre", meaning, that thought Avraham was on the bed, the essence of his sitting really was on the upper worlds, and this is hinted to in "in the heat of the day", meaning, in the heat of holiness and clinging to God, since the heat and the clinging of the upper world is called 'day', as we explained. And this is easy to understand. Or say - And Ad-nai appeared to him etc (Genesis 18:1) - beforehand, let's explain the verse "for Ad-nai is righteous; He loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold His face" (Psalms 11:7). There is in the Gemara "a certain one lead prayers in the presence of Rav Hanina, and that one said 'the great, etc, the fearless' and Rav Hanina asked 'have you concluded all the praise due to your Master?' (Berakhot 33b:22, Megillah 25a:8). And on a first glance, don't we actually praise the Holy Exalted name with many praises that were not said by the Men of the Great Assembly? Yet, see that the Blessed Holy Exalted Name is described with [words such as] compassionate, gracious and righteous. And through the trait with which a person serves their Creator, that same trait is aroused Above, in the Worlds, and the Creator is described by that same trait, and a person needs to serve the Creator with all the traits so as to arouse that trait Above, and when a person arouses that trait they are called tzadik, and then the Blessed Name is described as 'tzadik', and so on in all the worlds. And then a great compassion is aroused towards the world, and all judgments are converted into compassion through that tzadik. And this is "Righteous is Ad-nai", meaning, at the moment the Blessed Name is called 'tzadik' through the continuation of the work of the tzadik, then 'He loves righteous deeds', meaning, compassion and righteousness for this world, and then 'the upright shall behold His face'. The explanation: who caused this? 'the upright, etc', meaning, the upright that looks out always to continue the [presence of] the Blessed Creator to the internalness of the worlds, but 'that one that prayed in the presence of Rav Hanina' that was mentioning the praises through words, did it in a way that implied that the Creator did not create the worlds like that, and therefore Rav Hanina asked 'did you finish praising your Master?' And this is "to him, Ad-nai, in the woods of"(Genesis 18:1). "To him" meaning, for him, through his service, "Ad-nai" appeared, that is, the trait of compassion; "in the woods" that is the Upper Worlds as I wrote above, "Mamre" meaning through the untarnished sayings (imrot) of our father Avraham, PBUH, which were to continue [the presence of] the Exalted Creator to the worlds, as explained above, and this is easy to understand. Or say - "appeared, etc" (Genesis 18:1) that behold, when creating the world arouse in the will of the Exalted, to give good to those created, the Holy Blessed One contracted Godself, and - to where did God contract Godself? I heard from my teacher z"l, that God contracted Godself into the letters of the Torah with whoch God created the world. And he said that this is the explanation for what our sages said 'as if it were possible / KeBeYaCHoL' - meaning, through 22 K"B letters YaCHoL it was possible for the Holy One of Blessing to exist in this world, and the tzadik that engages in Torah for its own sake, that tzadik continues the [presence of the] Blessed Creator and raises inside the letters of the Torah, just like in the moment of Creation. And this is "and revealed to him, Ad-nai, in the trees of Mamre" (Genesis 18:1). Mamre is an expression of speaking, as explained above. And 'tree' is Torah, and the mitzvot are the branches, and the text is saying that through the untarnished sayings that dealt with Torah, he continued [the presence of] the Creator inside the letters, and this is "the woods of Mamre", meaning, in the tree of his sayings Ad-nai appeared to him. And the text said: "why did he merit that Ad-nai appeared to him through his dealings with Torah? This was due to his great surrender, which is "he sits at the entrance of the tent", that even though he was a great tzadik he held himself in a great surrender, that he was still sitting at the entrance and at the beginning of holiness, since "tent" is a hint to holiness, "as the day warms" meaning, that there are people that look as someone who surrenders but their insides are not like their outsides, and the text says that Avraham had surrendered completely, in truth, with a full heart, and yet it was clear as the sun in his eyes that he had just began in his service to the Blessed One, and this is "as the day warms". "And he saw, and behold, three men are standing over him" (Genesis 18:2) - this is a hint: Avraham saw that it was on him to fix three worlds, that is, love, awe and balance (tif'eret). The tzadik needs to fix six corners, which are six days of the week, and they are three and three, that is three before Shabbat and three after Shabbat. And therefore the text seized on the language "three men", and this includes all of the six corners, those before with those after Shabbat. And this is what we say "and unify our hearts to love and to hold in awe" that even, truly, a person needs to set awe before love, however we pray for the awe that comes from within the love, that is,three days that are after Shabbat they are love, because they belong to the Shabbat that passed, and the three days that are before Shabbat they are awe, since from inside them one comes to the love that is Shabbat, and it is because of this that we pray "to love and to hold in awe", as the order of the regular days, that begin in love and end in awe, in order to fix the six corners. "And he saw and he ran towards them etc" (Genesis 18:2) - the explanation is that, after fixing the three worlds as explained above, through that the Flow came to this world, and the essence needs to be the arousing of below, and this is "he saw, and he ran towards them" - that is, with alacrity, that this is the essence, as the tanna said "alacrity brings one to clealiness, etc" (Mishnah Sotah 9:15). "Towards them", that is to say, towards the worlds to fix them, that is the arousal from below. "And he bowed down to earth" that the bowing down is to continue the flow to the world below, and this is "he bowed down to the earth", meaning, that he continued the Flows downward. "And he said: 'please do not pass over your servant' - meaning that he prayed to the Holy Exalted Name a short prayer so God would not pass us by. "Let a little water be brought" - meaning, that a little compassion be brought from above to below, since this is the way of tzadikim, who say little but do much. "And wash your feet" - meaning, that there should be no touching and no seizing to the feet, which are the external negative forces (hitzonim); to enjoy holiness. "And rest under the tree" meaning, that they [the worlds] should only receive Flow from the essence, and that all the Flow should go to Israel. And sit with this to understand. Or one can say - "Ad-nai appeared to him" (Genesis 18:1) behold, Aner, Eshkol and Mamre were "Avram's allies" (ba'alei brit Avram - Gen. 14:13) even though they were Caananites. [This is why] the text surprises us with "And Ad-nai appeared to him in the woods of Mamre", meaning - how could it be possible for the Holy Exalted Name to appear to him in the woods of Mamre, who was a Canaanite, and doesn't the Holy Blessed One refrain his Shechina from the places of idolaters? And the text said: don't be surprised with this, since " he is sitting at the entrance of the tent", the explanation is that this is the way of the tzadik, even when the tzadik is below, the essence of their sitting is above the Higher Worlds, which are called "tent of meeting", since they [the worlds] are always in joy and happiness as in Yom Tov, and the tzadik is always yearning with their thoughts, and they conquer the going up with their thoughts to the Higher World that is called "sitting at the entrance of the tent". And if you say 'how is it possible that the tzadik is both above and below the higher worlds?' To this the text said: take for yourself the proof in the words "warming up of the day", meaning, from the sun that is above the sky, and the light illuminates downwards, and it looks like as if it is above. So too with the tzadik: they are "as the day is warming up", that they are below, and the light of their Torah and their holiness illuminates above, in the Higher Worlds. And this is "Happy is the man You choose and bring near to dwell in Your courts" (Psalms 65:5), meaning, the Higher World.
