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.