Genesis 18:5 in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan turns a simple meal into a moment of blessing. Abraham will bring bread so that the travelers may strengthen their hearts — and, the Targum adds, give thanks in the Name of the Word of the Lord, and afterwards pass on.

The Aramaic Memra — the divine Word — surfaces again. Abraham does not just feed his guests. He expects them, with the bread in them, to bless the Lord whose Word is the framework of the universe, and only then to continue their journey.

The rabbis would later see in this verse the root of the practice of birkat ha-mazon, the blessing after meals. Food is not just fuel. Food is the occasion for gratitude, and gratitude is what turns eating into something more than animal maintenance.

The visitors — still in the form of men, still angels on the inside — reply with four words of respect: Thou hast spoken well; do according to thy word. Even angels accept that an Abrahamic meal is not a quick bite. It is a small liturgy of gratitude.

The Maggid hears the shape of Jewish hospitality in this one verse. Welcome the guest. Feed the guest. Invite the guest into a blessing. Send the guest back on the road with something more than bread in his belly — with a completed act of worship (Genesis 18:5). The tent of Abraham, the Targum quietly insists, is the first Jewish dining table. Every Shabbat meal is still doing what he did.