We Have Surely Seen: The Light of a Tzaddik

12“We have surely seen that Hashem was with you.” This seems to follow from what we explained on the verse “He saw, and he ran toward them”:¹ the guests lit up Avraham's mind. When a person gazes at a tzaddik, added light comes upon him; that is why Chazal said, “A person is obligated to greet his teacher on the festival.”² Because his mind lit up, Avraham understood that his guests were tzaddikim, and so “he ran toward them.” This explains the doubled wording here, ra'o ra'inu, “seeing, we saw.” Avimelech and his men were saying: through seeing you, another sight was added to us; as we gazed at the radiance of your holiness, the eye of our mind lit up, and a great light was added to us. So the verse finishes, “that Hashem was with you”: because the Shechinah rested on you, that is what lit our minds: we were gazing at a holy man on whom the holiness of Hashem rests. And so we came to attach ourselves to you, sensing your righteousness.