Avraham was “old, coming into days.” If he was old, what does “coming into days” add? And what can the verse “He asked life of You; You gave him length of days” teach a person about how to hold each day he lives?
Hashem appeared to him in Elonei Mamre, while he was sitting at the entrance of the tent in the heat of the day.
1“Hashem appeared to him …” We begin by explaining the verse “Avraham was old, coming into days.”1 The upper worlds are called “days,” and the tzaddik, in his holiness, reaches as far as the upper worlds. That is “Avraham was old”: zaken, “old,” is zeh kanah chochmah, “this one has acquired wisdom.”2 “Coming into days” means that he went on until he reached the upper worlds. So too it is said of Dovid HaMelech, “Dovid was old, coming into days …”3 This is the meaning of “Chaim sha'al mimcha, He asked life of You; You gave him length of days.”4 For the tzaddik, the life he has in this world is only like a she'elah, a thing borrowed for a while. Because of this he keeps growing stronger in holiness, for he always thinks that perhaps today the loan will be called back. That is “Chaim sha'al mimcha,” read as “life is borrowed from You”: the tzaddik thinks of his life as nothing but a loan he has borrowed from You. Therefore “You gave him length of days”: through this he earns length of days, which is the World to Come.
In shortAvraham reached the upper worlds, called “days”; a tzaddik who holds his life as a loan that may be called back today grows in holiness and earns the World to Come.
2That is “Hashem appeared to him in Elonei Mamre, while he was sitting … in the heat of the day.” Though Avraham was below, the place where he truly sat, his true dwelling, was in the upper worlds. “In the heat of the day” hints at this: he was in a warmth of holiness and deveikus, cleaving to Hashem, like the warmth and deveikus found in the upper world, which is called “day,” as we saw with “coming into days.” This is easy to understand.
In shortThough Avraham sat below, he truly dwelt in the upper worlds; “the heat of the day” is his warmth of deveikus, like that of the world called “day.”
The maamar as a whole
R’ Elimelech asks what “coming into days” adds to “old.” Zaken, “old,” is one who has acquired wisdom, and “days” are the upper worlds: in his holiness the tzaddik goes on until he reaches them, as was said of Dovid too. What keeps him climbing? He holds the life he has in this world as a she’elah, a loan that may be called back any day, so he keeps growing stronger in holiness. That is “He asked life of You,” and its reward is “length of days,” the World to Come. So when Hashem appeared to Avraham sitting at his tent, he sat below, yet his true dwelling was above, in the warmth of deveikus of the world called “day.”
Takeaway
Hold each day of life as a loan that may be called back today, and let that thought spur you on in holiness. Then, like Avraham, even while you sit below, your heart can dwell in the warmth of the upper worlds.
