Susan Landau-Chark - Concordia University

9
2,050 sermons. 34
Rabbi Leffell discussed many issues, but often his sermons would come back to
the question of behaviour, relationships, and the place (responsibility) of the individual
Jew to his congregation, community and the world. These concerns often related directly
to the themes encountered in parasha Vayera: hospitality, right behaviour, responsibility,
truth, and relationships, to name the few that he emphasized through the years.
It is worthy to consider that at the time that Rabbi Leffell was in training at JTS,
Rabbi Finkelstein persistently addressed the importance of ethical values in his public
remarks. 35 Finkelstein was enamoured of the idea of applying the study of ethics and its
results to the problems of the modern world, and had every expectation that his rabbis-intraining
would carry his concerns into their communities. 36
The Vayera sermon delivered in his first year reflected clearly on issues that he
felt were important in the development of a new community. When Rabbi Leffell
delivered this sermon in November 15, 1954, he chose to deal with the concept of
hospitality in all its fullness. Using Abraham’s behaviour to the three visitors as his
guide, Rabbi Lefell asked his congregation to consider the “real” meaning of hospitality.
Hospitality, he noted, “is primarily more than good manners - it is a spiritual attitude
which described the outreaching of human personality”. 37 Rabbi Leffell then proceeded to
break down for his audience what he meant by this and outlined what he perceived as
three aspects of hospitality.
For Rabbi Leffell “real” hospitality had three aspects: hospitality of the heart,
34
Ibid. 3.
35
Op Cit. Greenbaum.
36
Ibid
37
Leffell, Rabbi A. B. “Vayera” (November 13, 1954): 2. Op Cit. CD-ROM. 2004.