The gemora (Shabbos 127a) tells us “it is more important to fulfill the mitzvah of serving guests than speaking with Hashem” (גדולה הכנסת אורחין מהקבלת פני שכינה). This is learned from the fact that Avraham Avinu left his discussion with Hakadosh Baruch Hu in order to entertain the 3 Arabs that were passing through.
We learn this rule from Avraham Avinu, but how did Avraham Avinu know this, and why indeed is hachnasas orchim more important than kabalas hashechina? Some explain that speaking to Hashem is not a mitzvah, whereas hachnasas orchim is a mitzvah, therefore it is more important, and that is how he knew it. But if that would be so, then we could have figured it out by ourselves. We don’t need Avraham or the Gemora to make that calculation!
Perhaps instead we could explain it as follows: If we see a person speaking to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and then running away in the middle of the conversion to take care of something else, doesn’t it look like a chilul hashem? It looks like others are more important than Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Perhaps Avraham’s deep understanding, that by doing chesed and expanding people’s awareness of Hashem, and Avraham’s interest that they recognize Hashem, is complementary to proper derech eretz of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and it brings kavod to Hashem, as opposed to chilul Hashem. It is that Avraham is doing the chesed because that is what Hashem wants, and doing what Hashem wants is not considered running away from Hashem. Rather, it is considered “running to Hashem.”
The Gemora has taught us that performing the mitzvos is not separate from speaking to Hashem— it is actually a higher level of communication with Hashem.
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