Treppenwitz discusses hachnoses orchim with some shabbes guests:
“As I finished laying all this out before our guests, I could see from their expressions that they still didn't understand. It was at that moment I realized that I'd been giving them examples of how Jews extend (and expect) hospitality from one another... but not why!
I honestly couldn't explain why we do this odd thing. "
See here:http://bogieworks.blogs.com/treppenwitz/2007/07/can-i-ask-you-a.html
The question his posting poses is "Why would you invite a couple of total strangers to eat and sleep in your home for an entire weekend?"
Which is a good question. I suspect the answer will be multi-layered.
Part of it undoubtedly is the mitzvah aspect, and the example of Avraham inviting the malachim.
Part of it is a reflection of empathy with the other - the mind subconsciously asking 'what if I were in that situation, in a foreign city during shabbes? How would I have a kosher shabbes?
And part of it is being able to feel greater than oneself alone, part of a continuum and of a coherent group. All Jews are family, and there is a concern that kin have a kosher shabbes - and in relation thereto, the concept of helping another to do a mitzvah has such Yiddishe resonance that it needs no explanation.
Undoubtedly there is also the force of tradition, the deeply ingrained imperative to be hospitable. This is something not peculiar to Jews, but is a strong element in all the Semitic groups. They cannot help themselves, the drang to be a good host is woven into their language, their culture, their expressions, and their psyche. As such it can be said to be an Abrahamic cultural element shared by Jews and Arabs.
[And note that it extends most strongly to others who are 'within' the group.]
But a greater part may be simply the sheer pleasure of having guests - the exposure to different experiences, and the interacting with others, under circumstances that are familiar and which presuppose a level of trust and predictability. The new and foreign packaged in a comforting chezkas kashrus.
Even if not all these conditions are met, the supposition that they are in the main present calls forth a set of conditioned emotions and responses. That they know and wish to observe shabbes largely vouches for the strangers and sets the tone.
Though they are unknown, they are a known quantity.
How do my readers view this?
I keenly invite your feedback.
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2 comments:
I don't think it is limited to semites. Persians and Turkic people in Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan also have the same attitude towards guests, as well as the people in the Caucasus. There's even a little ditty I remember from my childhood mocking a Georgian for his excessive hospitality.
"Young man, young man,
why are you so thin?
Come to my village,
You will be as fat as a donkey!"
Sounds better when it rhymes and is said with a think Georgian accent...
For me the Jewish tradition of hospitality is the main reason that, throughout much of the history, Jews had been among the few people on the planet who could move freely around the known world. Wherever there was a Jewish community, a Jewish traveler could find shelter, hospitality and trust.
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