A vort from the Rebbe on this week's parshah, Parshas Vayeira. The parshah starts with the words וירא אליו ה', Hashem' revealed Himself to him, to Avraham. And Rashi says the reason Hashem' came to him is לבקר את החולה, to visit the sick. Avraham Avinu was sick. He was sick because he just had went through a brit milah, and this was the third day and he was still sick. But the Rebbe asks a question: we know that Chazal say that the Avot, Avraham Avinu, Yitzchak, Yaakov, were a merkavah to Hashem'. And the way it explains in Tanya means, just like a merkavah, a chariot, a wagon, is completely batel to the rider, even though the wagon goes places, does things, but it doesn't have its own will, it's completely batel to the rider, so too the Avot were completely batel to Hashem'. Completely meaning even if, even the body of the person was completely batel to Hashem', the body of Avraham Avinu was batel to Hashem''s will. So how is it possible that a mitzvah should cause his body to become sick? Especially the mitzvah of milah. The mitzvah of milah is supposed to bring completion to the person. When Avraham Avinu was going to do the mitzvah of milah, Hashem' said to him, התהלך לפני והיה תמים. You will be a tamim, a complete, this makes complete. Being sick means that something missing, and brit milah is the opposite. So how is it possible that by Avraham Avinu, that his physical body was completely batel to Hashem' and Hashem''s will, should become sick through the mitzvah of milah?

It's similar to the famous story that there was once a big אסיפת הרבנים that they were dealing what to do with concerning requests of the government, and the Rebbe Rashab got up at that meeting and was very, very much against giving in to the government. And afterwards, by the recess, there was a break in the middle, Rav Chaim Brisker came over to the Rebbe Rashab and said, I know what they're requesting is not such a good thing, but why would you have to go on mesirus nefesh for it? Where is your source, your makor, that this is so terrible that we have to fight it tooth and nail? And the Rebbe Rashab answered him, I trained my body from the day of my bar mitzvah that it should only want things according to the will of Hashem', and my body, myself, I feel that this is no good, and that on that I base. And Rav Chaim Brisker said to him, I will back you. If that's the way you feel, I will back you. And the next session, he got up and did something which was out of character, he got up and he said, I am the famous Rav Chaim Brisker, etc., etc., etc., and I pasken that everyone has to vote with the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Because he realized that the Rebbe said that he's trained, even though he had no makor in halachah, but he trained himself to do only what the Aibershter wants. So Avraham Avinu, his body only fit to what the Aibershter wants, so how is it possible that his body should become sick because of the mitzvah, and especially the mitzvah of milah?

And the Rebbe explains it: the Chazal say, חמישים שערי בינה נבראו בעולם כולם ניתנו למשה חוץ מאחת. There are fifty gates of wisdom in the world, they were all given to Moshe except one. Because, as the Ramban says in the פתיחה to his peirush on Chumash, that the fiftieth gate לא נמסר לנברא. A creature, a creation cannot reach that level. And that's why it says in sefarim the word choleh, which means sick, is b'gematria 49. Because when a person reaches any other level and he wants to reach a higher level, he could do it. He could go, if you reach, you're holding at the fifth level, you could reach a sixth level. You reach a sixth, you could go to the seventh. But when you reach the forty-ninth and you always want to go higher, you cannot go higher, you'll never reach the fiftieth. And therefore, it makes you sick. If something that someone wants very much and can't get it, you become sick. So a person who reaches the highest level possible is choleh. That's why choleh is b'gematria, the numerical value of 49. And that's what happened by Avraham Avinu. Avraham Avinu, through the mitzvah of milah, reached the highest level a נברא person could reach, and that's through the mitzvah of milah. So it brought him to the level of 49, which made him beruchniyus sick, wanting to reach a higher level. And since his guf, his body, was parallel, fit to the neshamah, to the ruchniyusdike avodah, so therefore, in his body, he became sick. It was a reflection of his level, of his spiritual level. And then, when Hashem' came to him, וירא אליו ה', Hashem' came to him, that was something that Hashem' did. A person on his own cannot reach the fiftieth level, but Hashem' could give it to a person if He wants. So this is what it means that Hashem' came to him. He was a choleh, choleh beruchniyus, which mimela made him a choleh begashmiyus. And Hashem' came to him, revealed Himself, and He elevated him even to the higher level, the level, the fiftieth. And this is what the Ramban means, when the Ramban says these words, היה לו במראה השכינה רפואה למחלת המילה. That when the Eibershter came to him and revealed Himself, the Shechinah came and revealed Himself, that was the cure for the sickness of the milah. So what it means is, according to this peshat, that when the Oibershter revealed Himself to him, so mimela he was able to reach a higher level, so he was not, so to speak, beruchniyus sick anymore. Mimela, since his guf was parallel, a reflection of his neshamah, of his spiritual avodah, so therefore his guf also was not sick anymore.

This is a lesson for every person that through the mitzvah of milah a person reaches a very high level, and if you're zocheh, you could go even beyond the level of the 49, and everyone in his own level could reach the 50th level, the שער החמישים.