A vort from the Rebbe on this week's parshah, Parshas Vayeira. Parshas Vayeira starts with the words וירא אליו ה׳, ה׳ revealed himself to Avraham. And Rashi says לבקר את החולה, he came to visit the sick, Avraham was sick. And then Rashi continues אמר רבי חמא בר חנינא, רבי חמא בר חנינא said, יום שלישי למילתו היה, it was the third day from his circumcision, ובא הקדוש ברוך הוא ושאל בשלומו. Hashem came and he went, came to see how he's doing, but the loshon of Rashi, שאל בשלומו means, literal translation is, he asked for his peace, which is an expression used usually for when you say you want to see how you're doing. The Rebbe asks a question: Avraham Avinu was a מרכבה to the Aibershter, and what chassidus says it means he was batel completely to Hashem. Just like a chariot is batel, is completely nullified to a to a rider, it travels, it drives, it goes, but only where the driver wants to take it, it's batel to its driver, so Avraham Avinu was a מרכבה to אלוקות to the Aibershter. And it's self-understood that his physicality was similar, was parallel to his spirituality. If his whole body was a מרכבה to אלוקות, so whatever happened to him physically is connected to what happened to him spiritually, it was a mirror of what happened to him spiritually. Now, how is it possible that because of the milah he became sick? When he did the mitzvah of milah it brought him to a very high spiritual level, it brought him שלמות, תמימות, שלמות, התהלך לפני והיה תמים, ה׳ said. So how is it possible that that brought that his body should become sick, when beruchniyut it brought the opposite of sickness?

And the Rebbe explains, no, that actually his physical body became sick as a result of the רוחניותדיקע thing that he accomplished through milah, and that brought the sickness. How? Because it says in Gemara: חמישים שערי בינה נבראו בעולם, there are fifty gates of wisdom in the world, and all were given to Moshe beside one. Later when he passed away, Moshe Rabbeinu even got the fiftieth level, but a human being cannot normally reach the fiftieth level. The most a person could reach is the 49th level. These are different levels of kedushah, and a person could only reach to 49. And it says in sefarim, that's why choleh, which is the word sick, a sick person, is b'gematria the numerical value of 49. Because when a person reaches the 49th level, the highest level, then you could say he's sick. Why? When a person wants something that he can't reach, and you really want it, and you can't reach it, you get sick bagashmiyut. The same thing beruchniyus. So when a person reaches the lower levels, he doesn't get sick, because he could always go higher. If a person reaches the 20th level, he won't get sick, because he wants to go higher, he could go higher, could go to the 21st, so on all the way up. But when he reaches the 49th level, he can't go any higher. A human being cannot reach anything higher than 49. So level 49 is when you become sick, you're trying to go higher, and you can't go higher. Through the mitzvah of milah, Avraham Avinu reached the highest level possible for a human being, and that's the 49th level. So that's why he became beruchniyus sick. Now that he has the 49th level, and he would like to go higher, because every tzaddik wants to go higher and higher, and he can't, he became sick. And since his physical body was a mirror of his spiritual level, so his physical body was also sick, because he became sick beruchniyus that he's trying to reach a level that he can't, so his physical body became sick.

When Hashem came to visit him, what he was doing, since it says Hashem came, it's something that is beyond the reach of a human being, but Hashem could give it to him. So when Hashem came to him, he made him reach the 50th level. He made him reach that level. On his own, he couldn't reach it, so even through mitzvat milah that he did, he only reached the 49th, and Hashem came to give him the 50th level. So that's what it means לבקר את החולה, he came to visit the sick, he was sick, and he came to visit him, and he brought him to the higher level. And that's what Rashi means according to this chasidishe peshat that the Rebbe says, that he came ושאל בשלומו. He came to see his שלם. Now the word שלם means peace. שלם has another meaning too, שלם means complete. That when Hashem came to Avraham, when he was sick so to speak, when he had the 49th level, because of the mitzvat milah he reached the top, top, top that you could, Hashem came to give him the shleimut, and Hashem also gave him the 50th level. A person can't reach it on his own, but if Hashem wants, he could give it to him, to a certain degree obviously, not in the highest level of the 50th, that will be it says when Mashiach will come, etc., only when a tzaddik passes away, but a certain degree Hashem brought him also the 50th level. And that's the spiritual meaning in Rashi. He came לבקר את החולה, Avraham was sick because he reached the 49th level through the milah, he came to visit him, שאל בשלומו, in order to give him the shleimut, the completion that he could, he would even reach the 50th level.