Every morning we open our eyes and, b'ezrat hashem, we begin to see. Many of us have become so accustomed to our vision that it is difficult to return to awareness of what it is that we are seeing and who it is that is doing this seeing. The question of vision is not a question limited to physics and biology, but rather a deep inquiry into the nature of reality.
One of the important themes in this week's parasha is the nature of seeing and reality, as is hinted by the parasha's name, Vayera -- "and it appeared." The parasha begins with an appearance of an extraordinary sort. HaShem, the One G-d of all creation, appears to Avraham in a visible way as he is sitting in the opening of his tent in the heat of the day (Bereshit 18:1). It may be our inclination to assume that what ever it was that Avraham experienced in this moment is far beyond our capacities of perception. Let us engage in suspension of disbelief; let us believe that this experience is also accessible to us and that we might be able to attain at least a sliver of inner comprehension of Avraham's experience. What is it that appears to Avraham in the beginning of the parasha? Let's start simply. He sees three men standing by him. HaZaL understand these men as angels of HaShem. What was the nature of Avraham's vision? Is he seeing something beyond the normal realm of sight, something that perhaps appeared inside his mind as a vision of something on high? I think Avraham's experience is even more profound than this.
In last week's parasha (Lech Lecha) we learn that the "word of HaShem came to Avraham in a vision" (Bereshit 15:1). In this case I think it's possible to say that the root of Avraham's experience was in the mind. Certainly we can surmise that part of the power of this experience is Avraham's realization that G-d as witnessed in a machazeh (a vision in the mind) is indeed real and true. This realization does not come easily. When the vision of HaShem tells Avraham that he will have children and inherit this land, Avraham asks, "Adnut, Elokeinu, by what will I know that I will inherit?" (Ibid., 15:8). Is Avraham asking whether HaShem is telling him the truth or not? Inconceivable! For sure Avraham knows that the One and Only G-d would not speak falsely. Rather, Avraham is asking, "How do I know that what I'm experiencing right now is really You?"
This is so difficult a question to ask. 'I want to believe, so badly I want to believe,' Avraham says to himself, 'but how do I know for sure? I must admit to myself,' he says, 'that perhaps this is all in my head.' The vision of HaShem tells Avraham what to do. "Take me a heifer three years old, and a goat three years old, and a ram three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon" (Ibid., 15:9). Certainly these things are real. So Avraham lays them out, splitting all the animals in half except the birds. And he waits. He waits, increasingly aggrieved, tortured by vultures who come pick at the carcasses. 'Will HaShem come?' I imagine Avraham asking. 'Did HaShem really speak to me last night or was I just dreaming? Was I a fool to kill these animals and expect something to happen?' Finally, as evening falls after a whole day of waiting, Avraham is zocheh to receive the next level of vision. He sees HaShem's supernal tinor (oven) and lapid eish (torch of fire) interacting with the materiality of the carcasses (Ibid., 15:17).
Even as Avraham was able to see G-d's reality in a deeper way in the previous encounter, it wasn't until Avraham's circumcision that he was able to experience the immediacy of the Shekina. We find Avraham freshly exposed sitting in the petach ha-ohel (the opening of the tent), which can be understood as the threshold between the material and supernal worlds. We are not sure if the story that unfolds is prophetic vision or reality as we experience it (Ramban also brings a kugel regarding this). In the end, neither possibility will suffice. For Avraham, HaShem has moved from existing outside this world, creating and sustaining it from afar, to now also additionally existing in the visible, "real," world. Abraham's vision has changed now that there is room to see G-d in the material world; his vision, his reality, his consciousness has shifted to a broader perspective. It's not that he can no longer see what he saw before or that he can only see HaShem's Presence, but rather he begins to understand that HaShem's presence IS what he was seeing before. Only now, he's really beginning to see it. He sees three men standing by him. He recognizes them as angels, as aspects of the Divine Will, and he calls them by one of G-d's names, Adnut. Abraham makes his first break-through into experiencing G-d in the manifest world.
His training is not complete however. It's one thing to perceive G-d in the three beings who may or may not be of this world, who radiate with holiness, and speak words of prophecy, but can Avraham see HaShem in the rah, in the evil parts of the world? Seemingly he can, as he prays to G-d on behalf of the people of Sodom and Gomorra. Perhaps it occurs to Avraham, how can HaShem destroy an aspect of himself? However, Avraham is unsure. Is it blasphemous to equate evil and evil people to an aspect of HaShem? Avraham takes a crack at being the first posek, maintaining the difference between good and bad (the towns should be saved on the behalf of the righteous) and at the same time trying to save all of the people, despite their wickedness. I believe HaShem's Presence, even in evil, is one of the secret teaching of the verse, "Shall I hide from Avraham this thing which I intend to do?" (Bereshit 18:17). The question is not whether HaShem should allow Avraham to see the act in the physical world, but whether Avraham should be able to see the horrible reality of HaShem destroying part of himself. It's the vision of this horrible reality which turns Lot's wife into a pillar of salt (Ibid. 19:26). Avraham also begins to see, starting with his encounter with Avimelech, that others too can have vision, can see the reality of HaShem manifest in the world.
All of these expansions of vision prepare Avraham for his most challenging test of sight, the akeida (binding of Isaac). In this peak encounter with HaShem, Avraham must at once come to trust in perfect faith what he cannot see and thereby come to see with the eyes of HaShem. We learn that Avraham is constantly lifting up his eyes to see, first to see mount Moriah from afar, and again to see the ram caught by his horns in the thicket. And yet Avraham calls the place "mount where HaShem sees" (Bereshit 22:14). When the angel of HaShem called out, "Avraham, Avraham!" I believe that Avraham's eyes were opened to the greatest truth yet, that he too, a man of flesh and blood, was also a manifestation of HaShem.