Four questions, one word
The Hebrew word אַיֵּה (ayeh) means "where?" It shows up three times in Parshat Vayera, and once more in the Shabbat prayers. Tap each one to compare.
Rav Gedaliah Gurfein points out that each "where" happens between a different pair: angels and a person, neighbors, a father and his son, and finally the angels and God. And in almost every case, the one asking already knows the answer. So what is the question for?
The Kli Yakar (Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim of Luntschitz, rabbi of Prague in the early 1600s) gives a key that Rav Gedaliah uses for all of them. Writing about the first "where," the one about Sarah, he says:
"Where are you?" can mean "what room are you in?" It can also mean "where are you holding in life?" The Kli Yakar says that here, ayeh means the second. Rav Gedaliah reads all four that way. Keep it in mind as we go.
Where is Sarah?
Three guests come to Avraham's tent. They are angels, and they ask about his wife.
Angels know where people are. So why ask? The Gemara (the Talmud) says the verse is there "to teach that Sarah our mother was modest," and then answers the question directly:
Sarah was in the tent, out of the public eye. In Hebrew this is tzniut, modesty: a person who does not need to be seen to be great. The angels' question made Avraham say it out loud: she is in the tent. Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, France, 1000s, the classic commentary on the Torah) brings this answer on the verse.
The Kli Yakar pushes further. Did Avraham not know by now that his own wife was modest? He explains that the angel was about to say "I will return to you" (18:10): to Avraham, and not to her. Avraham might then blame Sarah, and think she was the reason they had no children. So the angel asked:
The Gemara teaches that a bride who is modest in her father-in-law's home merits to have kings and prophets come from her (Megillah 10b). The Kli Yakar applies this to Sarah: God had already promised that kings would come from her (17:16). Her modesty was her merit for this son. That is what the question was about: not where Sarah was, but where she stood. The Kli Yakar sums it up:
The dots over the word eilav
Look closely at the verse. In every Torah scroll, three letters of the word אֵלָיו ("to him") have dots over them. Read only the dotted letters and see what they spell.
אֵלָיו = "to him." The dotted letters alone spell אַיּוֹ = "Where is he?"
Rashi brings a teaching of the Sages (Bereishit Rabbah 48:15): when dots stand over most of a word's letters, read the dotted letters by themselves. Here they spell אַיּוֹ, "Where is he?" The angels asked Sarah about Avraham too.
So the verse holds two questions, one for each of them. The Kli Yakar reads them the same way: where does each one stand? Sarah stands in her modesty. Avraham, Sarah answers, is "in the tent" too: always at its door, waiting for guests.
Rav Gedaliah calls this the highest kind of "where." Holy beings ask it in order to honor what is hidden, and to bring out the good in a person that the world does not see.
Where are the men?
The same word, turned upside down.
That evening, two of the angels reach Sodom, and Lot takes them into his home. Before they can go to sleep, the people of the city surround the house, "young and old, all the people, from every end" (19:4). Rashi explains:
Rashi explains that "we will know them" meant they wanted to abuse the guests. Lot's guests looked like ordinary travelers. The people of Sodom knew exactly where they were. Their "where" was not a question at all.
Rav Gedaliah reads this "where" as the exact opposite of the one in Avraham's tent. There, angels asked "where" to honor a person who stays out of sight. Here, people ask "where" to drag out guests who were sheltered inside a home, and to hurt them. The first question protects what is private. The second one breaks into it.
And no one in the city objected. When a whole town can ask "where" like this, the problem is not one bad person. The way people treat each other there has fallen apart.
Where is the lamb?
A father and his son walk up Mount Moriah. One question, and one answer, change the walk.
Avraham is bringing Yitzchak up the mountain for the Akedah (the binding of Yitzchak). Yitzchak carries the wood. Avraham carries the fire and the knife. The verse says, "and the two of them walked together" (22:6). Then Yitzchak speaks.
Did Yitzchak know? On the verse before (22:6), Rashi says he did not sense anything yet. By the next verse, Rashi says, he understood (Rashi on 22:8). The Kli Yakar reads it differently: already when he said "my father," Yitzchak sensed what was coming, and his words are a test. Step through the conversation the way the Kli Yakar reads it.
Rav Gedaliah sees this as the deepest kind of "where," between a parent and a child. Yitzchak's question is really "Am I still your son?" Avraham's "Here I am, my son" answers it before he even hears the rest. Once Yitzchak knows that his father's love has not changed, he can walk into something he does not understand, and walk into it with his father. They go up the mountain as one.
Where is the place of His glory?
The fourth "where" is in the siddur. We say it every Shabbat and Yom Tov.
When the chazzan repeats the Mussaf Amidah, the congregation says Kedushah, the prayer where we repeat the praise of the angels. In the middle, the angels ask a question:
In Nusach Sefard and among Sephardic Jews, this Kedushah begins "Keter yitnu lecha," "They will give You a crown," so it is called Kedushat Keter, the Kedushah of the Crown. Nusach Ashkenaz begins it with other words, but has the same question.
This time, the angels do not know
In Avraham's tent the angels knew the answer. Here, the Arizal (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the great kabbalist of Tzfat, 1500s) implies that they do not. In a passage on the Kedushah that the Arizal wrote in his own hand (copied in Pri Etz Chaim, and also in Rabbi Chaim Vital's Sha'ar HaKavanot), he explains that in Mussaf the Shechinah (God's presence in the world) rises and receives blessing from the highest Keter, ואז תקבל שפע מכתר עליון (Sha'ar HaKavanot, Repetition of the Amidah, Drush 2). That is why this Kedushah is about a crown. On Shabbat and Yom Tov it rises higher still, beyond what the angels can see, and they ask, "Where?" On Rosh Chodesh it does not rise that high, so in the Arizal's custom the question is left out of the Rosh Chodesh Mussaf:
So the fourth "where" is the opposite of the first. In the tent, the angels knew and asked anyway. In Mussaf on Shabbat, by the Arizal's reasoning, the angels do not know.
Three letters at the top
Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, the Ramak (the leading kabbalist of Tzfat before the Arizal), reads the word itself. The kabbalists describe ten sefirot, the ways God's light reaches the world (see the Ten Sefirot). In his book Pardes Rimonim ("Orchard of Pomegranates"), the Ramak says the three letters of אַיֵּה are the top three. Tap a letter.
In the Ramak's reading, the sefirot themselves ask the question, and the word ayeh points to the very top: will, wisdom and understanding, the most hidden of the ways God's light reaches the world.
Sarah and the Kedushah
Is it just a coincidence that angels say ayeh in Avraham's tent and in the Kedushah? Two Chassidic masters say it is not.
The Degel Machaneh Ephraim (Rabbi Moshe Chaim Ephraim of Sudilkov, grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Chassidut) quotes the kabbalah of Mussaf: at the word ayeh, Malchut, the lowest sefirah, rises to the top of Binah, which the kabbalists call Imma, "mother," and so it becomes able to give birth. Then he turns to our parsha:
The Be'er Mayim Chaim (Rabbi Chaim Tyrer of Czernowitz, Ukraine, around 1800) says the angels said ayeh over Sarah to draw blessing down to her. He notes that the letters of אי"ה are the letters used to spell out a name of God that belongs to Keter (we do not write that name here), and he connects it to Mussaf:
The extra Shabbat soul
Reish Lakish teaches in the Gemara that God gives a person an extra soul on Shabbat. The Arizal teaches that it arrives in steps, and the last step is the word ayeh.
The kabbalists describe the soul in levels. The first three are the nefesh (the life in us), the ruach (the spirit: our feelings and drive) and the neshama (the highest of the three, the part that knows God). According to the Arizal, the extra soul of Shabbat comes in these three levels twice: once on Friday night, and again, higher, on Shabbat morning. Step through it.
The six steps are from Pri Etz Chaim (in its Gate of Conduct While Learning), the Arizal's teachings as recorded by Rabbi Chaim Vital. The Kaf HaChayim (Rabbi Yaakov Chaim Sofer, Baghdad and Jerusalem, 1870 to 1939) lists them too, from the Arizal's Sha'ar HaKavanot ("Gate of Intentions"), and places the first two morning steps a little differently (Kaf HaChayim, Orach Chayim 261:28). Both end in the same place: "when you say the word ayeh, have in mind to receive the added neshama of the day" (ובאמרך תיבת איה תכוין לקבל תוספת נשמה מבחי' היום, Kaf HaChayim 286:14).
The Ben Ish Chai (Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, 1835 to 1909, whose book of halacha is arranged by the weekly parsha) turns this into a rule for the chazzan:
So the next time the chazzan holds the word ayeh for a long moment, that pause has a purpose.
What to have in mind
Rav Gedaliah gathers a few things a person can bring into that long moment. Here they are, with the sources behind them.
Receive the extra soul
This is the kavanah (intention) the halacha books name. Stand still, listen to the chazzan, and have in mind that the last part of the Shabbat soul is arriving now.
A clear mind
The three letters stand for Keter, Chochmah and Binah: will, wisdom and understanding. Rav Gedaliah suggests asking here for a mind that understands Torah and holds on to it, for yourself and for your children.
Blessing and parnassah
The Ramak describes ayeh as the moment all the levels join together and hide, so much that nothing flows down, "until the time of 'You open Your hand'" (Tehillim 145:16), when blessing pours out to the world. The Be'er Mayim Chaim says the angels said ayeh over Sarah to draw blessing down to her. Rav Gedaliah suggests asking here for a parnassah (livelihood) that comes with ease and dignity, so you can serve God without worry.
Come close, from wherever you are
The Kozhnitzer Maggid (Rabbi Yisrael Hopstein of Kozhnitz, Poland, 1737 to 1814) writes that some people, out of holiness, reach a state of being truly nothing, "as when we say ayeh in Kedushat Keter," and then they receive the extra soul. In the same passage he teaches that only someone poor and low in his own eyes can enter the high levels.
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (Ukraine, 1772 to 1810, great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov) says the most hopeful thing about this word. A person can fall very far, into doubts and into places where God seems absent. Then he looks at himself, sees how far he is, and asks, "Where is the place of His glory?" That question is already the way back up:
So the last kavanah is the simplest. Wherever you are holding this week, bring it into the word: Master of the world, wherever I am, let me find You there.
One question
What do Sarah, Sodom, Yitzchak and the angels have in common?
"Where is Sarah?" The angels know where she is. They ask so that her hidden goodness is said out loud, and becomes her merit.
"Where are the men?" Sodom uses the same word to break into a home and hurt the people sheltered there. It is the "where" of a city that has fallen as low as it can go.
"Where is the lamb?" Yitzchak asks his father where he stands: am I still your son? "Here I am, my son" is the answer, and they walk on together.
"Where is the place of His glory?" On Shabbat, the Arizal implies, the angels do not know. The word reaches up to the hidden top, and the last part of the Shabbat soul comes down to us.
One more link is hiding in the words. The Kedushah asks about the makom, the "place," of God's glory. And the Kli Yakar's key was that the word "place" points to a level (לְשׁוֹן ״מָקוֹם״ מוֹרֶה עַל הַמַּדְרֵגָה). We can join the two this way (the link is ours): when we say the angels' question along with them, we are asking our own question too. Where do I stand?
Rav Gedaliah ends here. In each of these questions, the real answer is not on any map. The question is asked so that we look deep inside ourselves, and bring what is most private and fragile in us into that one word. Next Shabbat, when the chazzan holds the word ayeh, bring that question with you.
Rav Gedaliah has also written about the very first "where" in the Torah, God's question to Adam: Ayekah, "Where are you?"
Common questions
Short answers, with sources.
What does "ayeh" mean, and where is it in Parshat Vayera?
Ayeh (אַיֵּה) means "where." It appears three times in the parsha: "Where is Sarah your wife?" (18:9), "Where are the men who came to you tonight?" (19:5) and "Where is the lamb for the offering?" (22:7). The Kli Yakar says the angels' ayeh asks about a person's level, not a location (Kli Yakar on 18:9).
Why did the angels ask Avraham where Sarah was?
The Gemara says they knew she was in the tent. They asked to show that she was modest and to make her dear to her husband (Bava Metzia 87a, brought by Rashi on 18:9). The Kli Yakar adds that her modesty was her merit for the son they were about to promise.
What are the dots over the word "eilav" in Bereishit 18:9?
Three letters of אֵלָיו (alef, yud and vav) have dots over them. Read alone they spell אַיּוֹ, "Where is he?", which teaches that the angels asked Sarah about Avraham too (Bereishit Rabbah 48:15; Rashi on 18:9). The Gemara learns a lesson in manners from the same dots: a guest should ask after his hosts (Bava Metzia 87a).
What is Kedushat Keter?
The Kedushah said in the chazzan's repetition of the Mussaf Amidah. In Nusach Sefard and the Sephardic siddur it opens "Keter yitnu lecha," "They will give You a crown." It includes the angels' question, "Ayeh mekom kevodo," "Where is the place of His glory?" Nusach Ashkenaz opens it differently but asks the same question.
Why does the chazzan stretch out the word "ayeh" at Mussaf?
The Ben Ish Chai rules that he should, so that everyone has time to have in mind receiving the last part of the extra Shabbat soul, which according to the Arizal arrives at that word (Ben Ish Chai, Year 2, Toldot 23; Pri Etz Chaim; Kaf HaChayim 286:14).
When does the extra Shabbat soul arrive?
The Gemara says it is given on Friday and taken away when Shabbat ends (Beitzah 16a). According to the Arizal it arrives in steps: on Friday night at "Bo'i kallah," Barchu and "Ufros aleinu"; on Shabbat morning at Barchu, "Ga'al Yisrael" and the word ayeh in the Mussaf Kedushah (Pri Etz Chaim). The Kaf HaChayim places the first two morning steps at Nishmat and the start of the Amidah.
What do the letters of אַיֵּה stand for in Kabbalah?
The Ramak, Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, writes that the alef is Keter (crown), the yud is Chochmah (wisdom) and the hei is Binah (understanding), the three highest sefirot (Pardes Rimonim 28:5).
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