The Open Tent: Why Abraham Left Every Side Open

In the eighteenth chapter of Genesis, Abraham sits at the door of his tent by the oaks of Mamre in the heat of the day. He looks up, sees three strangers, and runs to meet them. He does not ask who they are or where they come from. He brings water for their feet, bread and a calf, and he stands by them while they eat.

The rabbis took that scene and built on it. The Midrash on Psalms says that Abraham made himself an inn and opened doors in every direction, so that travellers could come in from any side. Another rabbinic text, Avot de-Rabbi Natan, gives four doors to the house of Job, and then has God tell Job that he has not reached half the measure of Abraham, who did not wait for guests but went out to find them.

A tent with one door asks the guest to find the way in. A tent open on all sides has already come to meet him.

The father of guests

The Qur'an tells the same story of the honoured guests of Abraham, and of the fattened calf he brought them (51:24–27). Islamic literature calls him Abu al-Dayfan, the father of guests, and remembers him as the first to honour a guest. In Hebron, the city that bears his title al-Khalil, the Friend of God, a charitable kitchen near his tomb has fed visitors in his name since at least the thirteenth century.

That is the idea behind this site. Every page is a way in: you can read the Journal, ask a question, meet the peacemakers in the Hall of Peace, open the documents in the Archive, or join the community. Come in from whichever side you are standing on.