Dear TBZ community:
This week’s parasha, Vayera, is one of those Torah portions that contain more than one story for us to grapple with. This parashat includes, although not in this order: the announcement of the birth of Isaac, the binding of Isaac, the casting away of Hagar and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. In these many stories we see Abraham, in a continuing relationship with God, grappling with faith and justice and in a way, finding his voice as the first of our patriarchs.
In Genesis 18, verse 23, Abraham pleads with God to spare the wicked city of Sodom. He does that by calling God to check his sense of justice:
וַיִּגַּ֥שׁ אַבְרָהָ֖ם וַיֹּאמַ֑ר הַאַ֣ף תִּסְפֶּ֔ה צַדִּ֖יק עִם־רָשָֽׁע
Abraham came forward and said,
“Will You sweep away the innocent along with the guilty?
What comes after is a negotiation between God and Abraham regarding how many pirous people must be found to save the city.
“Abraham understood that God wanted to judge the entire Sodom area without paying attention to individuals. He found this hard to take, saying, ‘Will you actually wipe out the righteous along with the wicked? You wish to measure good and bad in these cities, and if the evil outweighs the good, You will destroy them all. This is very difficult to take…..
‘I therefore beg you, judge each individual by himself. And if there are ten righteous people, nullify the decree of their sake.’”
(Yalkut Me’am Loez to 18:24-25, pages 196, 197 English edition)
Abraham asks God to save those who are righteous -- because of their merits they should be saved. Abraham raises his voice as he finds injustice in the decree of killing the good people that are in the town.
“At first glance, it seems as though the patriarch is protesting the element of indiscriminate destruction in the Lord’s plan and asking that it be replaced by a surgical strike against the offenders alone… A closer look, however, reveals that Abraham is actually asking that the existence of a righteous minority stave off destruction for the entire town, sinners included.” (Page 61).
Levenson, in his reading, helps us go deeper into Abraham’s pleas. Abraham doesn't just ask to save the pious, but to save everyone -- the wicked and the pious by the merits of the pious. Abraham holds humanity as a collective. Good people might be punished because of bad people and bad people might be saved by the merits of the good.
This is such an important message for us. We have learned during this pandemic even more about the interconnectedness of humanity. The actions of specific groups of people can move the balance for all the rest of humanity. Many people that died from Covid might have been spared if others of us, who believed that their actions only impacted themselves as individuals, understood that this belief was untrue and short-sighted. If they had been able to see beyond themselves, had they been able to see that we are all interconnected, many might have been saved.
And this is also absolutely true when we think about our shared planet and our shared climate. We are all in a Sodom and Gomorrah situation for our planet and we are all -- the wicked and the good -- sharing the same fate. But what is powerful about this week’s teaching and what can inspire us to action is that when people do good -- even if it is only a righteous minority - we can stave off destruction for the entire town, sinners included.
This is why we keep going and believing that a life shaped by values can have a real impact in the world. We keep moving forward in trying to build a better world, a world of goodness because maybe we can save, not just ourselves but the whole world. Though the story of Sodom and Gomorrah doesn't have a happy ending, Abraham holds for us this call -- that humanity is interconnected and we must fight for it.
May this Shabbat bring renewal and blessings to all of you and your loved ones.
May we find strength, courage, and patience, and open our hearts with generosity.
May we start the journey of learning Torah together again, in depth and with joy.
May all those who are ill find healing.
May we have a joyful and restful Shabbat!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rav Claudia
