BS”D

Vayera – Just one thing missing here

DR M Bank

A Guten Erev Shabbos. Parshas Vayera, I would like to contemplate theinner dimension of the mentality and midos of Sodom and Amora. What it means to choose your friends carefully. And what it means that person shouldn’t leave a Torah community under any circumstances and think that he can make it alone. So on reflection the words that Avraham Avinu said to Pharaoh, H punished the Phraoh for taking his wife, he said “How could you do this to me” obviously Avraham Avinu was scared that he would be murdered, for his wife so he told them that he was the brother of Sarah and not the husband. So he said, “Why, because there is one thing lacking in this place – Yiras Shamayim”. Its an amazing concept.

Lets take a moment to reflect how each city in the world is doing and to contemplate the mentality that people are willing to murder others to get their way. We have to know that there is absolutel one thing missing here. We see on the other side of the equation the incredible mesiras nefesh and emuna of Avraham Avinu and Yitzhak Avinu and what it must have taken on a level of rust in Hakadosh Boruch Hu taking everything he had ever developed as a relationship with H’ – Avraham Avinu was known as chessed, and having been compelled to turn all his midos around and take his son, his only son, the one he loved. The commentaries say when H’ said, ‘your son’ he said ‘but I have two sons’, ‘your only one’ – ‘ but I have two sons that are only sons, this one t Hagar, this one to Sarah’. ‘The one you love’ – ‘I love them both’. ‘Yitzhak’. Finished – nothing to discuss. Thisis the one you will take up to the akeida on the har habayis, to the even hashtiya which is the kodesh hakodashim, and bring him as an offering. We see in this a tremendous level of emuna and bitachon. For a person who is well, it would be a tragic sign of insanity but with H we have to know that sometimes we are commanded to do things we just don’t understand. The whole concept of Avraham Avinu was the antithesis of the contemporary world culture that we saw in last week’s parsha. He was ever – on the other side. World opinion was such and such and his opinion was exactly diametrically the opposite. ‘What do mean it’s a problem to tell little white lies’? What do you mean it’s a problem to bow down to lucky charms, They work. Look at how successful the world is, bowing down to idols. Don’t rock the boat. Don’t throw good fortune away. Are you out of your mind – leaving your past behind? You’ve got your parnassah, your family, your friends, your home. You want to throw it in for nothing at all. Your leaving – for what? Just because you think you heard something? Do us a favour. Don’t be such an extremist. The whole world is wrong nd you are right? Who are you to think you’re right? These are some of the arguments I’m sure Avraham Avinu must have faced from family and friends.

So this is very much in the geder or gvul of what we as a nation are expected to live up to inevery generation. Akeidat Yitzhak is a very interesting thing – to marry into the Jewish faith. There are so many temptations out there. She’s a beautiful girl, from a rich family. What do you mean we have to marry Jewish? What do you mean there is a sword at your throat? You bow down to those idols or you perish. As they said in the Spanish inquisition, as they said in the holocaust. As they took the children and taught them idolatry an murdered the parents. As the missionaries are doing today. We see the tragedy in each generation. The rest of the world says, ‘your dead wrong’. The truth of the matter is, world history testifies, those that curse the jews are cursed themselves. As we’ve seen, everyone from the greatest nations in the world, as they’ve been blessed with tremendous tremendous success, all of a sudden they rise up and attack the Jewish community in their midst. They are guaranteed not to be successful. Then they self destruct.

What happened to the ancient ‘civilisations’ the ancient Babylonians, the ancient Greeks, the ancient Egyptians, the whole concept of the Pharaoh and the pyramids. They self destruct and are relegated to museums and history books. Am Yisrael end up being the history teachers, and the curators of the museum. Of all those other nations that made every effort to believe that this time they would (G-d forbid) find the final solution. What they do find is their own final solution.

So we see, in this weeks parsha, just after Avraham Avinu had gone through Bris Mila – tremendous pain. On the third day, what would a person be thinking? Maybe I should go to hospital, I hope I didn’t do the wrong thing. I hope everything will be OK. There was nobody to help him - if it got infected he would be on his own. Like he’s always been – on his own with H’. From his third day what would a tzadik like Avraham Avinu be thinking. How can I continue if I can’t welcome some guests, send some guests so that I can take my mind off the pain. Sure enough H’ sends him some angels as guests. And look at a lesson that we have to learn here. He ran towards them from the entrance of the tent, bowed to the ground and said’ My Lord, if I find favour in your eyes, please do not turn away from your servant. He was looking for guests, running after them as quick as he could. Let some water be brought. Wash your feet and recline beneath the tree. I will fetch bread so that you may feel sustained. Then you can go on your way as much as you have passed by my way. So the three angels said, do so, just as you have said. So Avraham was very excited, he rushed to the tent and said to Sarah, Hurry, Grind meal, fine flour, knead and make cakes. Avraham ran to the cattle to shecht a calf, one of the nicest calves, he gave it to the youth to prepare it. He took cream and milk, and placed these before his guests. Look at the hospitality here. Incredible. Very understated, then he brought for the guests tremendous opulence, baked chala loaves, fresh veal stakes and the finest of what he could find in his whole Estate. Now we know that angels don’t eat, but H’ performed a miracle so that these angels appeared to be eating to make Avraham feel he was being hospitable to his guests. We see from this midda, maaseh avos siman lebanim. The way the forefathers behaved sets the trend for world history. So its not just tzedaka which is chessed – chessed olm yibane. Chessed has a koach beyond saving from death. It actually builds the foundations of the world. Any place that chessed does not exist, you can be sure has no foundation and is in terrible danger of collapsing. An individual may survive individually if he does tzedek but the foundations of tht place are in terrible danger.

So we go forward to the point where H reveals to Avraham the impending destruction of what could be called a nation. Sodom, Amora and 3 other cities, 5 in all – a whole country at the time. The angels left Avraham and were on their way to destroy Sodom and rescue Lot. An individual and his family. H delayed the destruction until Avraham had an opportunity to intercede. The Torah explains H’s reasons. He says, ‘Avraham is destined to become a great and mighty nation, and not just a great an mighty nation. The embassador of mankind, of all those live on the earht’s surface. He will teach his value of kindness and justice to future generations, Its appropriate therefore to tell him what He plan to do. Otherwise people could wonder about two things – 1. How could H have hidden this from him? 2. How could Avraham have been so callous as not have prayed for his neighbours. If he is so gracious as a host, how much more so to a whole city, or country. Where is his humanity? Passion? Or Concern? We see a tremendous insight here from how he went about praying or them and how frightening was the prognosis of these cities. If there is any way to save Sodom, Avraham will try it. If they are completely guilty with no mitigating factors Avraham will want the fair judgement to be carried out.

According to the Ramban. H’ wanted to make it known that the opportunity for repentance are open for sinners, as long as there are ten and somebody nips in on their behalf. Then there is a possibility of rescuing he town. He wanted Avraham to know that if there had been some righteous indivuals in Sodom, even if the majority of the population were totally wicked, the righteous could have saved the country.

The Contrast now between Israel and Sodom.

The seed of Sodom and its principals were slain because thy failed to abide by the 7 mizvot bnei noach. All the moreso, what Avraham Avinu stood for, which would be taught to all his generations forever. The cruelty of Sodom had become part of their ay o life. It had become their language. It wasn’t just a little selfishness. The small defect was the downfall of the whole country. A little malice. A little pride. The chief problem here was greed. How do we come to such a conclusion? Its all well and good accusing a nation that has been destroyed, but lets explore. How do we come to such a conclusion? What was the neighbourhood of Sodom and Amora? Where was it situated? What was the vegetation like? It was the most opulent, lush forest. Overflowing water falls. Lakes. A hint of what was going on through the whole dead sea valley would be Ein Gedi. Have you seen Ein Gedi? Beautiful? A little garden of Eden? That was the whole of the dead sea valley. Hundreds of kilometers of absolutely opulent Oasis vegetation. Fruit – the sweetest in the world. The most unbelievable blessings. The trees had the most delicious fruits. That was where the Sodomites and Amorites set up their community. Sodom was one of the most fertile and richest places on earth. Therefore it was a magnet for people seeking to make their fortunes. Like people going to Los Vegas to roll the dice or play the Roulette wheel, in the hope of making their fortunes. What’s the truth in Los Vegas? They don’t just lose their Vegas, they can lose everything.

So Lot ended up in this place. He had the choice between two places. Either o be with Avraham Avinu or the Ultimate in Gashmius. That was THE place in the world. For his flocks, and his family, regardless of the Middos of the community. So, when we have a quick review of what happened to Lot, his flocks and his fortunes. What really happened there? He lost everything except the shirt on his back. It was a miracle that he survived. His son in laws didn’t make it out of Sodom and Amora. His wife didn’t make it to her destination. It was a tremendous catastrophe. For what – just living in an address where there was just one tiny little thing missing? A lack of Yiras H’. Yiras Shomayim? That was the essence of what was going on there? How can you say such a thing. Lets explore.

The Sodomites wanted to maintain their own prosperity and not to be overwhelmed by a flood of beggars and new immigrants. In our tradition its written, Send me you tired, you weary, your forlorn. Do not enter was their message. Wealthy immigrants like Lot were welcome as long as they had their “green card”. If they had their ‘visas’ , to prove that financially not only are they not a burden, but they will carry the burden. Come on over with all you treasures, and we will know what to do with them. Because, they would give much more to the economy than they would take. Therefore to discourage undesirables, beggars and people that are looking to make a living, the Sodomies institutionalized the death of poor people. How can you sy such a thing? That they institutionalized it. Well, there are certain stories given over in the Maseches Sanhedrin about some of the middos of the neighbourhood. The story I told of what they did to all the beggars that came into town. They would knock on the door and people would come to the door. He would ask, please give me some money, I’m very hungry. They would give him a silver coin with their name on the side in a hidden place. He would go to each home, knock on the door and they would all give him some money. When it came time to go to the supermarket, or wherever they would buy food, they would be refused. They were told, its forbidden to house a stranger or give food to a stranger, under any condition, and therefore it was impossible to buy food or water from anybody. Everyone would be happy to give the beggar money, but they were not allowed to give food. The beggar would eventually collapse and from starvation and dehydration, die. Then, people would come and scurry through his belongings and clothing, find their coin and take it back. So we see, it became a crime to feed starving people. Even sexual perversion, of which Sodom was notorious, was employed to keep people away. In other words, if they came to the city and somebody housed him, there was a real danger the visitor would be raped. According to the name, so they became famous. According to Chazal the sinfulnees and greed came from one little problem. As it says in Pirei Avos 5, 10 – what is mine is mine, and what is yours is yours. Now we learn from that Mishna in Pirkei Avos that Tzadik says what is mine is yours and what is your. That’s a righteous person. A wicked person says, what is yours is mine an what is mine. It fair to have your money stolen – its all fair in love and war, to have your wife abused by strangers. There were no gvulim. That is the definition of wickedness. So if a person says whats yours is yours and what mine is mine, that seems like a beinoni kind of person. We’ve got a fence between uss and our neighbours. Good fences make good neighbours. He is your brother. Al Ta’amod al dam re’echa, don’t stand idly by when your brothers’ blood is being shed. If your friend’s son falls in a pool, jump in, even fully clothed, and try to get him out. Do CPR on him and save his life. If they need food, give him something. If he needs money, help him. Don’t stand on his blood, spiritually or physically. So, we see a tragic value that has permeated throughout the world today. The midda of Sodom and Amora. – neither a borrower nor a lender be. I challenge anybody to try to borrow something you can forget about it. People would watch you starve and dies. So nobody would lift a finger.

I remember once I was in Chicage. It was the middle of winter, freezing cold outside. Cold enough that if a person was not well dressed appropriately, he could perish from exposure in a short while. As I walked past a certain hotel, I saw a crowd of people, crowding around somebody. So, I went to have a look at the exit of the hotel, just outside the hotel, and I saw a man of about 20 or 30 years old lying on the floor groaning. He was in terrible pain. I said to the people, does he need an ambulance, what’s happening here? People looked at me with blank expressions. Like, buddy, what do you want to get involved here for. Look at the guy but don’t touch. Do you want a law suit? You’ll get sued. What do you need to touch this guy for? Maybe he’s got the aids virus. This was Chicago in the middle of winter. I was shocked. Having some medical skill, if the guy was having a heart attack or short of oxygen, al taamod al dam reecha, don’t stand by when a fellow human being is dying. So I looked around and said isn’t anybody going to help? They looked at me like, Where are you from? What are you talking about helping. Have you gone mad. People just walked over the guys body and walked away. I thought am I mad? I ran into a hotel quickly and said to the manager, could you please call an ambulance urgently. He said, why? Why do you need an ambulance. I said there’s a man out there, I think he had a heart-attack and he’s dying. The manager came around the desk and said, were exactly. So I showed him,, just outside the front door. He says, oh outside the front door. That’s not our problem. I thought, has the world gone mad that they can watch an innocent man die. I was shocked. I said to the manager, if this guy dies, I promise you I’m going to the press – you’re a sick person, to watch people dying outside the front door. With that, I ran outside and nobody was there to help, just the guy lying like a corpse on the floor. I picked him up and shook him and said are you OK. I ran around asking for help. People said, buddy, your not from here. There is just one thing lacking here. You don’t know where your from. Leave this guy alone and get going, on your way. Shut ut and get going. So I saw two policemen on the other side of the street, and I screamed to them, Officers, come urgently there is a man here that looks like he’s dying. They were a tiny bit of sanity left in a city that had lost its mind. I couldn’t believe it. downtown Chicago filled with people, and not one lifted a finger. The manager of the hotel that could have just made one phone call. Not even to lift a finger, just to lower it on the phone to dial 911. The irony was that this guy had been in the hotel and had had one too many to drink. As he left the hotel into the cold air, it hit him like a blast of ice and collapsed from it. Had he died there from a heart attack, or a stroke, or a million other medical conditions, what kind of behaviour is it? In a City that is so blessed with affluence and opulence, they can just walk over their brother’s body. Without lifting a finger. I was shocked by that and I am until today. Its not the only case or the only time.

The Gemoro gives the story of a Rabbi who was approached by a beggar asking for money. Whilst the Rabbi reached for a coin, the poor man died. The Rabbi was in agony for the rest of his life. Al taamod al dam reeha. Don’t stand on your brother’s blood.

So we see something here that is the antithesis of every value system we have. One of the things that I think scarred every jewish neshama across the world was the genocide of two soldiers in Jenin. Two Jewish soldiers that lost their way, taken in by the police, the PLO, who took them into the police station. Within a few minutes a huge crowd developed outside. The police helped to beat the soldiers to death. They were thrown outside the window. A video captured a little boy coming to the window with blood on his hands shacking with joy. The crowd below dragged the bodies along the ground, tearing them open and eating the flesh. The Italian cameraman that filmed the whole thing apologized profusely to the PLO for having destroyed their reputation. That was his apology. The levels of depravity. Do you hear the world screaming about those? Is anybody outraged by that inhumanity of Sodom and Amora proportions? Do we hear outrage like when they fire on people lobbing rockets into Israel every week, r”l. If we decide to cut electricity to Azza, the world is up in arms. Shooting rockets into civilian, residential areas, schools etc is OK, but cutting electricity is murderous, an outrage against civilization. To contemplate the total insanity of what happened, seeing something that may have happened in the generation of Avraham Avinu, in a most depraved place called Sodom and Amora, to the point where these became Irei Hanidachas. An Ir hanidachas is a city that has to be totally destroyed, burnt to the ground, so that no remnant of the city exists. Not a shoe lace, not a strap, not a human being. Not an animal, not a mezuzah, and not a sefer Torah. If there are sifrei kodesh in the city it is saved. To that level of depravity, Sodom and Amora won the award.

If anybody came there and wanted o be housed for the night, they wou be taken to a certain bed. If they were too short for the bed, they would be put on a stretcher rack. They tied their limbs to the bed and tore them limb from limb. If a person was too tall, they would chop off their legs. So we might hink the courts of law might have had some semblance of justice. When Eliezer eved Avraham Avinu had to make contact with Lot one time, a crowd gathered around him and he was hit in the nose. He wanted justice and went to Court. The person who hit Eliezer said to the Judge, I have something to say. I am a doctor and I could see he had high blood pressure, so I hit him in the nose and here is my fee, several hundred dollars. The Judge ordered Eliezer to pay, refusing to let him leave the town until he did so. In a moment of braveness he turned around and beat the judge ferociously causing him to bleed. He said to the judge, ‘as he let my blood, I let yours. You say I owe him, so in that case you owe me the same amount for the ‘service’. You can pay him’. With that he left. In those days the Courts were depraved. These days we have plea bargaining, people swearing over a bottle of orange juice. Pleas of insanity for just about anything. There is joke of somebody who asks the judge to have mercy on a boy who just killed his parents because now he is an orphan.

We see right now the 70 nations of the world are getting together in Annipoli, America, to discuss how to divide Israel and chop Jerusalem into pieces. The seventy wolves are craving for their feast on the little lamb, Israel. H’ will deliver to all those who cause Israel to cry out, measure for measure. Wicked murderers are applauded and given accolades, whilst righteous people are killed. H will avenge the death of the righteous. In Iran they are looking to develop not just one atom bomb but thousands. Their aim, beyond Israel. The world has created a monster of its own.

Another famous story emanating from Sodom is that of a young lady, some say Lot’s other daughter, who took in guests for the night. They took her the following morning, coated her in honey, because she was so sweet, and al the bees came and stung her to death. Such was the behaviour of a city earmarked for total destruction.

When it came to the beggar after he died, lying on the floor, they all trusted each other not to take another’s money. What is mine is mine, and what is yours is yours. Such a city who forbade all forms of decency and sentenced anyone caught being decent to a similar death, they forfeited their right to exist.

How can we say such a thing? Look at what happened to Lot when he invited the angels in. He thought because he was wealthy and successful he could get away with it. This was the last outcry before their total destruction. Today this is the site of the dead sea, the towns never to be built again. We have to tremble at the level of depravity in the world today, what will happen. The way people treat neighbours, the sick, beggars, posters, ‘no dogs and jews allowed’.

There came a time that H had to let Avraham Avinu know what he was going to do, because Avraham Avinu would become the father of H’s nation and the whole world would be blessed by him. “I have loved him because he shall teach his descendants after him to keep the ways of H, doing charity and justice”. Tzedaka umishpat, in order that he might then bring Avraham that which he has promised Avraham. The cry was so great, H personally came down to see if the level of depravity was so high. Nothing is hidden from H.

A group went up to the journalist Jonathan Perl and, on video tape, asked him if he was a Jew. Just because he was a Jew, they murdered him, on video tape. Imagine the outrage in shamayim, the levels of desecration in H’ world.

Avraham came before H’ and said, will you stamp out the righteous wih the wicked. The same question as where was H in the holocaust, where was H in world history. The real question is where was mankind? We don’t get the full picture. We don’t see that those who were murdered al Kiddush H’, to honour H’s name, go directly to Gan Eden. Sometimes a person lives 120 years in this world and it is a total waste. Another person may achieve eternal life in the world to come in 1 second because he believes in H’.

If there should be 50 righteous people in the cities. Avraham Avinu was appealing in the zchus of 5 minyanim, 5 communities that could have 10 righteous people. Would H still destroy the whole valley. It would be sacrilege. Shall the Judge of the whole world not judge righteously. Avraham goes to 40, 20, 10 and then stops. What we see from this is that every city in the world with 10 righteous people, in the zchus of that one minyan, that city exists. That city is mekayem, established and blessed. Eventually H told Avraham he would not destroy it on account of 10. What about 9? When the advocate became silent, realizing the case was lost, the Judge departed.

Sodom was destroyed. Lot and his immediate were saved. Through his service for Avraham Avinu, he showed that his character had ennobled, so that although Sodom had made its mark on him, he had remained righteous. Lot invited the guests to eat and wash their feet. Surely it should be the other way around, like with Avraham Avinu. They should have washed their feet first. Lot wanted it to seem as though they had just arrived if they were discovered ‘with the dust on their feet’. The angels were reluctant to accept until a crowd built up outside. We see the total depravity of the town. When the Sodomites said they wanted to know the guests, they meant they wanted to rape them nd murder them. Lot even offered his own daughters. We see the righteousness of his daughters that they remained virgins in Sodom and were engaged to be married. What does it say about our generation? Why did the people of Sodom act his way? To deter the poor and the needy. As it says, tzedaka matzil mimaves.

Tzedek is to to do the right thing. Chessed is beyond that. Olam chessed yibane. It is a cornerstone of the world. Lot was a strange kind of hero, doing everything he could to save the guests so long as they were under his roof. Midrash Tanchuma says that as a result of even offering his daughters, he was zoche that his offspring would continue.

Other nations in history were not punished as severely as Sodom. Sodom was in Eretz HaKodesh, H’s own land which could not tolerate such abomination. H also wished to make Sodom an example to the world and Am Yisrael forever.

We see that like Avrham and so many people in history, Lot was saved by a miracle while everything around him was crashing down. Similarly there were lots of stores of miracles in the Twin Towers, as well as tragedies. Whilst Lot’s sons in law laughed and were caught up in the surrounding destruction, Lot, destined to be the ancestor the righteous Ruth foremother of David Hamelech and Naama who married Shlomo HaMelech. All in the zchus of Lot who followed Avraham Avinu. We see the tremendous twists and turns in world history.

We see how Am Yisrael has gone through all these twists and turns. As Mark Twain describes it, ‘with his hands behind his back, and being exposed to all the depravities of world history, this nation goes forward on the pathway of H’, showing no signs of infirmary. All else is mortal but the Jew’.

We have to understand from this, that Avraham Avinu set the pace. If we keep the pace, the principle of Chessed Olam Yibane, Tzedek tzedek tirdof, achavta lereecha kamocha, al taamod al dam reecha, then we can be sure that we and the nations will be Lev Ehad VeGuf Ehad, on that day, then, Bayom HaHu, Yiyhe H Ehad, Ushmo Ehad. That H will be one, and the world will see that we are at one with H’. Then we will see the miracle of the Beis hmikdash returning to this world, Moshiach Tzidkeinu, Geula Shleima. Please G-d this should all happen soon in our days and may we all as a nation and the whole world, experience Shabbat Shalom mevorach.