~ Thoughts
on the Parsha ~
Parshas Vayeira
As a Matter of Opinion
By: Daniel Listhaus
וַיִּגַּשׁ אַבְרָהָם וַיֹּאמַר הַאַף תִּסְפֶּה צַדִּיק עִם רָשָׁע: אוּלַי יֵשׁ חֲמִשִּׁים צַדִּיקִם בְּתוֹךְ הָעִיר
הַאַף תִּסְפֶּה וְלֹאתִשָּׂא לַמָּקוֹם לְמַעַן חֲמִשִּׁים הַצַּדִּיקִם אֲשֶׁר
בְּקִרְבָּהּ:
חָלִלָה לְּךָ מֵעֲשׂת
כַּדָּבָר הַזֶּה לְהָמִית צַדִּיק עִםרָשָׁע וְהָיָה כַצַּדִּיק כָּרָשָׁע
חָלִלָה לָּךְ הֲשֹׁפֵט כָּל הָאָרֶץ לֹא יַעֲשֶׂה מִשְׁפָּט
“Avraham came forward
and said, 'Will You even destroy the righteous with the wicked? Perhaps there
are fifty righteous men in the midst of the city; will You even destroy and not
forgive the place for the sake of the fifty righteous men who are in its midst?
It would be sacrilege to You to do such a thing, to bring death upon righteous
with wicked; so the righteous will be like the wicked. It would be sacrilege to
You! Shall the Judge of all the earth not do justice?”
-Vayeira 18:23-25
In
the beginning of parshas Vayeira[1],
the Torah describes that Avraham was sitting by the entrance to his tent in the
heat of the day. Avraham, the tremendous ba'al chesed, was desperately
awaiting guests even though he had just had his bris milah (circumcision)
and was still in pain.[2]
In order to appease Avraham, Hashem sent three malachim (angels) in the
form of men for Avraham to entertain. Rashi[3]
tells us that each of these three malachim had come for a distinct
purpose. One was to tell Sarah that she would give birth in a year, one was to
heal Avraham, and one was overturn Sodom. After the first two had completed
their missions, Rashi[4]
relates that the third malach delayed going to Sodom in order to give
Avraham the chance to ask Hashem for mercy.
Indeed,
after the malachim had left Avraham's tent, Hashem told Avraham that he
was planning on destroying Sodom. Avraham's immediate response to this,
however, seems quite aggressive. Avraham responded, “Perhaps there are fifty
righteous people in the midst of the city; would You even obliterate, and not
spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people that are within it?
It would be sacrilege to You to do such a thing, to bring death upon righteous
with the wicked...Shall the Judge of all the earth not do justice?”[5]
The
fact that this sounds to us as a bold statement to make to Hashem, and that it
does not seem to match with Avraham's usual humble personality,[6]
is beyond the scope of this d'var Torah. Let us just focus on the actual
argument that Avraham was making.
Rashi[7]
explains that Avraham's argument was the following: “It is profane for You. For
people will say, 'Such is His craft! He washes away everything, righteous and
wicked. So did You do to the generation of the mabul (flood) and to the
generation of Migdal Bavel (Tower of Babylon).'”
This
Rashi is extremely difficult to understand. Why was Avraham so worried
that such a thing would occur? The history text books were not as large then as
they are now. Certainly the two major events covered in any school curriculum
were the mabul and the dor haflaga (Generation of the Dispersion
by the Tower of Babylon). Everyone knew the story of Noach's family and how
they were saved in the teivah (ark) with all the animals. Additionally,
everyone was aware of the fact that there were no casualties as a result of
building Migdal Bavel, other than the fact that, consequently, the world
was divided into seventy languages. So, what was Avraham so worried about? Why
was he afraid that if Hashem would kill the righteous with the wicked in Sodom,
that people would start to say that Hashem also killed the righteous with the
wicked by the mabul and dor haflaga?
In
2006, Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler created various fake newspaper articles –
each one was written to confirm some widespread misconception or rumor, which
people had formed strong opinions about. For example, in one article they wrote
that the United States had indeed found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
After giving this article to some people to read, they would then give them a
version of a “corrected” paper saying that there was a mistake, and that in
reality the weapons of mass destruction were never found. In this research
study, Nyhan and Reifler discovered that those who supported the war actually
continued to agree with the first article – despite the fact that a second article
was given to them specifically correcting that error. Also, those who were
opposed to the war, said that they were all along skeptical of the first
article and therefore never completely accepted its contents as accurate.
This
is something that we do on a daily basis. When we weigh ourselves on the scale
and are happy with the results – we jump off smiling. Yet, when we are upset
with the numbers, we get off, reset the scale, and try again with absolute
perfect balance. When playing baseball and running to first, the runner
honestly swears that he got there first, while the first baseman equally
assures everyone that he touched the base first with the ball and that the
runner is out. All of these scenarios demonstrate that the assumptions we make
and opinions we believe take a strong hold on us; even to the extreme that we
will see facts erroneously and remember events differently.
The
Orchos Tzadikkim[8]
discusses the importance of memory.[9]
Although the author writes that it is obvious that the world would not be able
to run properly without people remembering, the Orchos Tzadikkim goes
through several examples. The last example he gives is the following: “And when
one goes to testify before Beis Din (court) regarding that which he saw
and knows, he must be extremely careful to remember correctly, and not subtract
nor add on that which he saw and knows”.
In
this chapter, the Orchos Tzadikkim is not discussing liars or people who
are out to get others because of anger or jealousy. Those middos (character
traits) are reserved for other chapters. If so, that the Orchos Tzadikkim is
solely dealing with memory, then how could we understand why the Orchos
Tzadikkim feels it necessary to warn us to be careful to remember correctly
and not add or subtract from what one saw and knows? If we are dealing with an
honest person who knows precisely what occurred, why should there be a
worry that he may add or subtract to what he saw and knows?
Perhaps
the Orchos Tzadikkim is alluding to this point of human nature we are
discussing. Even an honest person who thinks he knows what he saw must be
careful not to allow his opinion to get in the way, thereby distorting the
facts. If we allow our beliefs and personal opinions to be at the forefront of
our minds, then what we are essentially doing is causing ourselves to
constantly be looking at the world with colored glasses over our eyes. Such a
person who allows facts to be tainted by personal opinion cannot be trusted to
deliver accurate facts.
Perhaps
this is what Avraham was worried about. Hashem needed to destroy Sodom because
its sins became too great for the world to sustain[10].
The destruction of Sodom and Amorah was going to be a lesson to the world to
wake up and realize that such wickedness would not be tolerated. If Hashem were
to destroy the righteous with the wicked in such a situation, Avraham was
concerned that a strong opinion would be formed in the mind of the world as a
whole. People would see that the righteous too were killed and say about Hashem
that, “Such is His craft! He washes away everything, righteous and wicked. So
did You do to the dor ha'mabul and so to the dor haflaga.” People
would begin to subconsciously distort the facts of the past in order to fit
them with their opinions of the present. Avraham, who knew that Hashem's
judgment comes from absolute truth and righteousness,[11]
could not stand for such a belief to enter the world.
This
exact concept actually reappears later in parshas Vayeira as
well. After the destruction of Sodom, Avraham traveled to Gerar. Upon entering,
Avraham experienced déjà vu as Sarah was once again
taken to the king's palace.[12]
When Avimelech, king of Gerar was suddenly struck with a deathly plague, he
called out to Hashem, “My Lord, will you slay a nation even though it is
righteous? Did he [Avraham] himself not tell me that: 'She is my sister'...”[13].
Rashi[14]
on this passuk comments that Avimelech was really saying the following,
“I have done nothing wrong. I was under the impression that Sarah was Avraham's
sister, yet You want to kill me for trying to marry her? Perhaps this is Your
practice, to destroy people for no reason. So did You do to the dor ha'mabul
and the dor haflaga. I say that you slew them for no reason just as
You will slay me [for no reason].”
In
the end of the day, though, Avimelech was saved from the plague. So, what
happened to his “strong belief” that all the history books were wrong? Did he
or did he not believe that everyone in Noach's time was also righteous, and
that all the participants during the dor haflaga were killed without
record? What happened to the “I say that you slew them for no reason...”? Why
were these differences in recalling the past dependent on something that would
occur in the present? Clearly, Avimelech was not threatening Hashem that he
would start pretending that Hashem was an unfair G-d, rather, Avimelech
was just thinking out loud that if Hashem is willing to destroy innocent
people, then that is what must have happened during the past events as well.
Avimelech, without realizing, was on the verge of becoming a different person
solely because on his newly formed opinion. He would therefore also have a
different perspective and memory on the past – even if it would mean
subconsciously making up parts of history.
This
is the inferred lesson we could learn from Avraham's discussion with Hashem.
Human's are easily swayed by opinions. The power of opinion and preconceived
notions are such that we are even willing, subconsciously, to remember facts
differently in order to fit them into our opinions and beliefs. This is
something which is a middah and could be worked on. Zechira (remembering)
is the safeguard for emes (truth and reality). This means that even
if we are honest, good people we still must make sure that we remember things
objectively, and not clouded by our thoughts and opinions. We must work on this
aspect of this middah in order to ensure that we are not limiting
ourselves to a perspective influenced by our views and beliefs. This is the only
way we could be sure that we are really seeing what we think we see, and really
know what we think we know.
[1] Beraishis 18:1-2
[2] Rashi Beraishis 18:1
[3] Beraishis 18:2
[4] Beraishis 19:1
[5] Beraishis 23-25
[6] See Beraishis 18:27, where Avraham,
just two passukim (verses) later, humbly says that he is of but dust and
ash.
[7] Rashi Beraishis 18:25
[8] Orchos Tzadikkim: Sha'ar HaZechira - (Gate
19: The Gate of Remembrance)
[9] It is difficult to understand how memory is
a character trait that could be worked on and perfected. Memory is something we
may associate with height or IQ level – that people are born with different set
capabilities. However, from the fact it is in Orchos Tzadikkim it must
be it is really something that could be worked on. See the section on my blog
titled “Sha'ar Hazechira” for a possible explanation. Also see my d'var
Torah to Parshas Korach – Remember to Remember for another
possible approach.
[10] Bereishis 18:20
[11] Tehillim 19:10
[12] An almost identical episode occurred in parshas
Lech Lecha 12:10-20
[13] Beraishis 20:4-5
[14] Beraishis 20:4
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