Dvar Torah for Parshat VaYera

The people of Sodom were evil and sinners to God, exceedingly.
   (Genesis 13:13)
With their bodies and with their money (Onkelos and Rashi).

“Avraham Avinu said to God, ‘...Forfend that You [should do this.] Will the Judge of the entire world not do justice?’”
   (ibid. 18:25)

“The mob screamed out to Lot, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us and we’ll “know” (sodomize-Rashi) them’...[Lot said to them] ‘Brothers, don’t do evil. Here are my daughters...Do them what is good in your eyes’...[They responded] he made himself a judge!’”
   (ibid. 19:5-9)

The people of Sodom, like the people of the Generation of the Deluge, were condemned to an awful fate. Not only did they die a horrible death, but they also have no share in the World to Come (Sanhedrin 107b). How did they manage to achieve this rare degree of “success”?

The Sodomites were well-known for their proclivity to a certain practice which has been named in their honor. This sin, however, was not what sealed their fate. As criminal as sexual sins are, as difficult as they are to correct, they are not unredeemable. One guilty of such acts can do teshuvah (repent).

However, it can happen that a person crosses a certain line that prevents repentance. One such line is mishpat (judgement). As long as one’s powers of mishpat are capable of being exercised impartially so that an honest judgement can be reached, then one can do teshuvah. If one’s faculty of mishpat leads to distortions of right and wrong, he will not do teshuvah for there is nothing for which to do teshuvah!

In Sodom a man cut off the ear of a fellow Sodomite’s donkey. When they went to court the judge rendered the following decision: The donkey must be given to the one who cut off its ear, so that he can tend it till the ear grows back, allowing him to restore the donkey in its original condition (Sanhedrin 109b).

Eliezer, the servant of our patriarch Avraham, once visited Sodom. He was intentionally wounded by a Sodomite. Eliezer brought him to court. The judge told Eliezer that he was to be his attacker a fee for the blood-letting rendered (ibid.). (Eliezer’s reaction? He punched the judge in the face and told the judge that what he owed Eliezer his honor could pay to Eliezer’s attacker!)

There is a principle in Judaism: ein hadin nimtak eleh b’shorsho, judgement can be only mitigated at its root. It’s good to get rid of the symptoms, but it’s not enough. Thus Avraham Avinu’s appeal to God: If You, the most perfect Judge, are ready to destroy them all (see 18:21), the innocent as well as the guilty, how can they be sentenced owing to their faulty mishpat?! Although Avraham Avinu’s appeal ultimately failed, it did buy the Sodomites some time (so that their punishment was meted out the next day).

(Lot also pleaded the Sodomites’ case, successfully, laying out their good points (!) to the executing angels and staying their hand - till the Sodomites demanded that Lot hand over his guests to them (Bereishis Rabbah 50:5).)

Every sort of controversy and disagreement, between people, peoples or within oneself, needs mishpat in order to create shalom. As long as the world’s faculty of mishpat is out-of-order there can never be peace in the world. As long as one’s personal mishpat is faulty he can never achieve wholeness. Each of us can improve our faculty of mishpat, as it needs to be applied within and without, but its ultimate rectification awaits the arrival of the Mashiach (Messiah), may he come soon, in our lifetime.

agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!