Portion of the Week / Complacency or compassion - Haaretz

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Thu., November 08, 2007 Cheshvan 27, 5768

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Last update - 13:22 11/11/2006

Portion of the Week / Complacency or compassion

By Benjamin Lau

In this week's Torah portion, we read about Sodom's sinfulness and its destruction. Sodom is a symbol of an evil society - of moral corruption, economic oppression and sexual exploitation.

Lot wanders with his uncle Abraham throughout the Promised Land, sojourns with him in Egypt and grows up under his tutelage. The Torah hints that property issues cause the disintegration of the relationship between the two. Seeking to preserve the extended family unit and to avoid friction and dispute, Abraham suggests to Lot that he settle in another part of Canaan. Lot's choice is very specific: "And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar" (Genesis 13:10).

His choice represents a dialectic between Abraham's world of geography and Sodom before it is erased from the face of the earth: Before its destruction, Sodom is comparable to the "garden of the Lord" - that is, Eden - and Egypt. The logic of this equation becomes more clear when we learn that the "plain of Jordan" is "well watered everywhere." Eden and Egypt are described as areas blessed with abundant water. The self-confidence displayed by the Nile's residents parallels that of Adam in Eden: They neither fear drought nor do they consider themselves dependent on heaven's beneficence (that is, in the form of rainfall). Their apparent strength breeds complacency and peace of mind. In Lot's eyes, Sodom's lifestyle conjures up a similar image of power, affluence and tranquillity. His childhood memories and his wanderings with Abraham in Egypt because of the drought in Canaan lead him to leap at the chance of choosing Sodom. In Egypt he saw an abundant, confident, relaxed society, and he personally is tired of wandering along the Judean mountain range between Bethel and Hebron.

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The Torah informs us, "But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly" (Gen. 13:13). We discover the nature of their sinfulness when two of the angels arrive in Sodom at night to save Lot and his family before the city is destroyed. The residents of Sodom do not allow the visitors a peaceful night's sleep: "... the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? Bring them out unto us, that we may know them. And Lot went out at the door unto them ... And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly" (Gen. 19:4-7).

Severe punishment

Rabbi Yitzhak Arama (who lived around the time of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal) wondered why Sodom's punishment was so severe ("Akedat Yitzhak," the chapter on Parashat Vayera, section 20): "The children of Israel sinned more seriously on several occasions with women who were far inferior to them, committing robbery and unjust and thoroughly immoral acts. The appalled prophets rebuked them daily, yet they were not punished as severely as the residents of Sodom. This is certainly puzzling."

In replying to his own question, Arama argues that the explanation is that there is a difference between an individual's personal sins and a whole society's institutionalized sins. Indeed, an entire system of social alienation was constructed in Sodom. Ezekiel points this out when depicting Sodom: "Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy" (Ezekiel 16:49).

The midrash on this verse states: "It was declared in Sodom that all those who strengthened the hand of the poor and needy with a slice of bread would be burned at the stake." Affluence bred alienation and complacency among the residents of Sodom and made them indifferent to the plight of others. Their entire system of values was mobilized to institutionalize their cruelty, and that is why God decides to destroy Sodom. The midrash goes beyond what Ezekiel says in the above verse and calls our attention to a verse in this week's reading that describes God's decision to destroy Sodom: "And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know" (Gen. 18:20-21).

According to the literal interpretation of this verse, God descends to hear the cries of the city's poor and oppressed. However, the midrash provides another explanation: "One day, Lot's daughter, married to one of Sodom's most affluent citizens, saw a beggar searching for food in the street and pitied him. The following day, and each and every day, when she left her home to draw water, she would take a generous amount of food, place it in her pitcher and give it to the beggar. People began to ask who was keeping this beggar alive. When it was discovered that Lot's daughter was giving him food, she was sentenced to be burned at the stake. She called out to God, 'Master of the Universe, avenge my death sentence by punishing the people of Sodom!' Her cry reached the divine throne of honor and that is when God said, 'I will go down now, and see whether the residents of Sodom have done altogether according to the young girl's cry. I will make its foundations look skyward and its towers burrow into the ground."

Sodom's death sentence was signed when Lot's daughter cried to God. She alone paid the price of the city's code of cruelty to its poor.

The Torah does not forbid affluence per se. However, it attacks the sinfulness that an affluent society can breed - the lack of compassion and the creation of an entire legal code that serves the rich while denying the needs of the weak. That is why God promises the Jewish people the Land of Israel, which "drinketh water of the rain of heaven" (Deuteronomy 11:11), where our dependence on God's mercy restrains our passions and makes us less complacent and much more compassionate.

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