Tuesday, November 8, 2022

Vayeira - Seeing: Part 3

Why was Sodom's punishment sealed b/c of the way they treated the young girl who had committed the "sin" of giving Tzdaka? Chesed is not one of the Sheva Mitzvos Bnei Noach??

If they just wouldn't have been people of Tzdaka and Chesed then maybe they would have been spared. But since they made a philosophy of it and it led to murder - that was too much and sealed their fate. 

Why did the angel whose job it was to overturn Sodom come so early?? First, the angels whose job it was to heal Avraham and tell about the birth of Yitzchak [see Rashi 18-2] should have done their jobs and then afterwards the angel whose job was to overturn Sodom could have come. Why did the "Sodom angel" come so early?? 

In order to fully appreciate the extent of their evil, the angel whose job it was to destroy Sodom came to visit Avraham and experience his Chesed. When he saw how a person can reach such heights of Chesed and then compared that with the ignominious [without knowing what that word actually means...] behavior of Sodom, he was then motivated to destroy it. 

The reason Hashem first told Avraham that He was planning to destroy Sodom was b/c Avraham thought that they had at least ten men of Chesed who would save them [תנחומא ז]. Only when he realized that they didn't even have a "minyan", he relented and "allowed" Hashem to carry out His plan.

The Parsha starts with the revelation of the infinite to the eyes of Avraham. וירא אליו השם. But his tremendous level did not yet spread to the world so it was then contracted to a speech of מדת הדין when it says "ויאמר ה' זעקת סדום ועמורה כי רבה" - being informed of the coming destruction of Sodom. At the end of the Parsha at the Akeida there is a revelation relating to the future "ויקרא אברהם שם המקום ההוא ה' יראה אשר יאמר היום בהר ה' יראה" [see Rashi "שיאמרו לימי דורות"]. When there is a revelation of infinite ראייה [as expressed in the Mitzva of Aliyah LaRegel], there is no longer a contraction of speech with Avraham. The shining face of the ירא-רואה-נראה [one who fears sees and is seen - see חגיגה ב] is transformed into a נס להתנוסס - a high flying mast/banner [see בראשית רבה נה א] for the whole world to see. 

Please DON'T send checks for millions of dollars even though that is what this delicious essay is worth!!!😀😋😘  

[עפ"י דברי מרן הרב זצ"ל סעודה שלישית תרצ"ב]