Parasha Thoughts
By Rabbi Shlomo Zargari
The social media in the city of Sedom was abuzz and everyone was excited. News got around that the newly appointed “judge” Lot was caught red handed. He broke the law-what a criminal-he brought guests into his home and is feeding them. This is outrageous, he was just appointed to the position and is already breaking the law and changing the policy. The whole city got together to make a demonstration and show that they won’t allow such terrible thing to happen. Young and old gathered to teach him a lesson. At the end, they were smitten with some sort of eye disease (equivalent to a smoke bomb) and had to disperse. They promised each other they’d take care of the issue tomorrow and went to bed thinking of a new tactic to tackle the problem of crime in their city.
They never got up. That night the weather wasn’t so good. There was rain but not normal rain; it was sulfurous fire and salt. The Jordan River washed the valley and the Dead Sea came into existence. Their souls went up and they thought to themselves, “We got our punishment already, at least we will get our portion in heaven. We won’t get a double punishment.†But as it says in Talmud Sanhedrin 107b: “The people of Sedom don’t have a portion in the world to come!”
And we’re imagining a whole bunch of burnt up people packed with salt standing there wondering why, what is this all about? And the answer comes to them swiftly from a verse in Yehezkel 16,49:
‎”Only this was the sin of your sister Sodom: arrogance! She and her daughters had plenty of bread and untroubled tranquillity; yet she did not support the poor and the needy.”
They hear this pasuk and wonder ok… so what? What’s so bad? We didn’t murder, steal, worship idols, eat what we shouldn’t eat or commit adultery! We just did not allow guests and didn’t give charity. What’s the sin? Where’s this written???
When you continue reading the parasha, Avraham Avinu settles in “Gerar.” He introduces his wife as his sister and the king Avimelech wants to make her queen. He gets a prophecy saying, “You will die on the account of this woman which you took.” He is surprised! He thinks he is righteous! What do they want from him? He was led on! Tricked ! Why should he die??? The answer: a visitor comes to your city, do you ask him what he would like to eat or drink, or do you ask him about his wife? Ok, let’s say he wasn’t on his best behavior, where is this law? And for this he should die?
We learn from here that not everything should be written.
Where is it written not to stand to pray with hands in the pocket? Where is is written not to talk during Tefillah and the Torah reading? Where is written not to joke on the account of others? And where is it written not to disgrace the Bet Hakneset by throwing candy wrappers on the floor or running?(they’re all written). But even if you aren’t learned, these issues are common sense, logical and basic. If we would use them life would be different, and we see what happens when we don’t…..