Acknowledging G-d’s Constant Kindness

The people of Sodom were cruel. They barred wayfarers from their city. If anyone was caught hosting a visitor overnight, the visitor and the host were both punished. On one occasion, they tortured and murdered a young girl for feeding a passerby. If a poor person entered their oasis seeking alms, they wouldn’t just turn him away. They would harass and torture him first.

Yet, when G-d informed Abraham that He intended to destroy Sodom and its inhabitants, Abraham prayed for them. This is often hailed as an act of supreme kindness because the Sodomites were genuinely wicked people. Moreover, they even harassed Abraham’s student and valet, Eliezer, which made it personal. Abraham could have been justifiably angry at them. Yet, he prayed for them.

The question, however, can be asked from the other side. Is it really an act of kindness to preserve a cruel population? Kindness to the people of Sodom is cruelty to everyone they would harm. It is no different than compassion for murderers. If we pardon murderers and release them from prison to mingle with the community, we are cruel to the community.

It is ironic how kindness works. Kindness only works if the act of kindness is kind to all. If it is kind to one segment of the community but boomerangs against another, it is not kind. Kindness that is kind to one and cruel to others is misplaced kindness. So, what was Abraham thinking when he prayed that G-d spare the people of Sodom?

Ash and Dust
As is common for Jews, we will answer this question with another question. In the midst of Abraham’s dialogue with G-d, He asked for forbearance and said, “I am but dust and ashes.” At first glance, it sounds like he was saying, “You are so great, and I am so small —have some patience with me.” But if that were all he were saying, he could just as easily say, “I am human.”

Compared to G-d, Einstein and a speck of dust are equal. The most intelligent person in the world is no closer to G-d’s wisdom than is a speck of dust. That is the difference between finitude and infinity. If there were a finite difference between G-d and Abraham, it would make sense for Abraham to diminish himself further by saying I am but ashes and dust. It places more distance between them.

But the difference between us and G-d is infinite. One and a trillion are equally distant from infinity. They are both finite. The distance between G-d and us is endless. It makes no difference whether we are Einstein or a speck of dust. We are still infinitely distant from G-d. The slight finite difference between Einstein and dust is wholly irrelevant. So why did Abraham tell G-d, “Listen to me because I am merely ash and dust,” when he could just as easily have said, “Listen to me, because I am Abraham?”

G-d’s Kindness
Abraham was making a profound point about G-d’s kindness, and he was drawing the lesson from his own experience. He was pointing to himself and saying, Dear G-d,  you consider me better than the Sodomites, right? You think them worthy of punishment, and me unworthy. Well, let me tell you what drives me to be better than them.

It is your kindness that drives me to you. When I fought the four kings to save my nephew Lot, I should have been ground to dust. I took them all on by myself, and you miraculously saved me from my fate. When I angered Nimrod by refusing to bow before his idol, he threw me into the furnace. By rights, I should have been ashes today. But you saved me. If not for you, I would have been dust and ashes today.

When you saved me like that, I felt you, the glorious King of Heaven and Earth, come down to my battlefield, to my furnace, to save me from harm. I was humbled and overwhelmed with gratitude. The great infinite G-d cares enough about me to join me in the licking flames to protect me and save my life. The exalted, transcendent G-d abandoned His Heavenly abode to descend to my muddy, dirty battlefield to save me from certain death.

Your kindness so moved me that I decided to pay it back in spades. I devoted the rest of my life to you in every way I could think of. Your kindness and love for me ignited my kindness and love for others. Your devotion to me triggered my dedication to you.

This, then, was Abraham’s suggestion for G-d. Let G-d show the people of Sodom that they all deserve to die. Let them see and smell the danger until they can feel it coming. And then G-d would swoop in and save them. Not because they are deserving, but because G-d loves them and wants to be kind to them.

G-d, I can tell you from personal experience that if you did that, they would be moved to repent and mend their ways. They would be just like me. Deserving of reward, not punishment. That was Abraham’s pitch.

If it would work out that way, it would be a kindness to Sodom and to everyone else. Sodom was a very prosperous city on fertile soil. Had the Sodomites survived and repented, it would have been a boon to the entire region because they would have invited people in and shared their wealth. This was not a kindness that hurt others. This was a kindness that would raise everyone.

Blind To Kindness
G-d, however, rejected Abraham’s argument, assuring him that even if a few people would respond to G-d’s kindness as Abraham did, most would not. To demonstrate this, G-d struck the people of Sodom with blindness. This occurred when Lot took in visitors, and the people gathered at his home to attack him. The visitors, who unbeknownst to the people were angels, struck the attackers with blindness. Yet, despite their blindness, they continued tapping about for the door and couldn’t find it.

This was G-d’s way of indicating that even when you know where the door is, if you are blind, you can’t find it. Even if you know that G-d saved you out of kindness, if you are blind to it, you don’t see it, and don’t learn from it.

Sure enough, in the following passage, we read that the angels urged Lot’s family to flee Sodom and save themselves before they destroyed the city. Yet, Lot’s sons-in-law thought the angels were joking. These angels had just struck their people with blindness. They could see that the angels meant business, so why did the sons-in-law from Sodom think the angels were joking?

The answer is that they were blind, not physically, but spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. They had a mental block and couldn’t process that this was the end, even when they saw it with their own eyes. The same would be true had the Sodomites been saved. They would know what had happened but would have been too blind to acknowledge it or learn from it. This is why G-d rejected Abraham’s plea.

The lesson to us is clear. When good things happen, we mustn’t be blind to G-d’s kindness. We must be humble and grateful to G-d. We must respond by embracing G-d with love and pay it forward with kindness. We must always be on the lookout because G-d’s kindness is constant. For the most part, we are oblivious to His acts of kindness, but if we look for them and acknowledge them, we will have a much better relationship with God, with ourselves, and with the people around us.[1]

[1] This essay is based on Rabbi Shmuel Borenstein, Shem Mishmuel, parshat Vayera, 5678 and 5680