October 30th: Vayayra
THIS WEEK IN THE TORAH
Rabbi David E. Ostrich
Abraham’s “argument” with God over Sodom and Gomorrah is one of the most significant stories in the entire Biblical canon. How can Abraham dare to challenge the Creator of the Universe? Why does God allow it? And what does this story tell us about our understanding of God and God’s Ways?
First, Abraham’s gall. While it may seem that Abraham has a lot of chutzpah confronting God, that is not exactly the scene the Torah describes. The story begins with a kind of soliloquy—with God “turning to the audience (the reader)” and sharing a private thought:
“Now God had said, ‘Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham is to become a great and populous nation and all the nations of the earth are to bless themselves by him? For I have singled him out, that he may instruct his children and his posterity to keep the way of God by doing what is just and right, in order that God may bring about for Abraham what has been promised him.’ Then God said, “The outrage of Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and their sin so grave…” (Genesis 18.17-20)
God’s reason for the conversation is clearly stated: Abraham is assigned by God to be a moral instructor and thus needs to understand God’s ways so that he can explain them to others. This then is not an argument but a lesson. God puts the scenario in front of Abraham and asks him what he thinks. Abraham’s challenge is a series of questions about the logic and morality of God’s theoretical plan, and their conversation is an exploration of Divine Justice.
Second, God’s patience. As I read the story, God is not so much indulging Abraham as instructing him—and modeling a good teacher who answers questions and helps a student understand. Also, God never actually says that the innocent in Sodom and Gomorrah are to be destroyed.
“The outrage of Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and their sin so grave? I will go down to see whether they have acted altogether according to the outcry that has reached Me; if not, I will take note.” (Genesis 18.20-21)
Though Abraham takes the scenario seriously, he seems to be working to understand the parameters of God’s justice—and God is quite responsive to Abraham’s points. And please note: while God does eventually destroy the cities, God evacuates the few good people there.
Third, God’s justice. Though we have many questions about God’s justice and fairness, the story establishes our expectations.
“Abraham came forward and said, ‘Will You sweep away the innocent along with the guilty? What if there should be fifty innocent within the city; will You then wipe out the place and not forgive it for the sake of the innocent fifty who are in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing, to bring death upon the innocent as well as the guilty, so that innocent and guilty fare alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do justly?’” (Genesis 18. 23-25)
Abraham expects God to do justly, and, given that God goes along with Abraham’s point, God seems to agree.
This notion of God’s justice is further explained/detailed in Deuteronomy where human “goodness” is equated with obedience to God’s mitzvot (commandments). If we obey God’s mitzvot, we will be rewarded. If we disobey, we will be punished. Not only is this standard stated in terms of personal reward and punishment, but it is also commanded in the communal sense. If some Israelites sin, they may bring punishment down upon all Israel. Thus does there develop a sense of camaraderie and group enforcement.
So, to review: In Genesis, Abraham states the expectation that God will only do Justice, and God seems to agree. Then in Deuteronomy, both God and Moses state it again. Thus does it become our expectation too. So when we realize through experience that this is not the case—that terrible things happen to innocent people all the time, we feel a profound sense of disappointment and betrayal. The Biblical promise seems not to be true, and we humans are stuck in perhaps the greatest theological conflict and outrage with which religion must wrestle.
In some ways, the entire history of theology, philosophy, and religious thought arise from this challenge, and the Book of Job begins the formal wrestling. The struggle continues with the Pharisaic invention/intuition of an Afterlife with reward and punishment—and its adaptation by Christianity and Islam. This idea of the scales of justice being balanced in the Afterlife has been and continues to be a powerful and ameliorative belief.
Some thinkers however took a different tack, wondering if our understanding of (and expectations of) God are inaccurate. Perhaps the Biblical descriptions of a very powerful “person” is less true than many think. Mainmonides’ Aristotelian understanding of God places God above the human fray—with our only interaction being our attraction to the perfection of the Deity. Spinoza’s understanding of God is that the Divine is the fabric of existence—rather than an active participant in the drama of Creation. Rabbi Isaac Luria’s Kabbalistic vision sees God as extremely powerful but not all powerful—as an injured and limited Divine that waits for Tikkun Olam, the helpful and holy efforts of humans in effecting Divine healing and increasing Divine influence. And Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan’s supranatural view understands God as a force in humans that induces humans to self-improvement and constructive engagement with the world.
As we struggle for both understanding and relationship, it can be helpful to remember that the Infinity of God allows for many possibilities and many levels of human understanding.
Perhaps this insight from psychologist and philosopher William James (19th-20th Centuries), can give us perspective. Religion is the human response to an undifferentiated sense of reality—to the “more” (an undefinable, non-empirical feeling of a Presence). We sense the Presence. We aspire to understand it. And all religions arose from this human attempt to understand the infinite (i.e., the un-understandable). There are many traditions about God, and each seeks through tradition and intuition to understand and to live in a conscious relationship with the Presence. We have our Tradition and history of religious thinking and practice, but sometimes, it appears, God is greater than our concepts—greater than our definitions. That is why we can look at the ancient stories and find poignancy and wisdom, but sometimes we need to expand our thinking and consider more about God than we or our ancestors know.