Back to Home -> Vayeira ->

Rashi cites the Talmud in Sanhedrin 89b which explains that these words apply to the “words” of the Satan. The Satan attempted to condemn Avraham for not offering a sacrifice to Hashem during the plentiful banquet he had arranged in honor of Yitzchak. Hashem responded to the Satan, “Even if I had told him to sacrifice his own son, he would do it! Did he not make the whole banquet in honor of his son?” Hashem immediately commanded Avraham to perform the Akeidah. The fact that Avraham did not offer any form of sacrifice seems puzzling. While he had the…

After being ordered out of Avraham’s house, Hagar and her son Yishmael stumbled through the wilderness. Yishmael became feverish and drank all the water available to quench his burning thirst. He could no longer walk by himself and his mother could not hold him any longer. She put him down under a bush, and moved away to pray for his life saying, “I can no longer watch the child dying.” Yishmael also prayed and Hashem responded to his prayer, not Hagar’s. This is because Yishmael had the merit of being Avraham’s son, and also because he performed teshuva (repentance) at…

The emphasis is in the words “in the midst of the city”. Avrohom did not ask forgiveness for the sake of fifty righteous men who happened to live in the city. The righteous man in the midst of Sodom’s depravity is not one who clings to his sheltered environment smug with pride over his own superiority, and who, therefore, thinks he has accomplished enough if he has saved himself and his household. Such a person does not fulfill Avrohom’s criteria of a righteous person. His righteous person can be found in the midst of the city, and in his living…