Two Minute Torah Podcast

Vayera 5769 by Rabbi Mitch Malkus

Shalom and welcome to Koach's Two-Minute Torah podcast; a project of the College Department of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. I am Rabbi Mitch Malkus, Head of School of the Rabbi Jacob Pressman Academy of Temple Beth Am in Los Angeles, California.

In this week's parasha, Va-yera, Avraham audaciously confronts God for his decision to destroy the city of Sdom. Despite the fact that the Torah makes it known that the Sodomites are pagans and have clearly acted in immoral ways, Avraham argues with God back and forth over their fate until finally God announces that he will not destroy the city.

This story and the specific argument that Avraham has with God teaches us two important lessons about the power we as individuals have to affect change in the world and our ability to speak truth to power.

The first lesson emerges from the specific nature of Avraham's argument with God. Avraham does not ask God to simply save the righteous of Sdom, he begs that the entire city be saved for the sake of the few righteous people that live there. Why? Because hopefully those righteous people may lead all of the people to change their ways.

The second lesson that we learn from the parasha is that God is the one who demands that people speak truth to power, even if that power is God's self. In Chapter 18 verses 17-19, God says, “Shall I hide from Avraham what I am about to do, since Avraham 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 the Lord by doing what is right and just …” As descendants of Avraham we are called on to both speak truth to power and to teach others to do the same.

This idea is best captured in a famous Hasidic story. When Reb Yaakov Arye of Rodzhimin once visited the Kotzker Rebbe, a saintly recluse oppressed by the evil in the world, his host asked him, “For what reason was man put on this earth?” Reb Yaakov answered that “man was created to repair his own soul.” “No,” the Kotzker shouted back in disapproval. “Man was put on this earth to hold up heaven!”

Shabbat Shalom.