Our Parsha opens with Hashem, as we understand, visiting Avraham Aveinu on the 3rd day after Bris Milah, when Avraham was at the height of his pain following the circumcision, as Rashi indicates, “to inquire about his welfare.” (Metsuda Linear Chumash rendering of Rashi on Perek 18, posuk 1)
It’s not like Hashem needed to pay a visit to ascertain Avraham’s actual condition for, Hashem is the Creator, The Master, The Ruler over the world who knows and is aware of everything. And so we learn and gain insight from this first posuk as to the Mitzvah of Bikur Cholim; showing, caring, giving strength and encouragement to the ill by visiting and caring about them.
But this vort relates to “the men”, the melachim, or at least two of the melachim who sent to Avraham Aveinu as he sat, at the height of his pain, still seeking orchim, guests, even as he received his visit from Hashem. The vort is about these two who were assigned by Hashem to rescue Lot and his family and to destroy Sodom, and about the midos, the mores the characteristics of the people of Sodom whch led to their destruction and perspective of Sodom in modern day.
Rabbi Yehudah Nachshoni, in his “Studies in the Weekly Parsha” begins a section on Sodom by stating that the Torah makes no specific comment as to the sin of the Sodomites. “The Torah merely tells us that they were very wicked and sinned greatly, and that a cry had come up from Sodom to the Heavens until Hashem, as it were, came down by Himself to see if indeed they had done ‘as its cry.’ But what that cry was, is not specified in the Torah. Chazal explain it as the cry of certain young woman who had been sentenced by the city to either be exposed to bees or to be burned, because she had helped a poor man.” (Studies in the Weekly Parsha, Parsha Vayeira, page 85)
The sefer, “The Midrash Says” (Parsha Vayeira, pages 165-177) offers additional perspectives on the cruelty and depravation of the people of Sodom; that hospitality, that kindness was outlawed and justice non-existent in Sodom. And the episode at the entrance to Lot’s home on the night that “the men”, the melachem arrived is particularly striking and epitomizes and gives historical perspective to the ways of Sodom; Parsha Vayeira, Perek 19, posuk 5; “They called to Lot and said to him, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them.'”
Rashi comments on “that we may know them”; “For the purpose of homosexuality as in: ‘Who have never known a man,’ known refers to sexual relations.”
Is there a not message here for the contemporary State of Israel, with it’s government-invested efforts toward “gay-friendliness” and the gay desecration set to take place this Erev Shabbos in Jerusalem and what we learn in our Parsha about Hashem’s wrath upon Sodom? Is there not a message here for those who prey on the shy, perhaps those not so socially-interactive with their type of gay “outreach? “
This year, Erev Shabbos Parsha Vayeira coincides with Kristallnacht (click here), “(also known as Reichskristallnacht, Novemberpogrome, Pogromnacht and the Night of Broken Glass) which was a pogrom against Jews throughout Germany and parts of Austria on November 9–10, 1938.”
“Jewish homes and stores were ransacked in a thousand German cities, towns and villages, as ordinary citizens and stormtroopers destroyed buildings with sledgehammers, leaving the streets covered in smashed windows — the origin of the name “Night of Broken Glass.” Jews were beaten to death; 30,000 Jewish men were taken to concentration camps; and 1,668 synagogues ransacked or set on fire.”
As if the correlation of the dates was not a sufficient wonderment,
German historian Hans-Jorgen Doscher, considered Germany’s foremost authority on the events of Kristallnacht (click here), November 9 1938 and a leading expert on the Third Reich, published a well-documented account of events of that day.
In his “definitive history,” Reichskristallnacht (click here), he indicates the possibility that Kristallnacht “was not politically-motivated, as commonly believed, but the result of a homosexual love affair between a Nazi diplomat and a young Jewish man.”
Again, is there a not message and a lesson here for the contemporary State of Israel and gay desecration set to take place this Erev Shabbos in Jerusalem?
May it be in this year and in all future years, that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif — many still seeking their places, our brethren in the North who have had their lives disrupted, been displaced from their homes, their property in many cases destroyed by Katushyas, as well as our dear brother, Jonathan Pollard and the lives of the 3 captive Chayalim are central in our thoughts, prayers, chassadim and actions. May this abominable period of history called hitnatkut be as a bad dream, be retified — our brethren made whole and may hitnatkut be expunged from collective consciousness yet it’s evil never forgotten.
May we be zocha in this coming year to take giant steps toward fulfilling Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, “Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!
Good Shabbos!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of the Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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