[Avodah] What was the point of Avrahams tefilla/debate with Hashem about Sdom?

[Marty Bluke via Avodah]

On Mon, Nov 9, 2015 at 3:30 PM, Eli Turkel <eliturkel at gmail.com> wrote:
> The obvious answer without philosophy is that prayer is to get something
> done. After Moshe prayed G-d "changed" his mind and did not wipe out the
> Jewish people.

> Most prayers in Tanach seem to be for a purpose, eg the prayer of Chizyaku
> to live longer which G-d answered.
> I get the impression that these questions didnt disturb Chazal and they
> appeared only in th gaonim/rishonim who were affected by philosophy

Agreed. It seems clear to me as well that the prayer in Tanach is for
a purpose. The attempt to claim that all prayer is to make the person
better and create/improve theri relationship to Hashem simply does
not fit with the prayer that we see in Tanach. However, the underlying
philosophical questions are very strong and are hard to ignore. They raise
fundamental questions as to how God relates to the world and how tefilla
could possible work. Personally, these questions bother me greatly.