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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Adapted
from an article by Rabbi Noson Weisz.</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>In
the conversation between God and Abraham where God informs Abraham that he is
about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham challenged God's justice and demanded
Divine mercy with a ferocity that leaves the reader astonished at his sheer
audacity. Abraham then proceeds to demand mercy in terms that are almost as
insistent, declaring, "Behold now, I desired to speak to my Lord although
I am but dust and ashes. What if the fifty righteous people should lack five?
Would You destroy the entire city because of the five?"
[Gen. 18: 27-28] <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>How does such a
ringing challenge emerge from the mouth of a person who regards himself as no
more than a pile of dust and ashes? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>To appreciate the
utter impossibility of this conversation, remember that we are not Abraham. For
us, God exists only in the abstract: He is a being we have never personally met
and in whose existence we only vaguely believe. But to Abraham, God was a Being
he knew and spoke to. Imagine that the Almighty Himself came to inform you
about His decision to destroy Sodom and Gomorra on account of the great evil
that He discovered there. Would <b>you</b> presume to challenge His judgment,
and with such force?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The
point here is that God came to inform him about His decision to destroy
Sodom. If the proposed destruction was none of his business, God didn't have to
tell him about it in advance. So the fact that God told Abraham, then that was
Abraham's cue to respond.</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Whereas
your or I might have said to God: "Great! Destroy those evil people. Who
needs them? All they are is trouble." Abraham was on a much higher level,
so he asked for God's mercy, indicating a tremendous sensitivity to all of
God's creatures. In His great wisdom, however, the Almighty did what needed to
be done.</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>rw</span><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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