Vayera 2020
In this week’s parsha, Vayera, we read the story of Sodom. After Avrohom unsuccessfully argues with God to spare its inhabitants, Avrohom and the two angels go to save Avrohom’s nephew, Lot, from Sodom:
“The two angels arrived in Sodom in the evening, as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to greet them and, bowing low with his face to the ground. He said, 'Please, my lords, turn aside to your servant’s house to spend the night, and bathe your feet; then you may be on your way early.' But they said, 'No, we will spend the night in the square.' But he urged them strongly, so they turned his way and entered his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. They had not yet lain down, when the townspeople, the men of Sodom, young and old — all the people to the last man — gathered about the house. And 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 (rape them).' So Lot went out to them to the entrance, shut the door behind him, and said, 'I beg you, my friends, do not commit such a wrong. Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you please; but do not do anything to these men, since they have come under the shelter of my roof.' But they said, 'Stand back! The fellow,' they said, 'came here as an alien, and already he acts the ruler! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.' And they pressed hard against the person of Lot, and moved forward to break the door. But the men stretched out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. And the people who were at the entrance of the house, young and old, they struck with blinding light, so that they were helpless to find the entrance.”
It has been pointed out that this story shares a great deal with a similar story of gang rape and murder in the book of Judges, Pilegesh Bigivah, the Concubine of Givah:
“'We are traveling from Bethlehem in Judah to the other end of the hill country of Ephraim. That is where I live. I made a journey to Bethlehem of Judah, and now I am on my way to the House of the LORD, and nobody has taken me indoors. We have both bruised straw and feed for our donkeys, and bread and wine for me and your handmaid, and for the attendant with your servants. We lack nothing.' 'Rest easy,' said the old man. 'Let me take care of all your needs. Do not on any account spend the night in the square.' And he took him into his house. He mixed fodder for the donkeys; then they bathed their feet and ate and drank. While they were enjoying themselves, the men of the town, a depraved lot, had gathered about the house and were pounding on the door. They called to the aged owner of the house, 'Bring out the man who has come into your house, so that we can know him.' The owner of the house went out and said to them, 'Please, my friends, do not commit such a wrong. Since this man has entered my house, do not perpetrate this outrage. Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. Let me bring them out to you. Have your pleasure of them, do what you like with them; but don’t do that outrageous thing to this man.' But the men would not listen to him, so the man seized his concubine and pushed her out to them. They raped her and abused her all night long until morning; and they let her go when dawn broke.”
In response to this grave sin the Jewish people make a war against the tribe of Benjamin and Benjamin is almost wiped out. Why is it though that God destroyed Sodom but not the tribe of Benjamin or the city of Givah?
The Mishnah in Pirkey Avot (5:10) writes:
“There are four types of character in human beings: One that says: 'what’s mine is mine, and yours is yours': this is a commonplace type; and some say this is a sodom-type of character. [One that says:] 'mine is yours and yours is mine' is an unlearned person (am haaretz); [One that says:] 'mine is yours and yours is yours' is a pious person. [One that says:] 'mine is mine, and yours is mine' is a wicked person.”
Though the character and culture of Sodom in this mishnah is not characterized as that of wickedness but as average, in reality, “what's mine is mine and what's yours is yours,” is an attitude that when projected broadly is so sinister the place must be utterly destroyed. In the case of Givah, the act was certainly horrific, but that was not the nature of the place as a whole and therefore its violence was recognized as such.
In Givah there is rebuke, but in Sodom such a thing would have been wholly out of context, even bizarre. In Givah they knock on the door. In Sodom they just casually call out to Lot, and say, “Where are the men? Bring them out so we may know them.” Nothing is out of place. The average of “what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours”, devolves without fanfare into, “send out the men that we may know them.”
I would suggest that it is this banality of the evil of Sodom, and not its extreme nature, that is the problem. “What’s mine is mine and what's yours is yours,” does not sound so bad -- it sounds quite “normal” and legitimate -- and that is precisely what makes the evil of Sodom so much worse than the extreme violence of Givah -- its banality.
Hannah Arendt famously said in Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil that Eichmann was, “neither perverted nor sadistic, but terrifyingly normal....The deeds were monstrous, but the doer – at least the very effective one now on trial – was quite ordinary, commonplace, and neither demonic nor monstrous.” In the normalcy of their selfishness, in Sodom’s embedded culture of xenophobia, therein lies the greatest evil, precisely because it seems so average.
