Praying For The WIcked | Parashat Vayera

0:04So then Avraham is told by one of the angels that Hashem is about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. So Avraham runs to Hashem, figuratively speaking, and says, 'Will you stamp out the righteous along with the wicked? Are you going to kill Righteous people and wicked people in Sodom and Gomorrah. I mean, maybe there's some righteous people. Maybe there's 50. Maybe there's 45. Maybe there's 40. From here we learn how a Jew negotiates. He says there, maybe there's 50. won't destroy if there's 50, maybe there's 45, what are you going to destroy only for five difference? Not that the fact that there's 50 men that are there. Oh, it's five difference, you agree to 50, so five difference from 50 and 45 you already see Avram Avinu teaching us how to negotiate. I'll talk about all his chutzpah. So

1:08Hashem says no, no, no, I won't destroy them. But the reality of it is that even if there were ten, He would not destroy them, which tells us that there were none—nothing. As a matter of fact, even Lot that was saved had limited merit. His merit was still limited; even though he had merit to be saved, it was only because of Avraham, not because of himself. So now, Hashem sends these angels. Two angels go to Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot meets them at the gate. He knows that this is not a place that welcomes guests. He knows that these are angels. It's not hidden from him like it was hidden originally from Abraham. And he wants to hide them. But immediately,

2:12The Rashaim of the city all realize that there's guests in the city, and they say something horrendous. It says, "And they called"—they, meaning the entire city, everyone, everyone left what they were doing—and they came to Lot. Imagine. You have a little house or a big house, whatever it is. Everyone in the city left what they're doing. Left their baseball, their basketball, their football, their MTV cribs, their whatever they were doing. Left everything. They went to your front yard. Looked like Woodstock in front of your front yard. And this is what they tell you. And they say to you, they say to Lot, where are the men who came to you tonight? The two people that came to you. Bring them out to us so that we may know them. Chazal says, what does it mean so that we may know them? We learn this from Adam HaRishon. Adam knew his wife, meaning Adam was intimate with his wife. He said bring these two men that came to you so we can rape them.

3:36This is what's on their mind. All of these people are millionaires. All of these people have all the money in the world. Apparently, this was a prequel to Hollywood. So Lot comes out, says, 'No, don't act wickedly! Don't act, don't act wickedly, my brothers. I have two daughters. Take them, two virgin daughters. It's the strangest two things I've ever seen in my life. On one hand, the guy is trying to defend these guests of honor. On the other hand, he says, hey, by the way, take my kids. Do whatever you want with them. Why? How do we explain this? On one hand, you're defending your guests with your life, really. His life is in danger. On the other hand, you're putting your two daughters, which you're supposed to protect more than the guests.

4:36Because here, Lot wasn't really protecting anyone other than himself. He was protecting his own kavod. He cared less about his daughters, and he cared less about the guests. He cared only about his kavod. The fact that they were in his house, these two guests, that's the only thing. He says, oh, they're under my roof. Under my roof. You know, I got it. It's my thing. You're under me. You know, like the mobsters talk. You're under me. Don't worry about it. I'll take care of you. What do you mean you'll take care of me? Well, how are you going to take care of me? Oh, well, I'll take care of you. Don't worry about it. Both of you end up in jail. It's like, oh, I took care of you. Didn't I take care of you there? What do you mean? I'm in jail for the next 10 years! Yeah, but hey, could have been worse. Friends like that, who needs enemies? So that's Lot. Lot was trying to protect his kavod. But now,

5:37Angels tell, "Let's get out of here." They make everyone blind, and still, these people tried to break down the door to find the two men, not because of any other reason than the fact they still want to rape them. The entire city just lost their vision. They can't see. They just made a big production, the next Terminator movie, the next whatever, Transformers movie. They can't see their own production. What do they care about? Having sex with two men. That's all they care about. This is a sick mind. So what's happening today is nothing changed. Nothing changed.