Vayeira 5782

Just a quick (read: not fully researched, nor sourced) thought to answer a question posed by some: How could Lot have successfully saved Tzoar, one of the cities G-d was planning to destroy along with Sodom, when Avraham was unable to. (If you need more background, this piece is not directed to you; perhaps I will flesh it out sometime in the future and explain the question more fully, as well as the things I will pull together to suggest an answer. I apologize for not having the time to do so now.)

The question can be expanded because, as I’ve previously explained – Parashas B’reishis 5773 | RabbiDMK (wordpress.com) – G-d has bound Himself to the laws of nature, so whatever event caused the destruction of Sodom and it’s neighboring cities, either should have destroyed Tzoar too, or would not have destroyed Tzoar anyway; Lot’s request shouldn’t have made a difference.

Even though in the referenced piece I explained how G-d could still “tinker” with what happens if He doesn’t change nature, the destruction of Sodom creates a larger issue, because it was most likely caused by a meteor that disintegrated shortly before it would have hit the ground there – A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea (nature.com) – so adjusting things slightly should not have been able to save any nearby city.

However, the location of Tzoar (and Sodom itself) is not fully agreed upon. Most understand it to be just south of the Dead Sea, which helps them place Sodom east of the Dead Sea, close to its southern end. But, as you may have noticed from my earlier link, I am fairly convinced that Sodom was north of the Dead Sea, just east of the Jordan, close to opposite where Yericho is to the west of the Jordan (see Discovering the City of Sodom: The Fascinating, True Account of the Discovery of the Old Testament’s Most Infamous City: Collins, Dr. Steven: 9781451684384: Amazon.com: Books ). This was part of “Kikar HaYarden,” the fertile circle that sits on top of the Dead Sea, which was well-watered, and could be seen by Avraham and Lot when Lot chose it upon their decision to separate (as opposed to anywhere to the east or south of the Dead Sea). If Sodom was directly north of the Dead Sea, how could Tzoar, one of the cities that was part of its metropolis, be south of the Dead Sea? Isn’t that too far away?

Our presumption that Tzoar was part of the same metropolis comes from last week’s Parasha, the war of the five kings vs. the four kings, with Tzoar being included as part of the five, along with Sodom and Amorah (and two others). But it is mentioned as a kind of an after-thought there, so may not have been in the same proximity with Sodom as the other three, but was close enough, and vested enough in fighting the dominion of the four kings, to join the four cities north of the Dead Sea in their war.

If so, it can be suggested that Tzoar was in fact not close enough to Sodom to be destroyed with it, and wouldn’t have been destroyed anyway (although Lot didn’t know that). The question now shifts from “how could Lot have saved Tzoar” to “why was Lot led to believe that it was only being saved for him, it if wasn’t going to be destroyed anyway?” That’s not as challenging a question, and could merely be a matter of them not correcting his misperception, and allowing him to believe it was being saved for his sake in the hope that it would lead to his feeling responsible to help them live more appropriate lives.

Yes, I know, this goes against the traditionally-accepted view that Avraham was trying to save 5 cities, with his “50 righteous people” corresponding to 10 per city. We’ll leave that for a different discussion. (For all we know, Avraham thought all five cities were included in the decree!) But this possibility provides a viable approach to not only how Tzoar could be so far from Sodom (as it actually HAD to be far from Sodom), but how Lot could accomplish what Avraham couldn’t (he didn’t).