Parshas Vayeira 5786: Five Times Ten is More Than Fifty

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Parshas Vayeira 

לעילוי נשמת האדא בת מרדכי 

 

Ten Times Five is More Than Fifty 

 

The Torah (18:17) describes that Hashem felt compelled (so to speak) to notify Avraham ahead of destroying Sedom. After all Avraham was “Av-Hamon Goyim”, a father to the nations, so how could he not be informed of what was going to happen to his “children”? The pasukim relate that once Avraham knew Hashem’s intention, he immediately began davening and asking Hashem to spare Sedom and its surrounding cities. Avraham started by asking that if there are 50 tzadikim, the five cities should all be saved. When Hashem agreed, Avraham continued to lower the number to 45, then 40, 30, 20, and finally 10.  Rashi (18:24, 28) explains that Avraham’s davening was focused around a simple, yet substantial number - ten. He davened that 50 tzadikim should be able to save five cities, 40 should be able to save four, and so forth. Avraham asked Hashem each of these equivalent ratios, and at each stage Hashem said yes. 

While this Rashi seems simple, it is actually difficult to understand. If Avraham kept asking for the same ratio, why did he need to ask so many times? Why would there be any difference in the ask of sparing one city for the sake of 10 tzadikim, or saving five cities for the sake of 50 tzadikim? The fact that Avraham started with the fifty implies that he thought that would be the “easiest yes” to get, but the formula seems pretty linear. Why not simply daven for Hashem to save every city that has at least ten (or 9, as he was asking with 45) tzadikim in it?  

The Malbim indeed learns the whole episode a little differently, reading a little more into the nuances of the wording in each pasuk. He explains that Avraham was not simply lowering the number and keeping the same ratio. Rather, each shift corresponded to a different formulation of the request itself. Avraham first asked if 50 (10 in each city) would save all five cities. Hashem agreed. Avraham then asked if 40 (10 in each of four cities) could still save all five cities. After all, as the Malbim explains, the foundation of Avraham’s tefillah is that a minyan of 10 tzaddikim creates an “eidah” (community) with an ability to counter the force of reshaim (evil) in the city. Combining the power of an eidah with the concept of “rov” (majority), Avraham then asked if a majority of cities would be saved based on having ten 10 tzadikim in each city, would the remaining minority of the cities be able to be saved together as well. Therefore, Avraham asked that if there were 40 tzadikim then still all five cities should be saved because four of the five cities (rov) would be considered good. Hashem agreed. Then he asked the same with 30 tzadikim in three cities to be able to save all five. Avraham then shifted to asking for Hashem to save just two cities if there were 20 tzadikim. The Malbim explains that this too was a new request and asking if the power of the “eidah” in a city was enough to save the city, even though the majority of the cities overall (3 of the 5) were reshaim. Once Hashem agreed to this, Avraham went further to ask if this would apply even to save one city with ten tzadikim. With this approach the Malbim clearly addresses how each tefillah was a new chiddush and a new request, while also connecting to some of the nuance changes in the words of the pasukim.  

 

But what about according to Rashi? On the surface it doesn’t seem like there is any real incremental change in the ask? According to Rashi’s structure, once Hashem agreed to the ratio of 10 tzadikim in each of five cities saving the five cities, why did Avraham need to ask for 40, etc separately? Why wouldn’t the constant ratio remain true? Why does Avraham need to verbalize each as a new request? 

 
The Ramban asks this question on Rashi, and in explaining Rashi he writes that the yesod of Rashi is: אֵינוֹ דּוֹמֶה מוּעָטִין הָעוֹשִׂין אֶת הַתּוֹרָה לִמְרֻבִּים הָעוֹשִׂין אֶת הַתּוֹרָה. There is no comparison between a few people doing the right thing and many people doing the right thing. The very fact that Hashem would be willing to spare five cities on behalf of 50 does not necessarily mean that four cities would be saved on the merit of 40 tzadikim, and Hashem agreeing to save four cities on account of 40 tzadikim, does not necessarily mean that the same would be true for three cities with 30 tzadikim. In this way each request was an incremental bigger ask that Avraham was asking. 

The Ramban is bringing out a nice yesod, but ultimately Rashi does sound very linear, Rashi really seems centered around the fact that having 10 tzadikim is some form of threshold that could save a city. It’s not like Avrham was asking that 100 tzadikim should save the five cities, he started with the assumption of having 10 per city. So how could we better understand the yesod of the Ramban?  

 

There is a phenomenon in nature called bioluminescence, where certain living creatures, like some bacteria in the ocean, produce light. The mechanics of how it works though is quite interesting. Even though each tiny bacteria can send out chemical signals that tell others “let’s light up,” nothing actually happens at first. There could be thousands of them in the water sending that signal, and still no glow. It needs more than a population, it needs a network. Until it reaches a certain critical threshold, the signal remains too weak. Only when there are enough of them together in one place does the signal become strong enough to trigger a broader group response and then all at once, the entire group lights up in unison. This is called quorum sensing. It’s not about one individual causing change, and it’s not even about a group, it’s about reaching a point that creates a center of gravity with an ability to amplify the signal in a stronger and more compelling way.  

 

Perhaps this helps explain the depth of the Ramban’s yesod. Even though the math was staying exactly the same, 50 for five, 40 for four, etc, the influence of each incremental 10 and having another city would change the entire quality of the other groups as a whole. Each additional 10 wasn’t just serving their own city, but were actually adding to the strength of the network overall, improving the quality of the level of tzidkus (righteousness) and even more so created an environment of “quorum sensing” which changes the center of gravity itself.   

 

There is a lot to learn Avraham’s tefillos, and there is also a lot to learn from what he was trying to identify as what would be a zechus to save the cities. We could learn from here that an individual has the ability, and therefore the responsibility, to strive for greatness on three levels. As an individual, a person must strive to be the best that they can be. As a member of the community, one contributes to the formation of an “eidah” and achieving the first degree of critical threshold of having a proper community. However as a third level, each and every person has to also recognize the power of the combination as well. As an individual adding to the community, one is strengthening the signal of the network itself by contributing not just as a force of balance, but as an actual mass bending space around it in its direction forming a quorum seeking force that is stronger and more expansive.  

 

Avraham is the Av-Hamon Goyim, and we still carry that responsibility to today. May Hashem help us become all that we can be, be stable pillars for our communities to create a node of tzidkus, and recognize our incremental contribution to the signal overall that both enhances the general quality as well as adds to the mass to change the center of gravity and unlock quorum seeking to those around us.