2021/5782
In this week’s Parashah, Parashat VaYeira, we read about the famous story of Sedom. The people of Sedom are notoriously wicked, and therefore Hashem decides that He will destroy Sedom and its four neighboring cities, Amora, Adma, Tzvoyim, and Bela, which is also called Zoar. (Although, as Rashi BeReishit 19:25 s. v. ויהפך את הערים וגו׳ notes, Bela ended up being saved from potential destruction.) When Hashem tells Avraham Avinu about His plan to destroy the cities, Avraham begins to Daven and begs Hashem to have mercy on the wicked cities and their inhabitants. In this תפילה, he first asks Hashem to save the city on the condition that he can find 50 צדיקים in the city. When Hashem agrees, Avraham Avinu asks if Hashem will do the same if he can only find 45 צדיקים. Hashem consents to this as well. The same back and forth continues, in which Avraham lowers the required number of צדיקים down from 40, to 30, to 20, until Hashem agrees not to destroy the cities on the condition that Avraham can find 10 צדיקים there.
This story leads to many important questions, although we will focus on only one. The question is about the numbers: why does Avraham choose the numbers that he does as a means of persuading Hashem to retract His word and have mercy on the cities? The number 45 especially seems to stand out as, without it, Avraham would just be counting down by 10 at a time. What is the basis behind these numbers and why does Avraham think they will help him convince Hashem to not destroy the cities?
To answer this question, we begin by looking at Rashi who breaks down all the numbers and gives their reasons. According to him, when Avraham Avinu asks that Hashem save Sedom if 50 צדיקים are found, he is asking for 10 צדיקים to be found from each of the five cities. Rashi continues with this theme in his explanation of the rest of the numbers. When Avraham asks for the salvation of the cities if 45 צדיקים are found, Rashi says that this number is based on if nine צדיקים were to be found from each of the cities, then Hashem would join together with each group of nine, and there would be 10 צדיקים found from each city. The basis of the number 45 therefore, is very closely related to the basis of the number 50. Then when Avraham asks for the number to go down to 40, Rashi seems to state his general rule that is behind all of the numbers: every 10 צדיקים found will lead to one saved city. Apparently, Avraham believed that all the cities could be saved only if he found 50 צדיקים in the city, and since 45 is the equivalent of 50, the same holds true there as well. In his comment on the words “אולי ימצאון שם ארבעים,” “Perhaps forty will be found there?” (ibid. 18:29), Rashi states that 40 צדיקים would be able to save four cities. He follows by saying that in Avraham’s requests that follow, finding 30 צדיקים would be able to save three cities, finding 20 צדיקים would be able to save two cities, and finding 10 צדיקים would be able to save one city- all reflective of Rashi’s rule that he is applying to this Pasuk. However, in the generation of the flood, there were only eight, which was insufficient to save the entire world. Therefore, Avraham does not go below ten.
Ramban, however, questions Rashi's approach. He questions two points. 1) Bbased on Rashi’s idea that it is appropriate and proper for 10 צדיקים to save one city, why does Avraham repeatedly state “‘אל נא יחר לה,” “Let my Lord not be annoyed” (ibid. 30) and ”הנה נא הואלתי,” “Behold, now, I have begun” (ibid. 27) which both sound as if he thinks it is inappropriate to make these requests, but is nonetheless asking Hashem to heed them. If the requests are appropriate, then he shouldn’t think there is a problem with presenting them! Furthermore, Rashi notes that when Avraham reached 10, he did not lower the request down to nine and just say that Hashem would combine with them to be a group of 10. However, we noted earlier that when Avraham requested that 45 people would be enough to save the cities, Rashi believes that this would constitute nine צדיקים being found in each city and Hashem would be the tenth “צדיק” of each city. So how can Rashi say that in the case of 45, Hashem would combine with a group of nine to form a group of ten, but this would not be true in the case of nine people? Ramban explains that Rashi seems to believe that many righteous people are able to affect a greater salvation than fewer people, as the חכמים say “אינו דומה מועטין העושין את התורה למרובים העושין את “התורה that one can’t compare a smaller group of people who observe the Torah to a larger group of people who do the same (see Rabbeinu Bachya to VaYikra 26:8 s.v. URdefu MiKem Chamisha Mei’ah). However, Ramban disagrees. He says that even a small number of צדיקים can have a major effect and so even when Avraham is asking for Hashem to save Sedom on account of 10 צדיקים, he believes that these 10 צדיקים can save all five cities and not just one, as Rashi believes. Based on this, we suggest that had there been 10 צדיקים who lived during the דור המבול, the entire world potentially could have been saved. We learn from Ramban the value of the few in Judaism and that even a small group of צדיקים who are engaged in Mitzvot can have a major impact on the world.