Whenever I go to the shouk , the market in Jerusalem, I
always get very nervous. My nerves come
from the fact that I know that I really should be prepared to negotiate to get
the best price possible with some of the market’s stall holders, but I hate to
negotiate. I get really nervous when I
have to start bargaining with these people because I don’t want to cause offense
by offering too low a price, but at the same time, I don’t want to be taken for
a ride and pay too high a price.
Ultimately I’m convinced that I never get a good deal when I’m in the
market and I always leave that bit disappointed with how things went. And yet, each and every trip, I keep
returning.
The market is a place where we’re expected to negotiate and
bargain. We don’t often think about
negotiating or bargaining with God because after all who would have the nerve
to stand before God and dare to negotiate or bargain with God. And, yet, in this week’s Torah portion, that
is exactly what Abraham does. Standing
up to God and negotiating.
God decides that God has to tell Abraham about what is
intended for Sodom and Gomorrah . The
fact that God intends to destroy these evil, wicked cities, and Abraham, in
front of God says, will you sweep away the innocent along with the guilty? And, then Abraham asks, what if there are 50
innocent people in the city. Surely then
you should spare the city for those 50 and God agrees. And, then Abraham goes from 50 and says what
if there are 45? And God agrees. And
then he says, what if there were 40?
Moving to 30, to 20, till eventually Abraham and God agree that if
there are 10 righteous people in the city they will be spared.
Of course we know that there were not 10 righteous people
and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. And, yet we have this wonderful story where
Abraham has the audacity to negotiate with God. And Abraham is a successful negotiator,
getting God down to 10 righteous people in the city.
We might wonder how Abraham dared to do this, how Abraham
had the chutzpah to stand before God.
And, yet only last week, God said to Abraham, you shall be a blessing
and through you shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Clearly Abraham took this call very seriously
and recognized that part of being a blessing meant standing up before God and
challenging God with the hope of sparing the righteous who lived in Sodom and
Gomorrah.
In this negotiation, Abraham stands as a wonderful example
of how we must always be willing to do the right thing, even if that sometimes
means bargaining with God.
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