By Rabbi Berach Steinfeld
In Bereishis (18:23) the posuk tells us that Avraham asked Hashem, “Will you kill a tzaddik with a Rasha?” Avraham goes through a whole negotiation with Hashem that maybe there are fifty tzadikim, then he said forty-five, and continued going down until ten.
We can pose a few questions regarding the above exchange. Firstly, it sounds like Avraham is giving mussar to Hashem and if not for his davening it is as if Hashem might kill fifty or forty-five tzadikim etc. It would be hard to comprehend that Hashem would kill fifty or less tzadikim just for living in Sedom. Secondly, if there were tzadikim living there shouldn’t Avraham have davened to save those tzadikim themselves? Why did he daven for the entire city? Thirdly, we find in the Zohar that Rabban Shimon bar Yochai saved the entire world from being destroyed in his zchus alone. We see that even one tzadik suffices to save the world. Why did Avraham need a minimum of ten tzadikim to save Sedom?
We find an interesting Daas Zekeinim miBaalei Tosfos that discusses this. When Avraham mobilized three hundred and eighteen people to rescue Lot from captivity he made an announcement that whoever has sinned and is scared of the war should go home. Everyone left except for Eliezer, so Hashem said Eliezer, who has the numerical value of three hundred and eighteen, will help win the war. Rav Elya Mann told Reb Chaim Kanievsky that this exchange reminded him of a play that was put up in Brisk by the Maskilim. On the stage were a bunch of Jewish soldiers. The Kohein Gadol makes the announcement that whoever is scared because he sinned should go home. The stage emptied and the only two that stayed were Reb Chaim Brisker and the Chafetz Chaim. Immediately thereafter the curtains closed. When Reb Chaim Brisker heard about this play he complained that they closed the curtains too quickly, because the play would end that these two soldiers, Reb Chaim Brisker and the Chafetz Chaim, would end up winning the war.
Reb Chaim Kanievsky said that these two stories would not be the same. In the case of the play in Brisk everyone could have stayed since we have a rule that if a person is mekadesh a woman on condition that he is a tzadik, she is mekudash even if he is the biggest Rasha because we say he had a hirhur teshuva. Similarly, all these soldiers from the play could have had a hirhur teshuva and be eligible to fight the war. Regarding the soldiers of Avraham, they were not Jews and teshuva is only given to Jews, therefore they had to leave the war.
With this yesod we can understand the request of Avraham. Avraham knew there was no tzadik there, but he felt that given the chance, he would get them to come under the wings of the Shechina and thereby change their status. Hashem responded that there would not be one person who would become religious from those people. This would explain why Aivraham asked Hashem, “How could you kill these tzadikim?” He was referring to people doing teshuva and thereby being called a tzadik despite the fact they have yet to do so. We see this concept regarding a person who is mekadesh a woman on condition that he is a tzadik. It also is understood that Avraham himself was like Rabban Shimon bar Yochai who would have saved Sedom had there been some people who would have ultimately done teshuva! Had there been one tzadik present in Sedom it would have sufficed, but even without one true tzaddik, had there been a potential of ten people who would have ultimately done teshuva it would have been enough to save Sedom.
Let us hope that we all have the hirhur Teshuva and be tzadikim!
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