In this week’s parsha, we learn about the destruction of the city of Sodom. Sodom was a place riddled with cruelty and immorality, where kindness was forbidden by law. It was known that any stranger who passed through Sodom would be abused and robbed, and it was this brutal way of life, so lacking in moral fibre, that caused Sodom and its surrounding cities to be destroyed by Hashem.
Rabbi Warren Goldstein, Chief Rabbi of South Africa, teaches a weekly class on the parsha. This week he described how kindness is a powerful force to change the world, and explained how Avraham was the paragon of this virtue, the character trait of kindness. He elaborated on how Avraham changed the course of history through his tremendous hospitality and kind ways. He would stop at nothing to show kindness to others, and in doing so was able to guide people to a belief in G-d. In Pirkei Avot, Chapter 1, Mishna 2, we learn that one of the three pillars upon which the world stands is kindness. Rabbeinu Yona says this means that one of the purposes for which the world was created was to do acts of kindness, and the Rav and the Rivash explain the verse “olam chesed yibaneh” to mean that the world was created as an act of kindness by G-d. The mitzvah of chesed is in fact unique, because it is the fulfilment of the mitzvah to walk in the ways of G-d. He is kind, and when we act with kindness we act as He does, and become G-dly.
He expands on this by saying that to build the world we have to build it with acts of kindness, which is precisely the reason that Sodom and its surrounding cities deserved to be destroyed. The Maharal explains how acts of kindness build a human being. Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler, in his famous work Michtav Me’Eliyahu, in Kuntres HaChesed, writes that the world can be divided into givers and takers, and that all bad character traits stem from the desire to fulfil one’s selfish needs and to fill oneself up, while all good character traits come from the desire to contribute to the lives of others.
He expounded further that Avraham was known as the father of kindness, but what made him the father of the Jewish people was his connection to truth. When he recognised G-d through intellectual arguments, he came to the conclusion that the universe was created as an act of kindness and love by G-d, and it was his clear understanding of this truth that led him to see this world as a home for G-d. That same understanding showed him that the purpose of this world is kindness, and it was this fundamental point that the people of Sodom missed, and for which they were deserving of destruction.
In our daily lives, we have many opportunities for kindness, and we should feel enlivened by the fact that when we act with kindness we are emulating the ways of G-d and becoming G-dly. A stronger motivation to be kind you could not find!
Shira Druion
