וידא אליו ה׳. G'd appeared to him. Why is Abraham, the subject of the vision, mentioned before G'd? The normal construction would have been וירא השם אליו. In the previous visions Abraham received, G'd is always referred to first (compare 12,7 and 17,1).

Why does the Torah not mention the nature of this vision, the subject matter discussed, etc.? Our sages in Baba Metzia 86 say that G'd simply paid Abraham a visit, seeing the latter was still recovering from the effects of the circumcision. While this is a nice explanation, there is not a hint of this in the text.

I believe that the message to Abraham was that henceforth G'd's presence would rest on him on a permanent basis [that he enjoyed a measure of the Holy Spirit. Ed.] In kabbalistic terms, Abraham had now become a "carrier of the שכינה." Bereshit Rabbah 47,6 describes all the patriarchs in those terms. The present form of address indicates that G'd's presence became felt by Abraham. Had the Torah used the usual wording we could not have become aware that G'd distinguishes between revelation itself, and the One who reveals Himself. It is because of this that Abraham's future visions are never again introduced by the word וירא. We find only: "G'd spoke to Abraham." This is a reminder he already wore the "crown" indicating that G'd's presence was upon him.

The term "He appeared to him" also alludes to the letter י of G'd's name becoming visible on Abraham's flesh as mentioned in Tanchuma 96 and Zohar 1,95: "when the holy רשימא rests on someone this means that G'd's presence rests on someone."

The message is also that now that Abraham was circumcised he was able to absorb a vision of G'd in His superior light. Not all visions are of the same calibre. Once Abraham was circumcised he became privy to a prophetic vision in the full sense of that word. He was able to absorb the full name of G'd, i.e. the tetragram. We would not have understood this if the Torah had written: וירא ה׳ אל אברהם.

An additional meaning of the verse and the way it is phrased is that G'd appeared to Abraham for Abraham's sake. The Torah here alludes to something discussed in Baba Metzia 86. Rabbi Chama son of Chanina stated that this vision occurred on the third day after the circumcision. G'd came and enquired after Abraham's wellbeing. How did Rabbi Chama know that it was the third day? If we were to deduce this from Genesis 34,25, where we are told that the third day after the people of Shechem had circumsised themselves was a day they experienced additional pains, this cannot be, because we have a definitive statement in Shabbat 134 that the first and second day after the circumcision are more dangerous to the patient! True, the Talmud there distinguishes between the pain and the relative healing process experienced by adults (pain lasts longer, healing occurs more slowly), compared to that experienced by minors. However, such a distinction applies only to the third day, not to the first two days. On the first two days everyone experiences the most pain.

Besides, do not use the fact that Shimon and Levi did not attack the people of Shechem until the third day after their circumcision as an argument. These sons of Jacob were not concerned with the pain of the people of Shechem but with their physical weakness, their relative inability to offer resistance. The third day is definitely the day such patients feel weakest. Regarding the danger of infection from the wound and danger to life, etc., the first two days are far more dangerous than the third day. Why should we assume then that G'd did not come and visit Abraham on the first or second day after the circumcision? I have found an interesting comment in the Tur Yore Deah item 335 in which he quotes this folio in the Talmud without mentioning that it was on the third day. According to that version the simple message of Rabbi Chama is that G'd came to pay a visit to the sick. [The discussion in Shabbat 134 concerns washing a baby with hot water on the third day after the circumcision if the third day is on the Sabbath; permission to do this indicates that on that day the baby's life is in danger. Ed.]

According to the opinion of Ran that the first and the third days are the most dangerous to the patient, whereas the second day is not sufficiently dangerous to desecrate the Sabbath, we can understand the matter better. When you do not feel in danger, G'd applies the general rule of not visiting the sick during the first three hours of the morning. On the first day one also does not visit the sick as we know from Nedarim 40. When Rava was sick, he told his household not to tell anyone on the first day about his being sick in order not to influence his horoscope negatively. Rashi explains this to mean "that one should not talk about the sick person." [As long as the matter is not public knowledge an immediate cure may result without the debits and merits of the sick person being reviewed in heaven because of people talking about him. Ed.] However Rava did want the fact that he was sick publicised from the second day on, so that all those who hated him should rejoice over his being sick. This would help diminish his debits [in the accounts kept in the celestial ledger. Ed.]. Rabbi Chama did not think G'd visited on the first day, as such a visit would certainly not have gone unnoticed, and as a result tongues would have been set wagging. Yerushalmi Peah third chapter states that the relatives of a sick person may visit him immediately; this is because such visits do not contribute to the sickness of the patient becoming public knowledge. There is certainly no doubt that G'd Himself must be viewed as a very close relative of the sick person. However, a visit by G'd would most certainly attract attention. According to the opinion that there is no difference in the degree of danger on either of the respective three days, this would leave the question of why Rabbi Chama had to mention the third day as the day G'd visited Abraham. We may have to assume that these people had the version of the Tur which did not mention the third day at all.

וישא עיניו וידא. When he raised his eyes he saw, etc. Why did the Torah add the word והנה?" Besides, why did the Torah add that the three men נצבים, "were standing?" This is no more than normal! What does the addition of that word add to our understanding? Furthermore, what is the meaning of the word עליו, "upon him?" The meaning of that word cannot be that they were merely close to Abraham! If that were the case, why did Abraham have to run towards them? Another difficulty in the paragraph is the repetition of the word וירא! Why does the Torah portray Abraham as bowing down to these men before he knew who they were, i.e. angels and not Arabs?

We must understand the report of the Torah in terms of what transpired later, i.e. that the men were indeed angels who appeared in human garb in order to partake of Abraham's hospitality for reasons known to us. The words וירא והנה simply mean that Abraham saw that they were apparently men, something which later on proved to have been an error on his part. He had judged the outward appearance. Had the Torah not added the word והנה, the report would have been a lie.

The word נצבים means that Abraham, who was by now familiar with celestial messengers, realised that these "men" had been sent to him for a specific purpose, for his sake. One of them, for instance, had been charged with the task of healing him. A second one had been sent to inform him that by that time in the following year Sarah would have a son. The third one, whose task appeared to be the destruction of Sodom, nevertheless had detoured in order to afford Abraham an oppportunity to intercede on behalf of the people of Sodom before G'd would carry out His judgment on that city. In other words, his whole presence there was "עליו, on account of him (Abraham)."

The expression אנשים נצבים may allude to the human posture these angels assumed. The word עליו means "on his account," i.e. for his sake, so that he could perform the מצוה of hospitality. Abraham realised that they were angels because the bearing of an angel cannot be disguised. We know this already from the wife of Manoach (Judges 13,2). If that lady realised that she faced an angel, someone of Abraham's stature would certainly be aware of the presence of an angel. After all, Abraham had already encountered angels previously. The word וירא a second time merely confirmed Abraham's original impression seeing that he had been healed and was able to run towards them. An angel has long-distance vision and inasmuch as the cure he performs is of a spiritual nature, he does not need to be physically close to the patient. As soon as Abraham felt cured, he bowed down to the angel in gratitude to G'd.

ויאמר, אדני, אם נא מצאתי חן, He said: "my lords, if I have found favour, etc." We need to know why Abraham did not speak to all three of them at the same time. Bereshit Rabbah 48,10 mentions that Abraham said to the leader, Michael, that "a little water should be taken, etc." This is merely a homiletical explanation. How would Michael know that Abraham's invitation was addressed to all three of them when Abraham spoke to Michael in the singular?

The reason Abraham addressed only Michael was that he felt that the other two were going to come to him even without a specific invitation, seeing that G'd had despatched them with messages for him. One was meant to cure him, the other to inform him of the impending birth of Isaac. The same did not apply to the third angel Gabriel, whose function it was to destroy Sodom. He had no task to perform in Abraham's home. This is why Abraham appealed to him not to depart until he had partaken of his hospitality. Gabriel consented.

יקח נא מעט מים. "Let a little water be brought." Perhaps the reason Abraham spoke about a "little" water was to indicate that it was not much of an effort to procure it. He certainly was not miserly. Apparently, he did not want to depart from his custom to ask guests to wash their feet to remove the dust that most of them worshipped (Baba Metzia 86). [The author felt the need to justify the custom seeing Abraham was already aware that his guests were angels and not given to worship the dust. Abraham may not have wanted his servants to realise that his guests were angels. Ed.]

Abraham may have hinted to the angels that the water he spoke about was a reference to the Torah. Torah is multi-faceted; it speaks to us as פשט, plain meaning of the words, and it also contains messages on a far deeper level. Abraham faced heavenly beings in human guise, i.e. G'd had made a body for them through solidifying something normally ethereal. When an angel assumes human form his "body" is compared to the "foot". This is a concept familiar to students of the Kabbalah (Zohar 1,58). Abraham hinted to the angels that they should take a little of the plain meaning of the Torah i.e. "water," seeing that they were presently in human form. They could then rest under the "the Tree," i.e. hyperbole for Torah which is known as עץ החיים. He referred to it as העץ, though it had not previously featured in our story. He also told them to take פת לחם, a reference to the inner meanings of Torah, something he alluded to when speaking about their לבכם, inner organs. He invited the angels to enjoy the inner aspects of Torah. [This is not so strange-sounding, seeing angels had never been given the Torah. Ed.] The reason he did not merely say פת but פת לחם, was a hint that this bread had inner properties, i.e. its numerical value being 78, or three times the numerical value (26) of the four-lettered Holy Name. This was an allusion to eternal life, i.e. past, present and future.

כי על כן עברתם על עבדכם, "for this is why you have come by your servant." These words were intended to silence the argument that once Abraham had recognised that his visitors were angels he should not have offered to give them human food. Although we explained that Abraham alluded to the spiritual nourishment the angels were to enjoy, this did not mean that we are to ignore the plain meaning of the verse. Terrestrial food also contains spiritually valuable ingredients as we know from Proverbs 13,25: "the righteous man eats to satisfy his soul." Abraham said to the angels that the reason they appeared in the guise of human beings was in order for them to partake of his food seeing that the spiritual content of that food also assumed the forms of the terrestrial world. The angels responded saying כן, yes, that Abraham was quite correct. They added that he should proceed as he had intended, i.e. to let them enjoy the spiritual content of the food.

ויאמרו אליו איה שדה אשתך, They said: "Where is your wife Sarah?" The angels wanted that Abraham should realise that the message they had to deliver was primarily for Sarah; this is why they enquired about her whereabouts. Abraham indicated that she was within the tent ready to listen to what they had to say to her.

ויאמר שוב אשוב אליך, He said: "I will certainly come back to you, etc." The angel used the singular, indicating that each one of them had his own task. In view of this why did all three angels ask about Sarah's whereabouts? Perhaps they simply wanted to enquire from her husband about Sarah's wellbeing. According to the rules of etiquette then, all three angels enquired.

שוב אשוב. "I will certainly return." The reason the angel repeated the words שוב אשוב and added the word והנה, may be better understood on the basis of a tradition that when Isaac was born he suffered from a congenital defect; he was sterile. It was only after agreeing to be the sacrifice at the עקדה, that he was cured of that defect. The angel hinted that he would have to return twice כעת חיה, at a time when he would "give life," in order that Sarah's son would be a true son, able to procreate. The words והנה בן לשרה indicate that Sarah's son emanated from the left side of the emanations, the female, weaker side. The word והנה emphasises this origin of Isaac in Sarah's domain. Only when the angel would return once more would the male component, i.e. Abraham's input, become dominant within Isaac. This occurred in Genesis 22,11 where the Torah reports that an angel called out to Abraham not to harm Isaac. The angel therefore had two tasks to perform, 1) to announce that there would be an Isaac, 2) that he would possess a soul that could procreate. The reason that G'd had to do this was related to Abraham's prayer on behalf of Ishmael in 17,19. I have written about that subject at the time.

Another meaning of the words ולשרה בן, that Sarah would by then have a son, is to tell us that a son i.e. male issue, is dependent on the female element being predominant whereas daughters are the result of a preponderant male element during marital union. We know this from Nidah 31 based on Leviticus 12,2. The angel prophesied that the physical union of Abraham and Sarah which would result in her impregnation would correspond to the rules laid down, or hinted at, in Leviticus 12,2. [compare Midrash Hagadol in the name of Rabbi Yitzchak that the sex of the embryo is determined in accordance with whose orgasm occurs first. If the male completes his orgasm first, the result is a daughter, if the female is first, the result is a son. Ed.] Scripture alludes to who was first by the way the birth is described. Chronicles I 4 18, states: "and his wife, the Jewess, gave birth to Yered, etc." [Every other issue mentioned in that chapter is described in terms of the husband fathering instead of as the wife giving birth. Ed.] In Genesis 22,24 the repetition of "and his concubine whose name was Re-umah, etc.," is another example of the principle we described. The words "whose name was" were quite unnecessary otherwise. Accordingly, the angels attributed the forthcoming son to the predominance of the female, i.e. Sarah's input.

ושרה שומעת, and Sarah was listening. On the one hand the verse indicates that what Sarah heard was a message intended for her by a heavenly messenger, the messenger himself standing behind her. Nonetheless I have seen a Midrash according to which the angel was disciplined for not addressing Sarah directly with the message, preferring to deliver it to Abraham. Angels are punished for inadvertently committed disobedience or minor deviations from the instructions they receive.

ויאמר השם אל אברהם למה זה צחקה שרה? G'd said to Abraham: "why did Sarah laugh," etc? The word זה needs explaining. Furthermore, why did G'd say לאמר, "to say?" In fact most of the verse is superfluous; all the Torah had to write was: "Why did she laugh?"

We must consider that the Torah reported Abraham as laughing at a similar message in 17,17 when G'd promised him children. We do not find that G'd reacted to Abraham's laughter in that instance. The ordinary reader would want to know why Abraham could laugh at the same kind of message and not arouse G'd's anger whereas when Sarah did the same, it evoked criticism from G'd. Onkelos was aware of this when he used different words to describe Abraham's and Sarah's laughter respectively (חדי for Abraham's laughter, and חיכה to describe Sarah's laughter in our verse here). Why did G'd react differently to the same word, צחק when used by two different people?

Actually G'd's very reaction includes a hint of why He took exception to Sarah's laughter whereas He had not reacted at the time to Abraham's laughter. A close examination of the text will reveal that Abraham had reacted with (derisive) laughter at the time he received the message. Sarah, on the other hand, did not laugh until she had menstruated again, a clear sign that her youth had returned. She herself referred to her rejuvenation. This proves that she did not believe G'd's promise until after she experienced proof on her own body. It was this that G'd objected to. When G'd said: למה זה צחקה שרה, He emphasised to Abraham that this laughter of Sarah was objectionable, whereas Abraham's at the time had not bothered Him. By her comment after the event that she now realised she would indeed bear a child, האף אמנם אלד, ואני זקנתי, that now she was convinced she would bear a child despite her husband's age, Sarah showed that up until that time she had not believed G'd capable of arranging this.

ואני זקנתי, and I am old! Why did G'd quote Sarah as saying something she had not said? While we are aware of our sages' statement in Baba Metzia 87 that we learn from this verse that a lie is acceptable when it serves to preserve domestic peace between man and wife, why would we have to learn this from an untrue utterance of G'd? In view of our explanation of G'd's reaction to the finer nuances of Sarah's laughter we see that G'd had indeed spoken the truth concerning what Sarah had said. Until Sarah had menstruated she had thought of herself as too old to conceive and bear a child (hence derisive laughter). After she had menstruated, her laughter was no longer one of derision or disbelief but one of joy. She was doubly grateful to G'd that although Abraham had not yet demonstrated signs of rejuvenation, he surely would do so now.

למועד אשוב, I will return at the appointed time, etc. The reason that the angel repeated the promise was that Abraham should not think that because G'd had objected to Sarah's laughter G'd would take back His promise. This is why he said when exactly the promise would come true.

ותכחש שרה, Sarah denied, saying, etc. The reason the Torah reports Sarah as saying לאמור, as well as that she was afraid, is to show that Sarah was so righteous that she did not utter an outright lie saying: "I did not laugh." She merely said something, i.e. לאמור, from which one could deduce that she meant to deny that she had laughed. As to the reason why she was not truthful, the Torah adds that this was because she was afraid. The Torah affords us an insight into the psychology of a trusted servant who is reprimanded by his master after having inadvertently committed an offense. When said servant reflects on the enormity of his mistake by contrasting it with the exalted stature of his master, he denies his mistake. This very denial is equivalent to an admission but said servant lacks the moral courage to say so. It was Abraham who challenged Sarah by saying: "No, but you did laugh." He wanted her to make a confession of having laughed. Abraham was aware that what G'd wanted in such a situation was a specific confession. Our prophets have always urged us to confess, as per Proverbs 28,13: "he who confesses and abandons sin will find mercy."

והשם אמר המכסה אני מאברהם את אשר אני עשה G'd had said: "Should I conceal from Abraham what I am about to do?" G'd chose the word המכסה deliberately. Abraham noted that the third angel had a mission which had so far not been revealed to him, in contrast with the missions of the other two angels which had become manifest to him already. One had come to heal him and the other to tell Sarah about her impending motherhood. Moreover, when the angels departed from him, Abraham noticed that two of them walked in the direction of Sodom. Abraham accompanied those two angels to see them off. He realised that these angels still had a mission to perform on earth, something which had been concealed from him. Abraham would become aware of those angels' mission after the event. G'd was concerned lest he would feel badly in retrospect if He would not now take him into His confidence. Our sages (Tanchuma item 5 on our portion) state that the reason G'd decided to take Abraham into His confidence was because Abraham entertained doubts about the justice of G'd having brought on the deluge. He found it impossible to believe that there had not been at least ten or twenty righteous people at that time. In his opinion G'd should have suspended judgment on their account. The words אשר אני עושה then mean: "as I am used to do," i.e. I do not destroy a nation unless there are no righteous people left.

G'd had another reason to reveal to Abraham what He had in mind for Sodom, seeing it had been Abraham who had saved the people of those cities at the risk of his own life when he rescued Lot. Inasmuch as Abraham thought that these people were safe, G'd thought He owed it to Abraham to inform him about His plans for them. He did not have to spell out what it was that He would conceal from Abraham as this is self-evident.

ואברהם היו יהיה לגוי גדול. "For Abraham is going to be a great nation." Therefore I have to inform him that contrary to what he had thought, righteous people can save both themselves and the towns in which they live. This is the meaning of the last words in our verse, ונברכו בו כל גויי הארץ. The word בו refers back to the words "a great nation."

One may ask: "of what use is this promise to the nation that will follow Abraham?" G'd answers: "For I am aware that he will instruct his descendants, etc." G'd knew that Abraham would endeavour to teach his children to be good and to do good and to inform them about the ways of the Lord.

למען הביא ה׳ על אברהם, in order that G'd would be able to fulfil for Abraham, etc. G'd announced here that the essential part of His fondness was not for Abraham's descendants but His fondness of Abraham personally. G'd's planning focused on how to ensure that He could fulfil all the promises He had made to Abraham concerning his descendants. Unless Abraham's descendants observed the paths of G'd this could not be guaranteed.

ויאמר ה׳ זעקת פדום ועמורה, כי רבה G'd said: "the outcry about Sodom and Gomorrha is indeed great, etc.;" the reason for the word כי, as well as the additional word חטאתם, plus the description כבדה מאד, require analysis. We must remember that in that era all the nations angered G'd by their conduct all the time. The wickedness of the Sodomites, however, was in a class by itself. This is indicated by the words כי רבה, "for it is great;" this explains why G'd seemed to mind the conduct of those cities more than that of any others. The additional word וחטאתם alludes to the fact that their wickedness included not only the metaphysical, i.e. idolatry, but also moral-ethical wickedness in their relations with fellow human beings. Sanhedrin 109 lists examples of the latter, describing how they tortured a young girl to death for having given bread to a stranger, something illegal in that town. The Torah itself alludes to their attempts to have homosexual relations with the angels who visited Lot in the guise of human beings.

G'd also wanted to cool Abraham's enthusiasm for saving such a wicked people. This is why He told him that their sins were both numerous and of a severe nature. Originally their sins were "merely" numerous i.e. רבה; meanwhile they had become "severe," כבדה, also. When Abraham rescued the Sodomites from the four kings their sins had not yet been that severe.

ארדה נא ואראה, "I will descend and have a look Myself, etc." We need to understand why G'd had "to descend." Is not the whole world like a grain of mustard in size compared to G'd so that the term "descend" loses its meaning when applied to G'd? The word הכצעקתה, "if as its outcry," also needs clarification. Does G'd have doubts about the accuracy of His own knowledge? Rashi says that the word teaches that a terrestrial court must not judge capital crimes except on the basis of eye-witnesses. If that is so, could we not have learned this already from Genesis 11,5 when G'd is described as descending prior to judging the generation which had built the Tower? Rashi himself made the same comment there as here!

G'd informed Abraham of the sequence in which he employs kindness and mercy with His creatures. Fairness would require that punishment takes into consideration the relative stature of the person who has been sinned against and that of the sinner. When a human being transgresses any commandment of his Creator, the Supreme Being, he and all his entourage deserves to be destroyed because of the stature of the One whom he sinned against. If G'd proceeds simply on the basis of the enormity of the crime because of the stature of the מתביש, the one who has been slighted, the outcome of such proceedings is a foregone conclusion. If, on the other hand, G'd considers the relative insignificance of the מביש, the human being who committed the crime, and He bases the judgment on arguments presented by both litigants, things might appear in a different light. In such a case even the people of the generation of the deluge might not have been found guilty of extinction. This is why G'd explains here to Abraham ארדה נא, "I will descend, i.e. I will not judge on the basis of My superior stature." I will keep in mind the inadequacies of the sinners themselves. We find something of this nature in Isaiah 43,26 where G'd offers: נשפטה יחד, "let Us judge on an equal basis," keeping in mind the inadequacies of the creatures. G'd says: "If, after making full allowance for the inadequacies of any creature and ignoring My superior stature, the defendant still emerges as guilty, כלה, there is no escape for him. If not, I will know if they deserve to be judged by this or any other yardstick. G'd does not literally descend to earth to gain knowledge He did not have, but G'd lowers His profile in order to give the defendant an additional chance to downgrade his sin.

Another meaning of these words could be that though at the time G'd heard the outcry of the victims of the Sodomites and their guilt was then beyond doubt, He wanted to ascertain if their situation had remained the same and they continued their wicked lifestyle. The word ארדה נא then would indicate an immediate examination if these people had continued as before. If they intended to perform more such heinous acts their destruction would be imminent. This is why the angels spoke about destroying the cities in the present tense, i.e. משחיתים אנחנו (19,13). Until the attempt to sodomize Lot's guests, G'd used only the future tense about the fate of Sodom. Perhaps we may view the function of the angels in part as similar to that of the messengers of the court who warn a rebellious wife of the loss of her כתובה, the financial settlement she receives in the event her husband dies or divorces her without cause. We learn from Ketuvot 63 that public warnings were issued four weeks in a row before action was taken in such a case. The proclamation was designed to induce the wife to change her ways. The same may have been the case here. When the Torah describes the journey of the angels (18,22) as ויפנו משם, "they turned from there," the reference may have been to the heavenly tribunal where the decree had been issued. This may explain the two successive statements ארדה נא and ויפנו משם.

ויגש אברהם. Abraham approached, etc. When G'd had mentioned כלה, He meant that all the people in Sodom were doomed by the attribute of Justice; should it be G'd's intention to save the individual good people by allowing them to escape as happened to Lot, Abraham argued that perhaps there would be a substantial number of such people, i.e. fifty. The words האף תספה, "Will You also wipe out, etc?" mean "will You still wipe out the wicked despite the presence of so many innocent people?" The presence of the fifty should protect the entire population against mass destruction. When Abraham referred to the fifty good people as בקרבה, in the midst of the city, he implied that they should not be made to move in order to be saved. G'd would do better to remove the guilty and destroy them elsewhere. He used the expression חלילה לך, "it would be a profanation of Your name," when he referred to the remote possibility that the innocent actually share the fate of the guilty; concerning his second request that the presence of the righteous should serve as an umbrella for the guilty, he realised that this would be an act of kindness, not justice.

When Abraham said והיה כצדיק כרשע, that the righteous would wind up just like the wicked, he indicated that if G'd applied the same yardstick to all creatures alike, the righteous would be deprived of every incentive to be righteous.

The second time Abraham used the expression חלילה לך, he referred to the second alternative of saving the wicked because of the presence of a substantial number of righteous people in their midst. Abraham did not want G'd to destroy the wicked under such circumstances. Another meaning of this plea could be that Abraham reminded G'd that He had sworn after the deluge not to bring on mass destruction on mankind by invoking the ultimate rigor of the attribute of Justice (compare our comments on Genesis 9,11).

ויאמר ה׳ אם אמצא…ונשאחי לכל המקום. G'd said: "If I find fifty ….inside the town, I will forgive the whole place on their account." G'd answered only Abraham's last request. It goes without saying that He would not kill the innocent. We know that G'd saved Lot who was not righteous because he was a relative of Abraham.

אולי יחסרון, Perhaps there will be five short?" Abraham implied that inasmuch as G'd was righteous He would make up the tenth in each of the five towns which had only nine righteous men in their own right. The assumption underlying all this is that at least a quorum of ten is needed in each town for those ten good men to provide protection for their town.

ויוסף עוד לדבר אליו. Abraham continued to speak to Him (G'd). This is a continuation of the prayer that G'd Himself should act as the one making up the requisite quorum. The expression ויוסף…אליו means that Abraham continued in the same vein adding that G'd's making up the quorum would apply even if not all the towns would could be saved by that method.

ויאמר אל נא יחר לה׳ He said "Let my Lord not become angry." The reason that Abraham was concerned about G'd becoming angry this time was because he tried to add his own merit to make up the quorum of ten in one of the towns in case this was all that was lacking, whereas G'd would make up the quorum in the other towns. Abraham used the word נא again because he introduced a new element, i.e. use of his own merit as a protective factor. [The author may have deduced the principle that Abraham injected his own merit here because of the absence of the word אליו when he speaks to G'd. I believe the novelty of the author's approach is that he believed that throughout the dialogue reported by the Torah Abraham did not abandon the attempt to save all five cities. Ed.]

ויאמר הנה נא הואלתי לדבר. He said: "Here I have already dared to speak." Abraham pleads here that G'd's merit should protect twenty of the thirty righteous men whereas his own merit should suffice to protect the people in a third location by complementing the quorum of ten. Seeing that Abraham did not introduce a new element this time, he did not worry about G'd becoming angry at his being presumptuous. The emphasis on אל ה was to underline that he did not try to expand what he considered his own merit. [I believe that in order to understand the author one must assume that the twenty mentioned in the verse do not need additional protection. All that Abraham worried about was the three towns which did not have ten good people each to protect them. Ed.]

אל נא יחר…אך הפעם. "Do not become angry if I speak only this one more time." Here Abraham again introduces his own merit as adequate to complement the quorum of twenty people (2 towns); this is why he worries about angering G'd. In this instance he was presumptuous enough to equate the protective power of his own merit with that of his Master. This is reflected in his avoidance of the words: "to my Lord;" he merely said: "I will speak," meaning a plea relying on his own merit. He added the word אך to indicate that he would not plead again if by chance the tenth one should be missing even in the remaining town.

וילך ה׳ כאשר כלה לדבר. When G'd completed speaking with Abraham He left. The Torah reports that G'd did not even give Abraham a chance to plead further on behalf of a lesser number of righteous people. After all, Abraham said that he had used his final plea. Although the Zohar 1,82 suggests that the righteous is the foundation of the earth, i.e. that a single righteous person could save the rest of the world, this may apply only to an outstanding צדיק. Perhaps if Abraham had lived in Sodom, his presence could have sufficed to save the town.