Shabbat Parashat Vayeira - 5781

Shabbat Parashat Vayeira - 5781

Rabbi Hal Miller

  The two angels came to Sdom in the evening and Lot was sitting at the gate of Sdom.

  [Bereishit 19:1]

The Torah here tells us that there were two beings vising Sdom and Lot, and that they

were angels. In verse 18:2, Avraham "lifted his eyes and saw, and behold three men

were standing before him" thus the number is three, and the beings are men. Rashi,

based on Bereishit Rabbah [50:2] and Gemora Bava Metzia [86b] tells us that there

were originally three angels, each with a single mission. One came to inform Sarah

that she would give birth, one came to heal Avraham from his circumcision, and

one came to destroy Sdom and surrounding areas.

Further confusing the situation, Bereishit [18:9] tells us, "They said to him", then in

verse 10, "And he said, 'I will surely return'." Verse [19:13] has, "For we are about to

destroy this place", which would indicate two angels involved in the overthrow of

Sdom, but [19:17] has "he said, 'flee for your life'," and [19:22], "I cannot do a thing

until you arrive there". Who were these guys, and how many are there?

Of the three men who visited Avraham, two went on to Sdom according to [18:22]

and [19:1] where they are called angels. What happened to the third? According to

Rashi, he is the one who informed Sarah of her upcoming childbearing, as noted

when it says in the singular [18:10], "I will surely return". Upon finishing his mission

he disappeared. But the one who came to heal Avraham also apparently finished

his mission, so why did he go on to Sdom?

On our verse, Rashi says that the two remaining angels were one to destroy Sdom

and the other to do kindness, which included both healing Avraham and saving Lot,

so he had not yet fully completed his mission. The remainder was closely tied to

the destruction of Sdom, which had to be held off until Lot was clear, so the two

angels were working together. Malbim notes that in [19:13], it is in the present tense,

"We are destroying Sdom" and says that removing Lot effectively ended any chance

Sdom could be saved.

So why were they called men with Avraham but angels with Lot? Rashi gives two

answers, and the Beis HaLevi gives a third. Rashi begins with they are called men

when the Divine Presence is with them, and called angels when the Divine Presence

is not present. Rashi's second option is that Avraham was highly spiritual, dealt with

angels on a regular basis, so the angels appeared like regular men, but Lot's level of

spirituality was much lower, so the visitors appeared as angels. The Beis HaLevi

writes, "Avraham would give hospitality to anyone, Lot only did so because they were

angels."