Do I Hide from Abraham?

177) For this reason, when he accompanied, he was rewarded, and the Creator said, “Do I hide from Abraham that which I am doing?” “For the Lord God will do nothing.” Happy are the righteous in the world whom the Creator desires, and all that He has done in heaven and will do in the world, He does through the righteous; and He hides nothing from them.

178) The Creator wishes to share with the righteous, so they would come and warn people to repent from their iniquities or they will be punished by the upper judgment and will not be able to say that they were not warned and did not know. For this reason, the Creator informs them that He will execute judgment in them, so they will not say that He punishes them without sentence.

179) Woe unto the wicked who do not know and do not observe to know, and do not know how to beware of their own iniquities. And the Creator, whose every deed is true and whose ways are law, does not do all that He does in the world before He reveals to the righteous, so that people themselves will have no claim against Him, especially since they should follow their words in a way that people will not speak hatefully of them. It is also written, “Then you shall be clear before the Lord and before Israel.”

180) For people to not be able to complain about the Creator, the righteous should warn them that if they sin and do not examine themselves to be watchful, the Creator’s quality of judgment will have a reason to complain against them. They will be saved from the quality of judgment by repentance and good deeds.

181) The Creator gave the whole of the land to Abraham to have as his lot and inheritance forever, as it is written, “All the land which you see.” It is also written, “Lift up your eyes and look.” Afterwards, when the Creator wished to uproot and destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, the Creator said, “I have already given the land to Abraham, and he is everyone’s father, as it is written, ‘For I have made you a father of many nations,’ and it is unbecoming for me to strike the sons without alerting their father, which I have called ‘Abraham My beloved.’ Hence, I must notify him.” This is why it is written, “And the Lord said, ‘Do I hide from Abraham what I am doing?’”

182) Come and see Abraham’s humbleness. Even though the Creator told him, “The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great,” and even though He waited with him and alerted him that he wished to execute judgment in Sodom, he did not pray before him to save Lot and to not execute the judgment with him, so as to not ask for reward for his deeds.

183) And even though he did not ask, the Creator sent for Lot and saved him thanks to Abraham, as it is written, “God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the upheaval, when He overturned the cities in which Lot lived.”

184) The cities in which Lot lived were named after him because they were all wicked, and no one was found to have merit but Lot. Thus, every place where wicked dwell is destroyed, since we learn from the words, “in which Lot lived,” that for all the others who lived there, it was not regarded as a settlement, but as a ruin and desolation, uninhabited, since they were wicked.

185) “In which Lot lived.” Did Lot live in all of them? Since they were living in the cities thanks to him, and were not destroyed, they were named after him. And was it thanks to Lot? It was not, but rather thanks to Abraham.

186) The service that a person does for the righteous protects him in the world. And even though he is wicked, he learns from his ways and does them.

187) Because Lot bonded with Abraham, although he did not learn all of his deeds from him, he did learn from him to do good to people as Abraham did. Once Lot settled among them, he would inhabit all those cities as long as they were inhabited. This is why it is written, “In which Lot lived.”

188) The Shechina did not move from Abraham at the time when the Creator was with him. Moreover, the Shechina herself spoke with him and not only the Creator. This is so because on that degree, the Creator appeared to him, as it is written, “And I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty,” who is the Shechina.

189) It is written, “And the Lord said, ‘The cry.’” First it says, “And God said,” meaning He and His courthouse, the Shechina. In the end it says “And the Lord said,” which is the upper degree that appeared to him over the lower degree, which is the Shechina.

190) “And the Lord said, ‘Do I hide from Abraham?’” What is written above? “And the men rose up from there and looked out over Sodom,” to execute judgment against the wicked. What does it write afterwards? “Do I hide from Abraham?”

191) The Creator does not execute judgment against the wicked before He consults with the souls of the righteous, as it is written, “By the breath of God they perish.” And it is written, “Do I hide from Abraham?” The Creator said, “Can I execute judgment against the wicked before I consult with the souls of the righteous and tell them, ‘The wicked have sinned before Me, I will execute judgment against them,’ as it is written, ‘The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is very grave.’”

192) The soul stands in her place, afraid to come near Him and say anything to Him before He tells Matat to present her to Him so she may say what she wanted, as it is written, “And Abraham approached and said, ‘Will You indeed wipe out the righteous with the wicked? You mustn’t!’”

193) It is written, “Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city?” The soul opens and says, “Lord of the world, suppose they engage in fifty portions of the Torah? Even though they engaged Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], they have a reward for the next world, and they will not enter Hell. Afterwards, it is written, “And the LORD said, ‘If I find in Sodom fifty righteous.’”

194) There are more than fifty portions in the Torah, for they are fifty-three portions. However, each of the five books in the Torah consists of ten commandments, ten utterances by which the world was created, which makes fifty.

195) The soul opens further and says, “Lord of the world, even though they did not engage in Torah, perhaps they received their punishment for what they sinned in the courthouse and it was atoned for them, as was said, ‘He may strike him forty times but no more,’ and from their shame before them, it is enough to atone for them so they do not enter Hell.” What is written afterwards? “I will not do it on account of the forty.”

196) She opens further and says, “Suppose there are thirty there?” Perhaps there are righteous among them who attained thirty degrees, implied in the verse, “And it came to pass in the thirtieth year”? They are included in the thirty-two paths, which are twenty-two letters and ten Sefirot. Sometimes, they include eight.

When ZON, which are twenty-two letters, rise for MAN to Bina, which is ten Sefirot, in Bina, they become thirty-two discernments, the thirty-two paths of wisdom—twenty-two from ZON and ten from Bina herself—since Bina herself desires only Hassadim.

However, when ZON rise up to her for MAN, she ascends to the Rosh of AA and becomes Hochma there. At that time, she is called “The thirty-two paths of wisdom [Hochma].”

Sometimes they are mingled in eight, in Bina, where there are only eight Sefirot from her own essence downward, since she lacks Keter and Hochma, her GAR. Also, at that time, she is not regarded as thirty-two paths of wisdom but only as thirty merits because she lacks Hochma. This is implied in Abraham’s words “Suppose there are thirty there?”

197) She opens further and says, “Suppose twenty are found there?” Perhaps they will raise sons to study the Torah and they will have reward, to the ten commandments, twice daily, for anyone who raises his son to study the Torah and leads him to his teacher’s house in the morning and in the evening, the text regards him as if he kept the Torah twice daily. What does it write? “I will not destroy it on account of the twenty.”

198) She opens further and says, “Suppose ten are found there?” She says, “Lord of the world, suppose they are of those first ones at the house of assembly, who take reward corresponding to all those who come after them?” What does it write? “I will not destroy it on account of the ten.”

199) The soul of the righteous has all this to say about the wicked. Since nothing was found in them, it is written, “And the Lord departed when He had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place,” to his known place of merit.

200) It is a commandment for a person to pray for the wicked, that they would be reformed and not enter Hell, as it is written, “As for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth.” One is forbidden to pray that the wicked would vanish from the world, for had the Creator removed Terah from the world, while he was worshiping idols, Abraham would not have come to the world, nor would there be the tribes of Israel, King David, the Messiah king, the Torah would not have been given, and all those righteous and pious and prophets would not have come to the world. When the Creator says that none of those matters was found in the wicked, it is written, “And the two angels came to Sodom.”