Parashat Vayera - Fourth Aliyah

Lot is allowed to escape to Zoar, and the angel promises not to destroy it. As the sun rises, he reaches the town, while sulfur and fire rain down on Sodom and Gomorrah. His wife looks back and becomes a pillar of salt. In the morning Abraham looks out over the area and sees smoke rising from the land. Lot has survived, but he is afraid to remain in Zoar and moves with his two daughters to a cave in the mountains. There they give him wine and lie with him on two nights, so that they can bear children by him. The older daughter gives birth to Moab, and the younger to Ben-ammi, ancestor of the Ammonites. Genesis 19:21-38

The story then returns to Abraham and Sarah, who arrive in Gerar. Abraham presents Sarah as his sister, and Abimelech, king of Gerar, takes her. At night God warns Abimelech in a dream that she is married and commands him to return her. Abimelech, who has not approached her, says he did not know she was married. In the morning he demands an explanation from Abraham, who replies that he feared being killed so that his wife could be taken. Abimelech returns Sarah, gives Abraham gifts and allows him to settle in his land. Abraham prays for him, and Abimelech and his household are healed. Genesis 20:1-18

The aliyah closes by telling of the fulfillment of the promise to Sarah: she bears Abraham a son at the time God had appointed. Abraham names him Isaac and circumcises him on the eighth day. Genesis 21:1-4

Abraham sees destruction; the Torah also tells of rescue

Abraham returns to the place where he stood before God and looks out toward Sodom. What he sees is thick smoke. Immediately afterward, however, the Torah adds a detail that is not part of that view: God remembered Abraham and brought Lot out of the upheaval. The city for which he pleaded for mercy has been destroyed, yet the connection to Abraham is mentioned within the account of the rescue. Genesis 19:27-29

Why is Abraham the one remembered, while Lot is the one rescued? Ramban returns to the beginning of their shared journey. Lot left Haran to accompany Abraham on his travels. According to Ramban, had he not gone with him, he would have remained in his homeland and never reached Sodom; his departure with Abraham, who was obeying God’s command, could not be allowed to bring harm upon him. Ramban also connects this to Abraham’s devotion: he risked his life and pursued the kings to rescue Lot. Ramban on Genesis 19:29

This interpretation brings the history between the two men back into the story. Abraham and Lot have already parted ways, but the journey they began together still bears on Lot’s fate at its end.

Praying for another household while your own still lacks

In Gerar, Abraham finds himself in a very different situation. Sarah has been taken from him, and after her return he prays for the healing of Abimelech and his household. The Torah tells of their healing and of births, then moves directly to God attending to Sarah and to Isaac’s birth. Genesis 20:17-21:2

Rashi sees in this juxtaposition a lesson about someone who asks for mercy for another while needing the same thing himself: he is answered first. Rashi also makes a point about the timing: God had already attended to Sarah before Abimelech was healed. The placement of the stories does not mean that the answer to Sarah began only after Abimelech’s household was healed. Rashi on Genesis 21:1

We can thus trace a thread connecting the parts of the aliyah: at its beginning, Lot’s connection to Abraham stands in his favor amid the destruction; later, Abraham’s prayer reaches Abimelech’s household. Alongside the story of the son to be born to him and Sarah, the lives of others retain a place in the narrative.