How Abraham Could Have Saved Sodom

Frum Follies
March 17, 2015

https://frumfollies.wordpress.com/2015/03/16/how-abraham-could-have-saved-sodom/

For five days I have anguished about a perverse rabbinical court ruling. It twists facts and tangles logic; it betrays honest witnesses and rewards those who lied. It does all this to protect institutions and jobs.

If Abraham had been pleading to this rabbinical court, he would have dispensed with appeals to a just G-d. He wouldn’t have concerned himself with the number of righteous people. He wouldn’t have settled with just bringing out his nephew Lot and Lot’s family. Instead he would have declared: “Surely a just rabbinical court would not let 150 people lose their jobs, not when they are supporting men who learn Torah in kollel, not when they come from prominent families.”

Abraham would not have even settled for demoting just those who allowed Sodomy to happen on their watch. Abraham would have pleaded, “But surely a just rabbinical court realizes that if we admit this much, everyone else will be tainted. No! You must declare that you believe all who claimed ‘my hands did not shed this blood or even knew about it.’”

Abraham would not even have asked the court to at least chastise the sodomizer himself for his many deeds. He would have pleaded, “But no one will believe that others didn’t know. Instead we must use the language of mysteries so the naïve can believe it was just a few hugs unknown to everyone else.”

Before such a court Abraham would have prevailed and saved the Yeshiva of Sodom and the Yeshiva of Shame and Ayver. After such a court, people wouldn’t be ashamed to say they came from Sodom, studied in the Yeshiva of Sodom, or committed Sodomy.

Postscript: I will post an accurate translation of the ruling on these seminaries tomorrow morning. If you are sensitive, don’t read it or skip breakfast. In the days that follow, I will critique its many convoluted deceptions.

However, do not despair. This judgement will have to answer to a higher authority and I am not presuming to speak for the heavenly court. The US Department of Education will have access to the testimony given to this court. Touro College will not be able to restore accreditation to these seminaries because the US Department of Education can cut off funding to institutions that do not punish sexual violence, or do not punish those who allow it. Stay tuned for more about Title IX and its legal implications for the Meisels seminaries.