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Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Nov. 14, 2008 / 16 Mar-Cheshvan 5769

The Power of Spiritual Inertia

By Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz


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A lesson from Sodom about a psychological factor that affects our thinking and must be reckoned with when we try to make honest assessments and decisions


“He seemed like a jester in the eyes of his sons-in-law.”

                        —   Genesis 19:14


The angels, chronicles the Torah, warned Lot that Sodom would be destroyed and that he should escape to the hills with his family. When Lot told his sons-in-law the news and begged them to flee with him, they did not take him seriously, according to the Midrash (Bereishis Rabbah 50:9).


"The city is filled with laughter, song and happiness; how can you say that it will be overturned?", is how they replied.


The sons-in-law's retort to Lot is bizarre, not so much for what they said, but for what they did not.


They did not mock Lot for believing that an all powerful G-d could utterly destroy their city in an instant. It seems from the Midrash that they did believe in the Almighty and they understood that it was within His power to overturn Sodom. They merely could not believe that such a merry city, its streets filled with the sounds of laughter and music, could ever be silenced.


But what difference did the merry atmosphere in the city make? Why did laughter in the air convince Lot's sons-in-law that the Divine would not destroy Sodom?


The Midrash is exposing a weakness inherent in all humans; we find it hard to believe that our status quo will ever change. Even though the sons-in-law believed that their destruction was theoretically possible — and even though their very lives were at stake — they rejected his life-saving advice because they could not believe that their wonderful situation would ever change.


This is an amazingly strong psychological factor that affects our thinking and must be reckoned with when we try to make honest assessments and decisions.


Too often we also trap ourselves in the cage of our present situation — both for good and for bad. When life is going well for us, when our families are healthy and we can pay our bills, we sometimes forget that the next minute we could receive a phone call from our doctor or a message from our employer that could suddenly turn our world upside-down. We sometimes forget that nothing is guaranteed to us. We must appreciate the Source of our success and realize that He is granting us these blessings anew, every second of the day.


Conversely, when things are not so rosy, we must constantly strengthen ourselves to turn to Him in prayer, firm in our belief that G-d can instantaneously change things for the better.


Every morning in their prayers Jews quote King David (Psalms 30:6), "In the evening one lies down weeping, but with the dawn — a cry of joy!" If we fail to focus on the fact that life can improve for us, we will drown in the quagmire of depression and despair — the lifeline just within reach, yet never seized.


Let us not allow the "static" of our situation to interfere with our reception of any messages broadcast to us from Above. Lot's sons-in-law were too absorbed in their merry status quo and could not tune in to receive the heavenly warning that would have saved their lives. We can learn from their fatal mistake: in good times, to be grateful and appreciative to the Divine for all He bestows upon us; in dark times, to be optimistic for a better future, hopeful for the Almighty's salvation that comes "in the blink of an eye."

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One of America's senior Torah sages, Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz has been the dean of the Rabbinical Seminary of America, in Queens, New York for more than 50 years. The institution has branches and affiliates all across North America and Israel.

This article was prepared by two of the sage's disciples, Rabbi Aryeh Striks and Rabbi Shimon Zehnwirth, and excerpted from the just released book, "Pinnacle of Creation: Torah insights into human nature".


Previously:

Our Immutable Noble Essence
The 'living dead' are all around us
We have the power to alter another's destiny — use it well
The Crowning Glory of Creation
The Divine's eternal, unconditional love
Perverting sincerity
Do 'clothes make the man'?
Divine vindictiveness?

© 2007, Mesorah Publications, Ltd.