Welcome to the eighth
weekly guest post
at A Night's Dream of Books,
on the tour for The Door Is Open,
sponsored by
Innovative Online Book Tours!!
Dr. Andrew Cort
Andrew Cort
Paperback, 186 pages
CreateSpace
May 19, 2012
Genre: Religion, Mythology, Spirituality
This is the eighth of several weekly guest posts by Dr. Cort, who is an authority on religion and spirituality, as well as mythology, politics, history, science, education, and healing. He has written several books on these topics. His most recent one, The Door Is Open, deals with the fascinating topic of the steps to spiritual awakening, as presented in world scriptures and mythologies. Please join me in welcoming Dr. Cort to A NIGHT'S DREAM OF BOOKS!
I hope you will find Dr. Cort's eighth post to be as fascinating as I did!
SODOM AND
GOMORRA, FIRE AND BRIMSTONE
When Abraham (who,
according to the Kabbalah, is the personification of the highest human quality:
Loving-Kindness) learned of the
impending destruction of Sodom,, he beseeched the Lord to be merciful, and to
spare the city, since surely not every single resident was a sinner. He asked
God if He would be willing to spare Sodom if He found fifty righteous souls
therein. The Lord answered, “If I find within the city of Sodom fifty innocent
ones, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.” Feeling emboldened,
Abraham then asked what would happen if He only found forty-five. Again the
Lord said He would spare the city. Abraham then continued his questions: What
about forty? thirty? twenty? Each time, the Lord agreed to spare the city. Then
Abraham said, “Let not my Lord be angry if I speak but this last time: What if
ten should be found there?” Again the Lord agreed. But that was it, and Abraham
went no further.
Why did Abraham stop at ten? Why not one? ‘Ten’ is certainly an interesting number. Pythagoras called it the Perfect Number, the Number of Man. Abraham may have been aware that God would one day reveal Ten Commandments to the children of Israel, and perhaps he felt there should be a minimum of at least one person keeping each commandment if Sodom was to be saved. Some legends suggest that Abraham recalled that Noah had eight righteous souls in his family, and since these eight had not been sufficient for God to spare that whole generation there was no need now to continue this conversation. Or perhaps, as some legends suggest, he simply felt confident that his nephew Lot, along with his wife, four daughters, sons-in-law, and grandchildren, would more than total ten righteous souls.
But more than likely the story simply means that, while a certain degree of negativity and evil can be tolerated, forgiven, and eventually redeemed, there comes a point where it is simply too extreme and too dangerous, and has to be annihilated.
Abraham, of course, made no claim to be the enforcer of this code: his role was solely to plead for Mercy – a good reminder for many contemporary people who feel called upon to personally judge and punish their particular choice of ‘sinners’. After all, the people in this story – including the horrible citizens of Sodom – are all symbols of qualities living inside us. They do not represent some ‘other’ person. This entire story is taking place right now within the confines of every human soul. The real meaning of the story is that the negativity and evil that has to be ‘annihilated’ is our own.
Why did Abraham stop at ten? Why not one? ‘Ten’ is certainly an interesting number. Pythagoras called it the Perfect Number, the Number of Man. Abraham may have been aware that God would one day reveal Ten Commandments to the children of Israel, and perhaps he felt there should be a minimum of at least one person keeping each commandment if Sodom was to be saved. Some legends suggest that Abraham recalled that Noah had eight righteous souls in his family, and since these eight had not been sufficient for God to spare that whole generation there was no need now to continue this conversation. Or perhaps, as some legends suggest, he simply felt confident that his nephew Lot, along with his wife, four daughters, sons-in-law, and grandchildren, would more than total ten righteous souls.
But more than likely the story simply means that, while a certain degree of negativity and evil can be tolerated, forgiven, and eventually redeemed, there comes a point where it is simply too extreme and too dangerous, and has to be annihilated.
Abraham, of course, made no claim to be the enforcer of this code: his role was solely to plead for Mercy – a good reminder for many contemporary people who feel called upon to personally judge and punish their particular choice of ‘sinners’. After all, the people in this story – including the horrible citizens of Sodom – are all symbols of qualities living inside us. They do not represent some ‘other’ person. This entire story is taking place right now within the confines of every human soul. The real meaning of the story is that the negativity and evil that has to be ‘annihilated’ is our own.
Author Bio
Andrew Cort is an expert on the inner message of Spiritual Awakening that is always ready to be found in the wonderful stories of the Bible and Greek Mythology. To receive several FREE GIFTS from Dr. Cort (a copy of Chapter One, ‘Making the Decision’, from his new book, THE DOOR IS OPEN; a copy of his article on RECONCILING SCIENCE AND RELIGION; and a complete version of the Bible’s erotic masterpiece, SONG OF SONGS , adapted as a Poetic Dialogue to be read out loud by lovers; as well as a subscription to his SPIRITUAL GROWTH NEWSLETTER) click here http://www.andrewcort.com/Gifts . You can also learn more on his blog, Spirituality and Religion.
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Though provoking opinions as always. These posts make me think of these stories in ways that I have not done so previously.
ReplyDeleteOne area that I disagree about, while this and many other stories in the Old Testament can be looked upon as examinations of the flaws inside of us, there certainly was a fair share of judgement directed toward outsiders.
Thank you for hosting Andrew today :)
ReplyDelete