Avraham and Moshe Leading the Way

Lately, as we have been learning more and more about Avraham's character, we mention how Avraham's qualities seem to be the exact opposite of sedom. In perek 20 we learned about Avraham's development of yirat elokim. He had common morals, ways of the world. In perakim 18 and 19 we learned that Avraham was someone who taught his children to act with tzedek and mishpat. All of these qualities are opposed to Sedom's qualities. Sedom perverted justice, did not take care of the downtrodden, they were haughty, and the list goes on and on.

I would just like to point out that not only were Avraham's qualities the complete opposite of Sedom's, but also the other nations that we learned about earlier in Bereishit. For example, the nature of man in Dor Hamabul became corrupt. People did not follow the hierarchy that G-d had set up. They acted with violence and did not treat each other properly. Overall, they lacked the understanding that they had tzelem Elokim. Avraham, as we know, did not lack tzelem Elokim. He spread the word of G-d, had complete trust in Him, and followed everything He told him. In the era of Dor Haflaga, people tried to be higher then G-d. Again, there was a hierarchy problem. They tried to make a name for themselves by building a tower that would be 'higher' than G-d. On the contrary, Avraham made a name for G-d, not for himself. He did everything he could to spread the word of G-d and ethical monotheism. In conclusion, we see how Avraham's qualities are completely opposite from Dor Hamabul, Dor Haflaga, and even Adam and Chava!

In shul on Shabbos, as the Rabbi was speaking about Moshe's humility, I was thinking that that really is also the exact opposite of the people of Dor Hamabul and Dor Haflaga. The Midrash says that when G-d told Moshe to write the word Vayikra “And He called”, Moshe didn’t want to write that last aleph. It seemed to Moshe that it gave him too much importance. How could he write that G-d called to him? Who was he after all? Moshe would have preferred to write Vayikar “And He happened (upon him).” In other words G-d just “came across” Moshe, He didn’t “go out of His way” to appear to him. In spite of this, G-d told Moshe to write Vayikra “And He called”. Moshe put the aleph at the end of the word as G-d had commanded him — but he wrote it small. If Dor Hamabul and Dor Haflaga would have followed Moshe's and Avraham's characteristics of praising and understand the greatness of G-d and following His hierarchy, then they probably would not have been destroyed.