Commento su Genesi 19:24

וה' המטיר AND THE LORD CAUSED TO RAIN — Wherever it is said 'וה “And the Lord”, it means He and His Celestial Court (Genesis Rabbah 51:2).

וה' המטיר, the angel Gavriel;

AND THE ETERNAL CAUSED TO RAIN UPON SODOM (AND UPON GOMORRAH BRIMSTONE AND FIRE FROM THE ETERNAL OF HEAVEN). Rashi wrote: “Wherever it is said, And the Eternal it means Him and His Celestial Court. From the Eternal. It is not written ‘from Him,’ [with the pronoun ‘Him’ replacing the noun ‘Eternal’ in the second part of the verse, for] this is the Scriptural way of speaking. For example, Ye wives of Lantech,²⁵⁰Above, 4:23. and he did not say ‘my wives.’ And David also said, Take you the servants of your lord,²⁵¹I Kings 1:33. and he did not say, ‘my servants.’ Ahaseurus also said, Write ye… in the name of the king,²⁵²Esther 8:8. and he did not say, ‘in my name.’”
Now I wonder about the Rabbi²⁵³Rashi. See Seder Bereshith, Note 139. who wrote down conflicting opinions and made them alike for there is a division of opinion on this matter in Bereshith Rabbah.²⁵⁴51:50. And there is yet a third opinion: “Aba Chilfi, the son of Rabbi Simki, said in the name of Rabbi Yehudah the son of Rabbi Simon: ‘And the Eternal caused to rain upon Sodom — this refers to the angel Gabriel. From the Eternal out of heaven — this refers to the Holy One, blessed be He.’ Rabbi Eleazar said, ‘Wherever it says, And the Eternal, it means Him and His Celestial Court.’ Rabbi Yitzchak said, ‘We find in the Torah, Prophets, and Writings, that a person mentions his name twice. In the Torah, And Lamech said to his wives,²⁵⁰Above, 4:23. etc.’” Thus there are three conflicting opinions here. Rabbi Yehudah the son of Rabbi Simon ascribes the first Divine Name mentioned in the verse as referring to Gabriel as he was the messenger sent to destroy the city, it being a case of the deputy being referred to by the name of Him Who sent him. And Rabbi Eleazar said that He and His Celestial Court agreed on the judgment, and it was from Him that the brimstone and fire came. And Rabbi Yitzchak said that it is the Scriptural way of speaking.
Now if you will understand what I have written above,²⁵⁵11:2, at the end. you will know the intent of the Sages’ expression, “He and His Celestial Court,” and then the plain meaning of the verse will be clear to you. In a similar manner is the verse, That they may keep the way of the Eternal… to the end that the Eternal may bring…²⁵⁶Above, 18:19. He did not say, “that they may keep My way… to the end that I may bring.” Likewise: Because the cry concerning them is great before the face of the Eternal, and the Eternal hath sent us.²⁵⁷Above, Verse 13. And similarly: And it came to pass, when G-d destroyed… that G-d remembered.²⁵⁸Further, Verse 29.

מאת ה' מן השמים, this was not a natural event such as a volcanic eruption, the ash, brimstone and lava afterwards descending on the surrounding earth. The source of this destruction did not originate in the bowels of the earth.

'וה, the angel now is called by the name of his Master, G’d. We already referred to this phenomenon in 18,3

Whenever וה' appears in Scripture, it represents Him and His Heavenly Court. I.e., Hashem and His Heavenly Court agreed upon the matter. You might ask: Why does the Heavenly Court [represented by the ו] come before Hashem? (Minchas Yehudah) This is not a question, because “the Heavenly Court” is not expressly written. It is merely hinted to, by the ו of וה'. Therefore, it would be impossible to write Hashem before the Heavenly Court, all in one word. (Maharshal) Although we might ask why did Rashi not make this comment on (18:17) וה' אמר המכסה אני מאברהם and on (21:1) וה' פקד את שרה, Re’m explained each case. See there for more detail. (Minchas Yehudah) But this is not a question, because the rule of “Whenever וה' appears in Scripture, it represents Him and His Heavenly Court” applies only when וה' has no direct connection to what preceded. [Thus it does not apply to those verses, as will be explained later]. This is because when “Hashem” is at the beginning of a phrase or matter, the verb should precede it. Here it should say וימטר ה' rather than וה' המטיר. Whereas the order [of וה' המטיר] implies it is in the middle of the matter, when it is not. Perforce, it comes to allude to Him and His Heavenly Court. But with וה' אמר המכסה אני, the ו simply means “and.” It connects to the previous point. “They [the angels] got up from there” to go destroy Sedom, and consequently, ה' אמר המכסה אני, as Rashi explained there: “I gave him this Land... Can I, then, destroy the children without informing the father?” Similarly is the case with וה' פקד את שרה. As Rashi explains there, “This is... to teach that whoever prays for another... will be answered first. For it said before, ‘He [Avraham] prayed,’ and right afterwards, ‘And Hashem remembered Sarah.’” But here it is not a continuation of anything previously mentioned. On the contrary, it is written, “The sun had risen, etc.” and afterwards, “[Hashem] caused it to rain, etc.” Actually, He caused it to rain before the sun came out as it states, “At the break of dawn, etc.” and Rashi explains that this is a time when both the sun and the moon rule.” (Maharmash)

מאת ד׳ מן השמים. Nachdem es bereits hieß וד׳ הממיר וגו׳, ist beides für die Erzählung völlig überflüssig. Es ist aber dieser wiederholte Zusatz von höchster Bedeutung. Wer jetzt die Gegend des toten Meeres sieht, die vielen Naphtaquellen, die ganze vulkanische Beschaffenheit des Bodens, der erklärt sich den Untergang dieser Städte als ein ganz gewöhnliches Naturereignis. Die vulkanische Beschaffenheit der Gegend erklärt die Entstehung des toten Meeres. Die Ursachen sind natürlich und irdisch, und es bedarf dazu keines Rekurses zu Gott und zum Himmel. Dieser irrenden Ansicht gegenüber bekundet das Gotteswort: מאת ד׳ מן השמים, von Gott, vom Himmel kam es. Ihr verwechselt die Wirkung mit der Ursache. Was euch als Ursache erscheint, ist in Wahrheit nur die Wirkung. Die gegenwärtige Bodenbeschaffenheit, aus welcher ihr die Katastrophe erklärt, ist erst eine Wirkung der Katastrophe, die nicht auf der Erde und von der Erde, sondern von Gott, vom Himmel bewirkt worden. Wohl ganz in ähnlicher Weise irrt überhaupt die geologische Spekulation über die Entstehung der Welt. Die Tatsachen der Erscheinungen, die sie zu Grunde legt, sind wahr; allein die Schlüsse sind falsch. Sie verwechselt ebenso Ursache und Wirkung. Was sie als Ursache der Erdrevolutionen ansieht, sind erst die Folgen von Revolutionen, die Gott zur Gestaltung der Erde hervorrief.

המטיר על סדום, “made it rain on Sodom, etc.” according to Rashi, this occurred at an hour when both the sun and the moon were visible in the sky; according to him the reason was that some of the Sodomites worshipped the sun, others the moon. If both were visible at the time of this disaster, they would all recognise the powerlessness of their deities to protect them against such disasters emanating in the heavenly regions. The basis of this exegesis is that the Torah does not use the immediate past tense, i.e. וימטר, but uses a pluperfect, המטיר, “had made it rain.” The “Passover” had already commenced on the previous evening before the angels had reached Sodom. [Compare 18,12 on the cosmic significance of that night. Ed.]

המטיר על סדום HE CAUSED IT TO RAIN ON SODOM — When the morning broke), as it is said, (v. 15) “And when the morning dawned”, i. e. the time when the moon is in the sky together with the sun. As some of them worshipped the sun and others the moon, the Holy One, blessed be He, said, “If I punish them by day, the moon-worshippers may say, “If it had taken place at night when the moon rules we would not have been destroyed.” And if I punish them by night the sun-worshippers may say, “If it had taken place at day time when the sun rules we would not have been destroyed.” For this reason it is written, “And when the morning dawned” — He punished them at that time when both moon and sun are ruling (Genesis Rabbah 50:12).

מאת ה', emanating from G’d, personally.

מאת ה' מן השמים, what is meant is that the origin of this lethal rain was very high up in the sky.

At the advent of the morning... Rashi is saying that “Hashem caused to rain” does not relate to the preceding verse, “The sun had risen upon the earth, when Lot came to Zoar,” [to say] that only after Lot came to Zoar did it begin to rain. Rather, it means that “Hashem caused to rain” already before Lot came to Zoar, at the very advent of the morning, before the sun had even risen.

'מאת ה, according to B’reshit Rabbah 51,3, this is to be understood as the angel Gavriel and Hashem dividing the labour; the former set these harmful substances in motion, the region it emanated from was provided by the Lord Himself. [The reason why our sages understand more than one celestial force to have been involved is the connective letter ו at the beginning of the word: 'וה. Ed.] According to an early version of Tanchuma on this verse, the first time the name Hashem is used in this verse it refers to the angel Gavriel, whereas the second time it refers to Hashem Himself.

המטיר גפרית ואש HE RAINED BRIMSTONE AND FIRE — At first it was rain (מטר) to see whether they would repent and this was then turned into brimstone and fire (Midrash Tanchuma, Beshalach 15).

God said: If I punish them by day... Question: They will all be destroyed. How then will they be able to say this? The answer is: Hashem wanted to demonstrate that they did not repent [when they saw the punishment begin], although they had no excuse not to. (Maharshal) However, this is not a question. Rashi means that the sun and moon worshipers in other places would say this, not those in Sedom who were destined for destruction. [You might object to this answer:] Rashi says, “We would not have been destroyed,” implying that those in Sedom are saying this about themselves. The answer is: People in other places could speak in this manner too, [identifying with them] as if they were speaking about themselves. This is similar to (Shemos 18:9) ויחד יתרו, [on which Rashi explains:] “Yisro’s flesh felt sharp stinging [as he was grieved by the destruction of Egypt].”

'מאת ה FROM THE LORD — This is the Scriptural way of speaking (the Lord rained … from the Lord); e. g., (4:23) “Ye wives of Lamech” and he did not say “my wives”. Thus, too, did David say, (1 Kings 1:33) “Take with you the servants of your lord” and he did not say, “my servants” and so, too, did Ahasuerus say, (Ester 8:8) “in the king’s name” and did not say, “in my name”. So, also, here: “From the Lord” and He did not say, “from Him” (Genesis Rabbah 51:2).

מאת ה' מן השמים, “from G’d from heaven.” This is a reference to the “great” name of G’d. We find something similar in Kings I 8,32 when Solomon offered a prayer to G’d on the occasion of dedicating the Temple he had built. He appealed to the G’d in heaven to listen to his prayer by saying ואתה תשמע השמים, “You, the heaven, will hear,” instead of saying ואתה תשמע בשמים, “You will hear in heaven.” Clearly, Solomon did not pray to “heaven,” he prayed to G’d. The wording of Solomon’s prayer indicates that he expected an agent of G’d whom he referred to as “heaven,” to hear his prayer. The reason the Torah referred to the agent of G’d who carries out G’d’s judgment as G’d is because for the moment he acts in lieu of G’d Himself. We have encountered the expression “I will go down,” or “we will descend,” both in Genesis 18,21 and Genesis 11,4 prior to such judgment being carried out. In each such instance the reference is to the agent of G’d carrying out the punishment.

It began as rain and turned into sulfur and fire. Rashi is answering the question: Why is it written, “Caused to rain”? It should say, “Hurled down.” Furthermore, “Caused to rain” contradicts [what follows], as sulfur is not rain. Thus Rashi explains: “It began as rain, and turned into...” (R. Meir Stern)

מן השמים FROM HEAVEN — The text (Job 36:31) refers to this: “For by them (the heavens; see the preceding verses) He judges the peoples etc.” When God is about to punish mankind He brings upon them fire from heaven, just as He did to Sodom (cf. 5:32 of the same chapter); and when he caused the Manna to fall it was also from heaven (cf. the second half of 5:31) as it is said, (Exodus 16:4) “Behold I will rain bread from heaven for you” (Midrash Tanchuma, Vayera 10).