Comentário sobre Gênesis 18:31

הואלתי means I am willing to speak, just as (Exodus 2:21) “And Moses was pleased (ויואל) [to dwell with the man]”.

לא אשחית בעבור העשרים...בעבור העשרה. By destroying 3 out of the five cities the other two will not escape the retribution completely, seeing that the satellite towns are by definition largely dependent on the major urban center. Its destruction will cast its shadow on the satellite towns, as we know from Berachot 58, i.e. נתקללה בבל נתקללה בנותיה, when Babylon is cursed so are its satellite towns. (according to Rashi there: אוי לרשע אוי לשכניו, when the wicked experiences woes, so do his neighbours.”)

ויאמר הנה נא הואלתי לדבר. He said: "Here I have already dared to speak." Abraham pleads here that G'd's merit should protect twenty of the thirty righteous men whereas his own merit should suffice to protect the people in a third location by complementing the quorum of ten. Seeing that Abraham did not introduce a new element this time, he did not worry about G'd becoming angry at his being presumptuous. The emphasis on אל ה was to underline that he did not try to expand what he considered his own merit. [I believe that in order to understand the author one must assume that the twenty mentioned in the verse do not need additional protection. All that Abraham worried about was the three towns which did not have ten good people each to protect them. Ed.]

ויאמר, we already explained this type of response.

“I was willing,” as in: “And Moshe was willing.” We need not ask: Why did Rashi not explain this on the first הואלתי (v. 27)? The answer is: It would contradict his commentary on הואיל משה (Devarim 1:5), where Rashi says: “He began, just as, ‘Here I have begun (הואלתי)’ (Bereishis 18:27).” We see that הואלתי means, “I have begun.” Thus the first הואלתי means “I have begun,” as Rashi explained there, while only the second הואלתי means “I was willing.”