Words From Rabbi White

--Do you really believe that fire and salt suddenly came down from the heavens and destroyed a city and the surrounding beautiful agricultural area?

-- Well, yes, and let me explain. An exploding meteor, when reaching the thick part of the atmosphere, will create a powerful explosion known as an airburst. Back in 1908, in a very sparsely inhabited area of eastern Siberia known as Tunguska, there was such an explosion: 80 million trees, in an area more than 2000 sq kilometres, were destroyed.

For many years, archaeologists have been studying an area near the Dead Sea.  In an article published this past September in the prestigious scholarly journal, Nature, many scholars collaborated in their conclusion that the site known as Tall Hammam, near the Dead Sea, was destroyed by such an airburst. They claim that the details in Genesis of the destruction of Sodom and environs reasonably match the known details of a cosmic impact event.   The scholars have dated this destruction to have occurred around 3600: which happens to be around the time of Sodom’s destruction.

Usually, when archaeologists come upon destroyed objects, they attribute the destruction to warfare.  Yet in this case, the scholars felt that the destruction had been caused by exceptionally unbearable temperatures.

Although the archeologists are not ready to identify this site as ancient Sodom, it does seem to make considerable sense.

So, now we can understand why Lot’s daughters thought they were the only ones left in the world.  There was such a terrible destruction around them, they could not imagine how anyone else could be alive.

And what was the greatness of Abraham, as opposed to the inhabitants of Sodom?

The Torah tells us that Abraham would transmit to his children the values of righteousness and honesty:  tsedaqa u-mishpat.

Shabbat shalom