“And the Lord came down to see” (Bereshìt, 6:5). The great Italian commentator Rabbì Ovadià Sforno, comments on this verse by saying that the expression “going down to see” is applied by God when the thing spoken of is not at that moment yet deserving of punishment. But it will be eventually due to the degradation of the thing itself. This is the case of the ben sorer hu – morè – stubborn and rebellious son (Devarim, 21, 18 – 21) about whom our Masters wrote in the Talmud (TB Sanedrìn 72a), “The Torah went down to the depths of his knowledge,” meaning that the Torah understood him to the very depths. And so it is also in the case of Sodom, where it is written (Bereshìt, 18, 21), “I want to go down and see.” For Rabbì Ovadià says that their wickedness was no greater than that of the other peoples, so much so that they were punished in this life, except for cruelty to the poor, but this eventually led to total degradation, as it is written: (Ez. 16, 49) “BEHOLD, THIS WAS THE INIQUITY OF SODOM…. WHO DID NOT STRETCH OUT HER HAND TO THE POOR AND DESTITUTE.”
Rav David E. Sciunnach
