By Harvey Sanders

As I write this piece, I am enjoying the last few days of a vacation, getting ready for a federal court trial where my job will be to speak up for my client.  The judge and jury who will decide my client’s case are constantly on my mind.  As I write this piece, Election Day has not yet happened.  So I do not yet know who won or lost.  But I already used my voice by voting absentee before I left and the election is on my mind.  This week’s scriptural reading is Vayerah and there is a scene that has been on my mind whether I am thinking about politics or the courtroom.

Let’s set the stage.  God has just told Abraham he is considering destroying the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their sins.  Abraham asks if God is willing to sweep away the innocent with the guilty and he negotiates to try to save the cities.  He asks if God would forgive the cities if there are 50 innocent people and God agrees.  He continues the negotiation with 45, 40, 30, 20 and finally 10 people.  Each time, God agrees to spare the cities if such a number is found.  In the end, ten were not found and the cities were destroyed.  But I want to focus on the interaction between Abraham and God.

Why was Abraham motivated to speak to God here?  He did not live in Sodom or Gomorrah. How did Abraham gather the nerve to speak to God?  It takes a lot of chutzpah to speak truth to power.  Rabbi Anita Silvert, in a piece she wrote in 2012, observes that it is hard to speak truth to power, harder to question whether the power truly resides in the person to whom you are speaking and even harder to speak to those who assume they have the power, and to expose them when they act immorally.

So what does Abraham do?  First, the text notes he “came forward.”  The 11^th Century French rabbi and commentator, Rashi, translates this as “to come near” and notes this verb can be used in the context of waging war, to come near to persuade or to come near to pray.  Rashi argues Abraham drew near in all of these methods.  You have to be engaged on multiple levels to accomplish your goals.  Maimonides, in the 12^th Century, notes the repeated use by Abraham of the term “it would be proper and good” for God to spare the cities and he views this as a way appeal to God’s attributes of Justice and Mercy.  You need to engage the party with power by appealing to things they value as reasons to do what is right.  Abraham repeatedly uses the term “far be it from You” to destroy the cities.  The 18^th Century commentator Or HaChaim sees Abraham appealing to God’s sense of self-image and appealing to God to do what is right because that is what God wants to do.  Enabling the person in power to come to the conclusion they want to do the right thing is far easier than convincing them that they are wrong to want to do the wrong thing.  Finally, I note Abraham is somewhat self-deprecating – calling himself “but dust and ashes,” and repeatedly asking God not to be angry for his even speaking.  Humor helps.

“Speaking truth to power” is a phrase that goes back to ancient Greece, and has been a tactic adopted by civil rights movements throughout history.  Modern experts echo many of these same themes the rabbis saw in Abraham: emphasizing agreement, engaging in active listening, focusing on the issues rather than the person, offering solutions and being assertive but respectful.  George Orwell is quoted as saying “in a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”  I encourage you to take up Orwell’s charge and to not just speak truth, but to speak truth to power and to take some cues from Abraham to be more effective when trying to do so.

Harvey Sanders is a partner at Sanders & Sanders, a law firm specializing in labor and employment law.  He is a Past President of Temple Beth Tzedek and he leads the Federation’s Community Relations efforts.  He previously served on the Federation’s Board of Governors.