Biblical Parallels Index – Bereshit 44/0

Biblical Parallels Index – Bereshit 44

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Pleading before a Higher Power

Tools

• Concordance – A concordance search reveals that the phrase "ויגש...ויאמר" is somewhat rare in Torah. It appears in the stories of Avraham pleading before Hashem on behalf of Sedom, and Yehuda pleading on behalf of Binyamin¹ and only in one other story.² Comparing the two stories raises questions as to how one should approach a superior power to plead one's cause. What should be the balance between submissiveness and audacity? Interestingly, too, in both these stories commentators debate whether the plea is for mercy or for justice.

Articles

• See Yehuda's Oration and Avraham's Prayer for Sedom for individual analysis of each story, with each topic questioning whether the protagonist is pleading for mercy or for justice, and in the former, whether he is approaching from a place of submissiveness or audacity.

¹ See Daa't Mikra on Bereshit 44:18 who notes this.

² See Bemidbar 32:16, where Reuven and Gad request to live on the other side of the Jordan.