In this week’s parsha, G-d told Avraham that He intended to destroy all of the people in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their sins. Avraham, out of his love for fellow humans, did not want this to happen.
After arguing about this for some time, G-d conceded that He would spare the cities if 50 righteous people lived there. After searches for the 50 tzadikim resulted in failure, the required amount of righteous people dwindled to only ten.
Avraham knew that he had to try to save the righteous people of Sodom and Gomorrah. He was not sure how many tzadikim needed to live there in order for G-d to spare the cities. He decided to start off with a large amount and slowly decrease so G-d would eventually agree with the idea.
What we can take from this, is that you shouldn’t set such large goals for yourself, but set up smaller goals to achieve the main goal. It is very common that people tend to focus on goals that seem almost impossible to achieve. That is only because they don’t break down the steps and try to work on smaller obstacles and work their way up. Also, you are less likely to give up when you take small steps to reach your goal rather than going with an “all or nothing” mentality. Just like how Avraham made subtle changes for the required amount of righteous people in Sodom, we should also take several smaller steps to reach our goals throughout life.
By: Sherri Shahar (11th)