meta: {"file": "/data/tomer/Sefaria-Export/txt_done/Modern Works/A New Israeli Commentary on Pirkei Avot/English/merged.txt"}
text: A New Israeli Commentary on Pirkei Avot
  פירוש ישראלי חדש על פרקי אבות
  merged
  
  This file contains merged sections from the following text versions:
  -Sefaria Community Translation
  -
  
  A New Israeli Commentary on Pirkei Avot
  
  Introduction
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Mishnah 1
  
  
  
  Mishnah 2
  
  
  
  Mishnah 3
  
  
  
  Mishnah 4
  
  
  
  Mishnah 5
  
  
  
  Mishnah 6
  
  
  
  Mishnah 7
  
  
  
  Mishnah 8
  
  
  
  Mishnah 9
  
  
  
  Mishnah 10
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The Torah states explicitly that the people of the town were “very wicked sinners against God.” In our our classic texts there are many stories that describe their evil hearts. Among other things, we hear about the sins of pride, arrogance, exploitation of the weak, and gratuitous cruelty. The Tosefta Sanhedrin (13:8) states that the people of Sodom do not have a share in the world-to-come. They were wicked to each other, and sinned in engaging in forbidden relations against God, in extremely pagan worship and murder. There is also a story told about the “Sodom bed” where overnight guests to the town were to sleep. They would stretch out people that were two short and cut off the legs of people that were too tall (BT Sanhedrin 109b.)  They acted this way to appear to be impartial to all people; in actuality, this was gratuitous cruelty.