A vort from the Rebbe on this week's parshah, Parshas Vayeira. It talks about the destruction of the four cities, Sedom vaAmorah, Admah uTzevoyim. And the lashon of the pasuk is, וה׳ המטיר על סדום ועל עמורה גפרית ואש מאת ה׳ מן השמים, and Hashem made rain on Sedom vaAmorah, sulfur and fire from Hashem, מן השמים, from heaven, ויהפוך את הערים האל, and he turned over these cities. And Rashi says, ארבעתן יושבות בסלע אחד, all four cities were on one big stone, והפכן מלמעלה למטה, and Hashem turned it around upside down. So from Rashi, we see clearly that all four cities were turned around. So when the pasuk says ויהפוך את הערים האל, he turned around these cities, it goes on all four. But concerning the fire, the pasuk only says it on Sedom vaAmorah. So obviously, only Sedom vaAmorah got both: burnt and also turned around, and the other two cities only got turned around. What is the difference?

So the Rebbe says the difference we can understand from the previous parshah, Parshas Lech Lecha, when it tells us the names of the four kings of these four cities, this is what the pasuk says: ברע מלך סדום, ברע was the king of סדום, ברשע, the king of עמורה, שנאב, the king of אדמה, and שמאבר, the king of צבוים. And Rashi explains the meaning of these names, that they represent the evil of these people. And this is what Rashi says: the king of Sedom was called Bera. Bera is really made up of two parts: ב׳ רע, two types of evil, which means רע לשמים ורע לבריות, he's bad to Hashem, did things against Hashem, and bad to the human beings, to people. That means he was bad bein adam laMakom and bein adam lechavero. Between man and Hashem and between man and people. That's Sedom. Baresha, Rashi says means שנתעלה ברשע, that he became even more rasha. That means that whatever the king of Sedom was, he was even more. Since the king of Sedom we said was two types of רשעות, בין אדם למקום and בין אדם לחבירו, between man and God and man and man, so the second one, which is Amorah, the king of Amorah, which is even more, had certainly these two. Especially when it says Beresha, you could also taytsh ב׳ רשע, two, between man and man and man and Hashem. Shinav, he says, which Shinav we say was the melech of Admah, Rashi says means שונא אביו שבשמים. The word means he hates our father in his father in heaven, means he hated Hashem. And Shem'eiver means that he did something to be able to fly in the air, ולמרוד בהקדוש ברוך הוא, to go fly in the air and go revolt against Hashem.

So we see that the difference between the first two, Sedom va'Amorah, and Admah veTzvoyim, the first two were not only against Hashem, they did bad things against Hashem, they also did against people, while by Admah veTzvoyim, they only did things against Hashem. Now this is concerning the names of the kings, but obviously if these are the names of the kings, this is probably how the people in those cities were, because the king was their king and they probably all followed. So probably the sins of Sedom va'Amorah is a double sin: בין אדם למקום, בין אדם לחבירו. They did things against Hashem and they did things against people, while Admah veTzvoyim, the other two, they only did things against Hashem and not against people. So the Rebbe says that is the reason why concerning Sedom va'Amorah it also got burnt, and by Admah veTzvoyim, it only got turned around. Because Admah veTzvoyim that their main sin was בין אדם למקום, between man and Hashem, so they got punished, they got turned around, but the earth itself did not get destroyed. Nothing happened to the earth. It's to the people there, the things that the people did there, got destroyed, but the earth itself didn't get destroyed. But Sedom va'Amorah that also sinned between man and man, so that means they did things which is against the קיום העולם, against the existence of the civilization of the world. So they did things to destroy the earth. They destroyed the world, and that's worse. And therefore, by these people, not only did the people get destroyed and the city turned turned over, but there was also fire, and what fire burned, destroyed pashut the physical earth. And that is because they also did things to destroy the earth. If you go against Hashem, you're not destroying the world, you're just not doing Hashem's will, and Hashem automatically you're doing wrong and you're going to get punished, etc. But here they did things to destroy the earth, so their place, the earth that they were on, also got destroyed, and that came through the fire.

We see actually how terrible it is to do things בין אדם לחבירו, sometimes even worse than בין אדם למקום. We see the Dor HaMabul and the Dor HaFlagah. We learned in Parshas Bereishis, in Parshas Noach, I mean, we learned about the Mabul. By the Mabul, all the people were destroyed. By the Dor HaFlagah, it says they were not destroyed, Hashem just mixed up the languages. And Rashi says why? 'Cause Dor Haflagah they did not fight against people. They were b'achdut. It says they were all together, they didn't fight against each other, they didn't harm each other. So therefore, over there Hashem did not destroy them. The Mabul, people stole and there was people that harmed each other. That's worse and that's why Hashem destroyed. So we see that doing things against bein adam lachavero is to a certain degree worse and has more. And that's why those cities that their behavior was not only against Hashem, but also against people, they were not only turned around, they were also burnt. While the other two cities, which mainly was bein adam laMakom, going against Hashem, so they got destroyed. They got turned around and they all died, etc., etc., but the earth itself didn't suffer so much. And the Rabbi brings other pesukim where we see the difference between Sedom and Amorah versus Admah and Tzevoyim. But the lesson that we take from here is we see how important it is to behave properly bein adam lachavero, between man and man. In other words, that to a certain degree has a certain a certain chumrah, worse than bein adam laMakom, between man and Hashem. As we see, as I said, by the Mabul versus the Dor Haflagah when they made the tower, and we see here also. And from here we take the lesson how we have to strengthen our shalom and achdut and our behavior between man and man.