In this week’s Parsha, Avraham Avinu davened for the people of Sodom, despite the fact that the Sodomites were polar opposites of him. Avraham Avinu was an ish chessed [the man of chessed]. The people of Sodom institutionalized “anti-chessed behavior.” Avraham Avinu was renowned for his hospitality and practice of welcoming guests. Many Medrashim describe how they abused guests in Sodom. We know the fate of Sodom.
But we learn out a practical halachah from the Torah’s narrative about Sodom. There is a principle called “kofin al midas Sadom” – there are certain situations where Beis Din has the ability to force a person to do a chessed if non-performance of such a kindness would fall into the category of “Sodomite attributes.” What is a classic example? “Zeh ne’heneh v’zeh lo chossar.” [This person benefits and the other person suffers no loss.] Someone who refuses to let another person use his item, even though it will not cost him anything, is practicing Sodomite behavior. Beis Din is allowed to step in and force the owner of the item to bestow the favor to his neighbor.
For example, if Reuven is driving somewhere and Shimon wants a ride in the same direction that Reuven is travelling, and it will cause no extra wear and tear or extra time or gas consumption on Reuven’s part, refusing to take Shimon would be midas Sodom.
The Rambam wrote an interesting letter to one of his talmidim on this subject. The Rambam wrote a sefer called Moreh Nevuchim. It was a controversial sefer, and certain people viewed some of its ideas as heretical and condemned its author. Incredibly, they called the Rambam an apikorus for what he wrote in the Moreh Nevuchim (and for some of what he wrote in other places as well).
A talmid of the Rambam took up his Rebbe’s honor and fought against these people. The Rambam wrote a letter to him and told him to leave these critics alone. He argued, “This is an example of kofin al midas Sodom.” He said “What they say does not hurt me. It does not cost me anything. They want to do it, and they get pleasure from doing it.” He said, “Let them go ahead, let them abuse me, let them call me a heretic. It makes no difference to me.”
This is an incredible application of kofin al midas Sodom. (R’ Frand)
