When G-d was destroying the cities of the plain, G-d remembered Avraham, and sent Lot away (Bereishis 19:29)
“G-d remembered Avraham, and sent Lot away” – What was remembered for Lot? That he kept quiet about Avraham. When Avraham said about his wife Sarah, “She is my sister,” Lot knew, and kept quiet. (Bereishis Rabbah 51:6)
Lot kept the secret that Sarah was really Avraham’s wife. On the one hand, Lot was a rasha, but on the other hand, since he knew how to keep a secret, he still had some connection to kedushah.
What is the special virtue in keeping a secret?
We are commanded to go in Hashem’s ways. The Rambam states:
This is what Chazal taught in explanation of this mitzvah: “Just as Hashem is called compassionate, so you should be compassionate. Just as Hashem is called merciful, so you should be merciful. Just as Hashem is called holy, so you should be holy.... A person is obligated to go in these ways and resemble Hashem to the best of his ability.”
If Hashem commanded us to go in His ways, this means we indeed can resemble Him, and act as He does, in a certain sense.
One of the special characteristics of Hashem is that He is the One and Only. Also Adam, when he was first created, was the only human being. Hashem said about this – “It is not good for Adam to be alone,” And Rashi explains why it’s not good:
So it won’t be said that there are two powers: Hakadosh Baruch Hu is alone in the upper worlds; He has no mate. And Adam is alone in the lower worlds; he has no mate.
So we see that man resembles his Creator the most when he is one and only.
Hashem was before the world, and will be after the world. He doesn’t need others and is not dependent on them. In utter contrast to this trait of singularity, there are some people whose whole lives revolve around others, around their social group.
It’s true that someone who is a member of the society of bnei Torah is himself a ben Torah, which is of course a very good thing, but merely being the member of a certain social grouping is not where the beauty of a human being lies. The beauty of being human comes out when one is alone. When a person is on his own, with just himself, he can find within him spiritual beauty, kedushah, the presence of the Shechinah. Being on one’s own signifies the ability to discover the inner point around which he builds his life.
This brings us back to keeping secrets. A person who lives with himself, who has an inner life, independent of the society around him, this is the kind of person who knows how to keep a secret.
