And this is the meaning of (Bereishis 18:20-21): “And Hashem said, “Since the cry [of the oppressed victims of the cruelty] of Sodom and Amorah has become great, and since their sin has become very grave; I will descend now and see, whether according to her [the tortured girl’s] cry which has come to Me, they have done; [then I will wreak] destruction [upon them]; and if not, I will know [how to punish them without destroying them].”
The first verse describes the general “cries” of people who were being oppressed in Sodom and Amorah, the second verse is referring to the specific cry of a girl, “her cry,” who was horrifically murdered by the people of Sodom, as mentioned in the commentary of Rashi.
Hashem told His “court” of angels that He will “personally go down” to check if the situation is as bad as it sounds. If it is, He will destroy the cities. If it is not quiet that bad, He will punish them without destroying them.
Meaning to say, that “I will see,” i.e., figure out, with my Sefirah of Chochma-Wisdom what to do if “the cry that comes up to Me” from below to Above with the aspect of Gevura, to bring up complaints and judgements against the people, then “I will now descend” with the aspect of Chesed that operates from Above to below to attempt to judge them kindly with perspective of Chesed, so as to balance out the report that comes up from below from a Gevura perspective and the report that results from Chesed that comes down to judge favorably, and He will “see” with His Chochma how to balance these two approaches.
The Mittler Rebbe and the Tzemach Tzedek (Maamarei Admur Hazakein 5566 vol. 1, page 45) explain the end of the maamar:
These two opposite approaches, of Chesed or Gevura, are not just approaches in terms of giving or withholding Hashem’s Light and Life-force, rather, they are also two approaches in how to look at and judge the creations. The approach of Chesed looks at the creations in the most benevolent manner, looking for any possible way to vindicate the creations. The approach of Gevurah is to look at the creations in the strictest possible manner, to look for any reason to condemn them to punishment. Because these two approaches are always “at war” with each other, as it, were, there needs to be a higher power to actually decide what to do, whether to follow Chesed or Gevura. This higher power is Chochma-Wisdom of Atzilus. It “comes down” to the level of Chesed and Gevura to decide between them what should actually happen.
How does it decide between the two opposing approaches? It considers whether the situation is truly so bad that there is no way to “appease” the approach of Gevura, since there is no logical way to vindicate these people for their heinous crimes.
However, if there is some logical way to vindicate them on some level, then it will make a “compromise” between Chesed and Gevura. This compromise is called “Tiferes” or Mercy, since it is neither unconditional kindness, nor absolute strict judgement, but rather, is willing to give people more than they actually deserve, as long as they have some merit of some sort.
However, since the approach of judgment in a manner of from Above to below is in a way of “Or Yashar-Direct Light” and Chesed, the verse says “I will now descend” first, and only afterwards says, “I will see” if the cry coming up to Me through Gevura is justified.
Seemingly, the Alter Rebbe is asking as follows: How did this story of Sedom start in the first place? Didn’t it start with the people of Sedom torturing certain people, which resulted in a complaint against them in Heaven, in Gevura of Atzilus? So, chronologically, the verse should have said “There is a cry and complaint that comes up to Me from the bad deeds of Sedom, it says to destroy them. But I will go down and see if there is a way to vindicate them.” So why does the verse first say “I will descend” to see them benevolently with Chesed, and only after it says “and I will see the cry that comes up to me” from Gevura, when the story happened in the opposite order, with a complaint of Gevura followed by a response from Chesed?
The answer: The verse is discussing the order of Hashem’s response to the complaint: First He wanted to judge Sedom according to Kindness, to see if He could find any merit for them at all. But what happened was that even the aspect of Chesed came to the exact same conclusion as Gevura, that the people had no merit to live at all. So, after He tried to judge them according to Chesed, He had to judge them according to Gevura, since even Chesed itself agreed to Gevura that they had no merit at all, and should be destroyed.
And this is the idea of the “one intermediate” order which is (Tiferes, which is known as) Mercy, the intermediate level between Chesed, which does not discriminate at all, even for those who are unworthy, and between Gevura, which judges strictly if one is worthy.
Mercy is the intermediate level; on one’s own merits he may be unworthy, but nevertheless, one must have mercy on him.
Tiferes/Mercy agrees with Chesed that the creations should receive more than they deserve, but it also agrees with Gevura that the creations should not receive without any conditions at all.
For example, if someone is not serving Hashem as best as he can, but rather in mediocre fashion, according to Gevura he should only receive a mediocre amount from Above, but Tiferes will say that he should receive more than he actually deserves. However, if someone is actively and knowingly rebelling against Hashem, then Tiferes will agree with Gevura that he should not receive from Above (even though Chesed will be inclined to give him anyways).
In the case of our story of Sodom: Hashem wanted to see if, by using the perpective of Chesed, He could find some merit in Sedom. If He could find even a slight merit, then there would be room for mercy to not destroy them, even though they really deserve it.
However, since even Chesed of Atzilus (embodied in Avraham Avinu) could not find any merit in Sedom, so Hashem had to judge them with Gevura and destroy them.
