Today, 27 april 2024

Question about the ten righteous men arises each time, when we read the story of the visit of the angels to Abraham. In fact: why particularly ten? Only one righteous man does not deserve salvation, quite as ten? And if there is only one righteous man in a city, why such a city does not deserve indulgence, as well as that, in which remained ten? One can think that ten is a magic number...

Question about the ten righteous men arises each time, when we read the story of the visit of the angels to Abraham. In fact: why particularly ten? Only one righteous man does not deserve salvation, quite as ten? And if there is only one righteous man in a city, why such a city does not deserve indulgence, as well as that, in which remained ten? One can think that ten is a magic number, below which the number of righteous men in the city doesn’t have to descend, otherwise the city is condemned! In reality the problem is not of course in magic.

The problem is that, according to the Jewish tradition, the community of believers should be composed of a minimum of ten persons, only then it could be considered as spiritually and religiously held. Ten persons can do a prayer meeting, which will be considered complete by the synagogue. Of course, these customs were not formed in the time of Abraham, but much later, when the Pentateuch was written.

But the idea of the Holy Scripture is rather transparent: in order that a city doesn’t perish because of the sins of its inhabitants, there should be community of believers, walking on the way of righteousness. If there isn’t, the city is condemned. If in such a condemned city, is found even only one righteous man, they shall bring him out of that perishing city, as was the case with Lot. But only community of believers, as seen, gives a sense to the existence of the city, the nation, the country.