Saving Zoar: How Did Lot Succeed?

Dishi contrasts Abraham’s negotiation with God over Sodom with Lot’s more modest, self-interested plea to be spared along with the town of Zoar. Through close attention to the repeated word na (“please”/“now”) in both men’s speeches, he argues that Abraham’s demand for universal justice ultimately fails to save the cities, while Lot’s appeal to mercy alone succeeds — suggesting that sometimes it is the less righteous petitioner’s throw on compassion, not the righteous one’s case for justice, that secures salvation.