The Tora offers a subtle rationale for the respective fates of Sodom and Egypt.
In R. Amnon Bazak’s fourth essay for Parashat VaYeira, “Matar HaShamayim U’Matar Gofrit VaEish” (Nekudat Peticha: Iyunim Ketzarim BePeshuta Shel Parashat HaShavua, [revised and expanded], Yediot Acharonot, Rishon LeTziyon, 2018, pp. 47-8), he notes that the punishment that the inhabitants of Sodom receive in the form of sulfur and fire raining down upon them from heaven was appropriate, since they were determined to detach themselves, according to the Rabbis, from dependency upon HaShem. R. Bazak explains his thinking as follows:
a) When Lot chose to relocate to Sodom, the Tora supplies a rationale for what he “saw,” influencing his choice:
Beraishit 13:10
And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well- watered everywhere, before the LORD Destroyed Sodom and Amorra, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou goest unto Tzo’ar.
b) The comparison between the lands of Canaan and Egypt is articulated later in the Tora:
Devarim 11:10-2
10 For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou didst sow thy seed, and didst water it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs; 11 But the land, whither ye go over to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water as the rain of heaven cometh down; 12 A land which the LORD thy God Careth for; the Eyes of the LORD thy God Are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.
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