The Amen Effect chapter 3: SEE NO STRANGER

And God created adam in God's own image, in the image of God, God created adam; male and female God created them.

...R' Yehoshua ben Levi said: A procession of angels walks before a person wherever they go. And what are they saying? They're crying out: "Make way, for an image of the Holy One is approaching!"

How does the court exhort witnesses testifying in capital cases? They would bring the witnesses in and exhort them, saying: Perhaps what you say in your testimony is based on conjecture, or perhaps it is based on a rumor, perhaps it is testimony based on hearsay, or perhaps it is based on the statement of a trusted person. Maybe you don't realize that we examine you with inquiry and interrogation, and if you are lying, your lie will be discovered. You should know that cases of capital law are not like cases of monetary law. In cases of monetary law, a person who testifies falsely, causing money to be given to the wrong party, can give the money to the proper owner and his sin is atoned for. In cases of capital law, if one testifies falsely, the blood of the accused and the blood of his offspring that he did not merit to produce are ascribed to the witness’s testimony until eternity...

The court tells the witnesses: Therefore, adam, the first person, was created singly, to teach you that anyone who destroys one soul, the verse ascribes him blame as if he destroyed an entire world, as Adam was one person, from whom the population of an entire world came forth. And conversely, anyone who sustains one soul, the verse ascribes him credit as if he sustained an entire world. Secondly, the first person was created alone due to the importance of maintaining peace among people, so that one person will not say to another: My ancestor is greater than your ancestor. And it was also so that those who believe in multiple gods will not say: There are many authorities in Heaven, and each created a different person. And finally, this speaks to the greatness of the Holy Blessed One, because when a person stamps several coins with one seal, they are all identical. But the supreme Ruler of rulers, the Holy Blessed One stamped all people with the seal of Adam the first person, and not one of them is alike any other. Therefore, since all humanity descends from one person, each and every person is obligated to say: The world was created for me.

The court says to the witnesses: Now perhaps you will say: Why would we want this trouble? Perhaps it would be better not to testify at all. But be aware, as is it not already stated: “And he being a witness, whether he has seen or known, if he does not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity” (Leviticus 5:1)? It is a transgression not to testify when one can do so.

(17) Now God had said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, (18) since Abraham is to become a great and populous nation and all the nations of the earth are to bless themselves by him? (19) For I have singled him out, that he may instruct his children and his posterity to keep the way of God by doing what is just and right, in order that God may bring about for Abraham what has been promised him.” (20) Then God said, “The outrage of Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and their sin so grave! (21) I will go down to see whether they have acted altogether according to the outcry that has reached Me; if not, I will take note.”

The people of Sodom said: We live in a land which grows bread and has dust of gold - why do we need visitors, who only come to deplete what belongs to us? Let us allow the doctrine of welcoming to become obsolete here!...

[Sanhedrin 109b] ...

When someone was laying bricks, people would come one at a time and each take away a brick, telling the person: "I'm only taking one!" And when someone was putting out onions to dry, people would come one at a time and each take one away, telling the person, "I'm only taking one!"

...And they made a law that anyone who crossed the river on the ferry paid four dinars, but anyone who crossed by walking through the water should pay double. One day a launderer came to Sodom, and the people told him, "Pay four dinars for the ferry." He said, "But I crossed through the water!" "In that case," they said, "pay eight." He refused to pay, and they hit him and wounded him. He came before a judge to seek compensation. The judge ruled: "Pay the man who hit you a fee since he acted as your bloodletter - and you owe eight dinars for crossing through the water."

The people of Sodom had beds on which they would lay their guests. If the guest was longer than the bed they would cut them to fit, and if the guest was shorter, they would stretch them. Eliezer, Abraham's servant, turned up there once. They said to him, "Come and lie on the bed." He replied, "I took a vow that since the day my mother died I will not lie on a bed!"

A young woman used to take bread out to poor people in a pitcher [so the bread would not be seen]. But this came to light. The people of Sodom smeared her with honey and put her on the wall of the city, and hornets came and consumed her - this is the meaning of the verse, "And the Lord said, 'Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great [rabba - Genesis 18:20].'" Rav Yehudah teaches that Rav says rabba is an allusion to that young woman [ribbah - it was the offence done to her that sealed the fate of Sodom].

(8) Rabbi Yehudah said: They made a proclamation in Sodom (saying): Everyone who strengthens the hand of the poor or the needy with a loaf of bread shall be burnt by fire. Plotit, daughter of Lot, was married to one of the wealthy men of Sodom. She saw a certain very poor man in the street of the city, and her soul was grieved on his account, as it is said, "Was not my soul grieved for the needy?" (Job 30:25).What did she do? Every day when she went out to draw water she put in her bucket all sorts of provisions from her home, and she fed that poor man.

The men of Sodom said: How does this poor man live? When they ascertained the facts, they brought her forth to be burnt with fire.

She cried out: Ruler of all worlds! Do what is right and lawful, [protect me] from the men of Sodom. And her cry ascended before the Throne of Glory. In that very same hour the Holy Blessed One said: "I will now descend, and I will see" (Gen. 28:21) whether the men of Sodom have done according to the cry of this young woman. [if so,] I will overturn the city's foundations, and its surfaces upside down, as it is said, "I will now descend, and I will see whether they have done altogether according to her cry, which is come unto me". "According to their cry" is not written here (in the text), only "According to her cry."