My next door neighbors are quite secular. The grandfather (father of my neighbor) was "traditional" in a sense. The father is nothing, but still respects religion, and the children seem to have no connection.
The other day, my neighbor came up to me to inform me that his daughter is having a "bachelorette party" before her upcoming wedding, and it will be outside with lots of music, so it will be a bit loud for a while. He explained that they are doing "hafrashat challah" together (Don't all bachelorette parties do that?). So, I laughed and said, "Well, at least they're doing a mitzvah!" and he smiled and replied, "I'm not sure she knows that it's a mitzvah, but it's the "in" thing to do amongst this crowd."
So, a few hours later, the party gets started, and I'm sitting there working at my computer listening. It seems they brought in some "rabbanit" who had them all sitting in a big circle, and she basically held a brachos party. They all had certain types of food, and she went over each one, explained the bracha, why we make the brachah, added some additional spiritual things to eat, and they all made brachos out loud. And in between each bracha, they had Yishai Ribo (and friends) music blasting through loudspeakers.
And I kept thinking, "how fortunate it is to live amongst such people." On one hand, yes, they're living together before they're married, yet on the other hand, this is what they do before they get married. A contradiction? Perhaps. Or perhaps not.
We learn from the story of Sodom not only how Hashem's attribute of justice works, but also the power of a person who's righteous, but not completely righteous.
"Perhaps there are fifty tzaddikim …"
The Malbim writes, "Our Sages have made it clear that it is only between a man of evil (rasha) and one who is not fully a tzaddik that the the agent of destruction does not distinguish; it will, however, distinguish between a full tzaddik and a rasha — as when Aharon stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was halted."
He then brings in a Gemara (Tannis 21b) and writes that in Sura there was a pestilence, but in the neighborhood of Rav there was no pestilence—and everyone assumed that it was out of respect for Rav. Whereupon it was revealed to them in a dream that Rav’s merit was great; that it was due, rather, to a certain man who would lend a hoe and a pickaxe to the cemetery, In other words: in supposing that it was on account of Rav, they thought that he was not fully a tzaddik, and it was therefore necessary to spare the whole neighborhood in order to spare him; since he was an incomplete tzaddik, the agent of destruction would not have distinguished him from others. They were thereupon informed that ‘Rav’s merit was great’—there was no necessity to spare the whole neighborhood, as not even the agent of destruction would have touched him who was a full tzaddik. It was spared, rather, because of that man who would lend a hoe and a pickaxe. As he was not a full tzaddik and the agent of destruction would not have distinguished him from the others to spare him, it was necessary to spare the whole neighborhood.
Simply put, had there been no other "partial tzaddik" in Sura, Sura would have been destroyed and Rav would have been spared, because as a full tzaddik, the attribute of justice can distinguish him from the others. However, since there was a "partial tzaddik" in Sura, and the attribute of justice would NOT have been able to distinguish him from the rest of the city, the entire city was spared in order that the partial tzaddik should be spared.
We often hear or read stories of great tzaddikim and what powers that they have in this world, and in turn, lower our own self-worth, because we are not as great as they are. Yet, we see from here one of the "perks" of not being a complete tzaddik. Even as a partial tzaddik, we might have a "power" that a full tzaddik does not have. It could be that terrible things could be set to occur on a certain place, and because this partial tzaddik would also be swept away, Hashem might push off such a tragedy on an entire place, only in order to save that partial tzaddik.
Of course, we have no idea what is decreed and what is not decreed, and who is a partial tzaddik, who is a full tzaddik, and who is not a tzaddik at all. However, with this in mind, we can always take strength from the fact, that even those of us who are not full tzaddikim, if we strive hard enough to attain the "rank" of partial tzaddik, we might have powers to save thousands. So, while we might not make it to such a high level of others, we should never give up on achieving whatever level we can, since we have no idea what effect we might have on the world.
With that, I wish you all a wonderful Shabbos!