EXTRA · Parashas Vayeira · Passuk 18:28
Supplementary classical material; Torah Temimah lists no citation under this passuk.
“Perhaps the fifty righteous will lack five; will You destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And He said, “I will not destroy if I find there forty-five.”
Rashi on Bereishis 18:28, citing Bereishis Rabbah 49:9.
Sefaria — Rashi on Bereishis 18:28
English: “Will You destroy on account of the five?” Are there not still nine for each city, with You, Righteous One of the universe, joining them to make up the original number of ten?
Derash on the verse (Rashi / Midrash) — not a formal named middah of the 13. The descending numbers are treated as a deliberate bargaining strategy that relies on zechus Avos.
The final reduction in Avraham’s plea is not a new arithmetic scheme of ancestral merit here; Rashi’s reading keeps the ten-righteous threshold intact by including Hashem with the remaining nine.