Our Gemara on Amud Aleph tells us that in the merit that Avraham refused to personally take from the King of Sodom any of the spoils of war, his children received the thread of techeles in tzitzis and the straps on the tefilin.

The simple correspondence is Avraham stated, “I will not take a thread nor a shoe strap nor anything that is yours so that you shall not say, ‘It is I who made Avraham rich’” (Bereishis 14:23), so the thread corresponds to the techeles and the shoestrap to the tefilin straps.

Why did Avraham refuse to take these spoils? The simple reading of the verse indicates that Avraham did not want to take anything from Sodom so all would know that God alone made Avraham wealthy and successful. Rashi on our Gemara says he did not want to have any gain from stolen goods. I presume the spoils of war are not stolen goods but part of the conventions of war, so rather, since the people of Sodom were generally thieves, Avraham did not want to mingle with any of that money. But why didn’t Rashi offer the simple explanation?

I believe it’s because we see Avraham later took money from Avimelech (ibid 20:14), so obviously taking money alone is not a concern. Though we could answer that the money from Avimelech was different, because it was compensation for having taken Sarah, and kept with the simple reading, nevertheless Rashi might object, as it still will give the appearance that Avraham is becoming wealthy from some source other than God. Therefore Rashi rejected that rationale. Instead, Rashi maintains that Avraham’s rationale was to abstain from any possible stolen goods.

If so, why did Avraham not say that reason straight to the King of Sodom? It could have done him some good to rebuke him about his toxic ways! I believe the answer is that Avraham could not have said that to the King of Sodom because Avraham also asked him to pay the soldiers (ibid 14:24). Why was the “stolen money” good enough for the soldiers but not for Avraham? This further proves my earlier point, the stolen goods were not the booty from the war. That is part of the normal conventions of war. It’s more like a chumrah that Avraham took upon himself to have nothing to do with anything from Sodom, because possibly there could be a percentage of stolen goods mixed in. But he was not stringent with his soldiers and made sure that they got paid.

Now we can understand why he could not say to the king of Sodom, “I don’t want your stolen goods,” because it would look hypocritical; and in fact, they weren’t really stolen in totality.