Torah Study Blog

This week’s Torah portion includes the tale of the destruction of the evil city of Sodom. We are never told exactly what the sins are, but the city of Sodom, and her sister city, Gomorrah, are referenced multiple times in our sacred texts as examples of wickedness and depravity.

In Genesis 18, God tells Abraham that, “The outrage of Sodom and Gomorra is so great and their sin so grave!” God has decided to send two angels to inspect Sodom and to report if the atrocities that have reached God’s ears are correct; If the report is true, God will destroy the cities. The two angels, who have taken the form of traveling men, arrive at entrance to Sodom and plan to go into the town. Abraham’s nephew, Lot, sees the men at the entrance and presses them to avail themselves of his own
hospitality, instead of going into town. Lot provides food and accommodation to the traveling men. But, that very night, all the men of Sodom, young and old:

... gathered about the house. And they shouted to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may be intimate with them.” [Lot countered] “I beg you, my friends, do not commit such a wrong. Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you please; but do not do anything to these men, since they have come under the shelter of my roof.” (Genesis 19:4-8)

The angel/men protect Lot by creating a blinding light so that the mobs could not follow as they lead Lot, Lot’s wife, and his two unmarried daughters out of Sodom, warning them not to look back at the destruction. Then:

... the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah sulfurous fire from the Lord out of heaven. He annihilated those cities and the entire Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation of the ground. Lot’s wife looked back, and she thereupon turned into a pillar of salt.” (Genesis 19:24-26)

There is no question that the demand to be “intimate” with the men meant sexual assault. It would be reasonable to conclude that the “wickedness” could be defined by the fact that all the men of the town wanted to gang rape these two travelers. As an interesting tidbit of modern language, the words sodomy and sodomite trace their word origin to this biblical story.

But, before we jump to this reasonable conclusion, Rabbi Jaech had us analyze an earlier passage in the Torah portion.

At the beginning of the portion (Genesis 18), Abraham was sitting by his tent when he saw three men. He ran to welcome the men, bowing low before them and offering food, drink, the ability to wash their feet, and a shady place to rest. Abraham and Sarah prepared a lovely meal for the men, and Abraham waited on them as they ate. Abraham was the model of hospitality.

In a similar fashion, when the angels had arrived at Sodom, Lot rose to greet them, offered them accommodation and a place to wash their feet, and then Lot prepared a fest for the men.

Abraham and Lot understood the unspoken rules of hospitality, and they modeled the ideal behavior. This concept was not limited to our ancestors. Mesopotamian texts instruct that people who greet a traveler are automatically under the oath to provide for the needs of the travelers. In Psalms 23, the writer envisions that he is “walking through a valley of deepest darkness” and the Lord will “spread a table for me in full view of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my drink is abundant.” (The oil would have been used for cleaning the body.) Even today in Bedouin communities, if a Bedouin is the first to offer a greeting to a traveler, that Bedouin becomes obligated to offer the traveler hospitality.

In ancient times, the ability to travel safely in order to trade goods was essential to the economic survival of the community. A safe community was a sign of the vitality of that community, and a community where tradesmen would be willing to travel and increase commerce.

So, was the “wickedness” of Sodom because of the desired gang rape of the men? Since Lot offered his virgin daughters to the group, but the group turned him down, clearly the demands of the men of Sodom was not to fill a sexual need. The men of Sodom wanted to humiliate the traveling men, by

showing domination and hostility to the strangers in their midst. Rabbi Jaech offered that the “wickedness” was the violation of Sodom to meet the requirement of hospitality.

Some members of our Torah Study group questioned this conclusion. Rabbi Jaech pointed out a passage in Isaiah 1, where, after the destruction of the northern kingdom, the prophet compares the people to being like the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. He implores the people to “Cease to do evil; learn to do good; devote yourselves to justice; aid the wronged; uphold the rights of the orphan; defend the cause of the widow.” Isaiah does not explicitly mention not raping foreigners.

And in Jeremiah 23, the prophet compares those guilty of adultery and false dealing with being like the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah.

And in Ezekiel 16, the prophet compares those guilty of arrogance and failure to support the poor and needy as being like the inhabitants of Sodom.

The medieval commentator Rashi pointed to the part of the story where Lot’s wife is turned into a pillar of salt. Rashi’s midrash said that Lot’s wife, who was a native of Sodom, objected to the hospitality that Lot wanted to bestow on the travelers. She mocked Lot when he asked her to give the travels a bit of salt – something that had a lot of value at that time. According to Rashi, it was because of this that God turned her into a pillar of salt.

The medieval commentator Nachmanides told a midrash that the people of Sodom wanted to be forgotten by wayfarers because they believed their region was “like a garden of the Lord” and they did not want to be overwhelmed by visitors. They considered generosity despicable.

Rabbi Jaech considered the commentary on this passage and wondered what our world would be like if we were more open to strangers.

You can find our podcast on iTunes, Spotify or Amazon.com under “TINW Torah Study” or “Jennifer Jaech.” Subscribe and rate us!

misquotes or misunderstandings in what Rabbi Jaech taught us are the responsibility of Tara Keiter