Sunday, January 22, 2012

The People of Sedom

As you all know, I have serious doubts about the people of Sedom. According to the Peshat of the Passuk and Rashi, the people of Sedom gathered around Lot's house and demanded that Lot send out the two men/angels so that "they could know them", also known as raping them. Lot's response to this was "Leave the men alone. I'll send out my daughters instead. You can do whatever you want with them." Doesn't this seem just a little bit off and overdrawn?

First of all, Lot went to extreme measures to try to keep the mob away from the men. When the men first met Lot at the gates of the city, Lot told them to take the most roundabout route possible to get to his house. The purpose for this was to keep any people from following them to Lot's who would then come and try to attack the men and Lot's family. Also, once the men arrived at Lot's house, he had them stay overnight and then wash their feet so that it seemed like they just arrived, not that they had been there for several days. According to Ramban, Lot made sure that the men spent the night at his house and did not leave the city at night in order to prevent the mob from getting to them. Because of his efforts to protect them and his merit, the angels accepted his offer and spent the night at Lot's house.

And here comes the mob... The mob, that lot had previously tried to protect the men/angels from, finally make their way to Lot's house. The entire group surrounded the house. (There was no opposition because no one in the city was righteous except for Lot.) They knocked on the door and requested most strongly that Lot send out his guests to be raped. Rashi says that the mob meant to rape them homo-sexually. Lot refused to send them out and offered to send his daughters out instead. What is wrong with this? Why would any parent offer their children up to be molested. Regardless, neither thing happened according to the Peshat of the Passuk. The mob got impatient and started trying to attack Lot. The angels pulled him to safety inside the house. The mob tried to find another entrance and were struck with blindness. This gave Lot and his family the perfect window to escape the city.

The question is: what really happened? Did the mob really do what the Passuk said they did, or did they do something less extreme and the Hebrew was interpreted incorrectly?

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