Some, or maybe a lot, about Lot

A while ago, () asked in the Elephant's blog about the Jewish use of text. This is a modest example of a Jewish approach to the biblical narrative using it to write another text. In traditional text, this activity is called midrash. For the moment, let's call this a rationalist sermon.

One of the things really inspires me about the Torah is the ability of the text to say so much using such few words. This week, following the reading cycle, I have gone several times over the story of Lot, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the subsequent incest of the daughters of Lot. The story, with its dramatically comical silences and almost comedia dellarte-like characters has, literally moved me to laugh maniacally in the House of Study (a detail that would not be appreaciated by the Sodomites and the Gomorrites although that is not the funny part). Here is, in short, the background of the story: Lot, the nephew of Abraham, moves to the land of Canaan with him. When trouble arises between the employees of Abraham and the employees of Lot, Abraham gives Lot a choice: he can settle wherever he wants and Abraham will settle elsewhere. Lot moves to the Kikar -the area of the Dead Sea- which at the time was "a land of waters...like the Garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt" (Gen.13.10 - all translations unless specified otherwise are from the JPS traslation of the Tanakh). Lot choses the fertile valley of the Dead Sea even though "the people of Sodom were evil and sinners before the Lord" (Gen. 13.13). Soon after, he gets entangled in international politics when the kings of the city where he lives decide to stop paying tribute to the Eastern superpowers of the day. The kings, not happy with insurrection, invade the Kikar and kidnap all their inhabitants, among them. Lot. Abraham, then, has to gather a posse to rescue him. Even before the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, the personality of Lot emerges clearly: he is a good guy, not to bright, with a penchant for the urban and the superficial. He does not think much in advance or think of the consequences. Unlike the hopeful Abraham who, regardless of the challenges he faces, presents a constant and strong image of the successful patriarch. This, of course, is no coincidence. As with other brother figures in the Bible (Ishmael, Esav, the brothers of Joseph), Lot presents a mirror image of the hero to accentuate his/her virtues. Abraham's patience constrast with Lot's rashness, Abraham's seasoned faith contrasts with Lot's abuse of divine grace.

Hakikar Plain after the little incident with the fire and the brimstone

By the time the text focuses again on Lot, we already know that the city where he lives has been marked for destruction. Unless the angels sent by God can find the ten righteous men bargained by Abraham, Lot´s urban lifestyle is about to be utterly destroyed. Lot is sitting at the gate of the city of Sodom (not a very nice place to be after dark) and he sees the angels of God coming into the city. In the same way that Abraham does in the previous chapter (18), Lot tries to be hospitable. The angels decline but Lot wants things to go his way and annoys the angels until they the accept to go to his house (ויפצר בם מאד). However, when they get home, unlike Abraham who offers the angels meat, cheese and cakes, Lot has nothing to feed them but Matza (unleavened bread), which -as those of you who have endured Pesach know- is not precisely the greatest food in the universe. Good intentions are wonderful but without preparation (or intelligence) they lead to disappointment: a lesson often repeated (literally) in the flesh of Lot.
Disaster strikes! All the people of Sodom gather in front of the house and demand that Lot deliver the strangers. Lot, once again full of great intentions, comes out to deal with the problem, bravely (or irrationally) closing the door after himself. Suddenly, without a clue of how to deal with an angry mass, he tries to reason with them. "And Lot said, 'Oh brothers please do not do this evil thing!'" (Gen 19.7) When they do not react, he offers them the unbealievable: "I have two daughters who have not known man, take them and do to them whatever you want, just do not hurt these men..." (Gen 19.8) Lot's lack of foresight eventually makes him offer more than he was willing to do in the first place; a detail the text poignantly volunteers in the voice of the angry mob "Now we will do more evil unto you than unto them" (Gen 13.9) The text, then, in a turn of toungue in cheek literary genius turns the language of Lot against him: (ויפצרו באיש בלוט מאד) literally the same words used to describe Lot's nudging of the angels. A crude translation would be "and they pressed on the man on Lot a lot". Why suddenly mention Lot's humanity? Because, just in the way that Lot's insistence eventually convinces the angels to come to his house, the claims and the pleas to Lot's humanity (probably to Lot's fear), get him to leave the door. The text suddenly has the men of Sodom trying to break the door, and Lot -persuaded or ashamed?- is nowhere in front of the door. The text points a finger guiltily at Lot with its silence.
So far Lot is a comical character, a faulty mirror image of Abraham, the contrast against which the merits of the patriarch can be measured against. From this moment on, Lot becomes, in my opinion, a religious antihero. God, through the angels, saves Lot from the angry mob by a shower of sparks which blinds them. From this moment on, Lot will rely on immediate miracles to survive in his life. And, even more, he will start to put his own conditions to the divine. In modern speak, he becomes the "pious" man who prays that his life be improved by an immediate miracle (let's say win the lottery). Once this man has won the lottery, trusting his divine favor, he will keep on relying on immediate providential intervention to solve all the problems of his life. And in the end, like in Lot's case, God's patience will run out.
When the angels tell him that they are going to destroy the city and that he has to leave NOW, Lot hesitates and refuses to go (Gen 19.16). His hesitation is comically portrayed in the traditional cantillation of the Hebrew text with a note called shalshelet which consists of three successive scales up and down, which simulates the sound of someone doubting.

The angels have to DRAG him out of his house with all of family. (Gen 19.17) The angels then order him to flee to the mountains. Lot, already depending on the small miracles to achieve his immediate goals, has the audacity to demand the following from God: "Oh, no my Lord! Please, if you favor your servant, having already shown me so much kindness by saving my life- I cannot flee to the hills, lest disaster overtake me and I die. See, that town there is near enough to flee to; it is such a little place! Let me flee there- it is such a little place- and let my life be saved." (Gen 19.18-20) Lot's whiny insistence on the smallness of the place, on the smallness of the miracle he needs to get his way is almost comical. Especially in the face of the fact that God has told him explicitly that no harm will come to him in the mountains. Yet, Lot must have his little miracle in exactly the way he wants. And God, once more (probably rolling His eyes), accepts.
Nevertheless, once the skies open with fire and brimstone, Lot's luck runs out. His wife is turned into a pillar of salt. The small city to which he has fled is, somehow, unsuitable, and he flees to the mountains (where God told him to go in the first place). There, his daughters -as shortsighted and immediatist as their father- come to believe that the world has been destroyed and despair of ever getting married. Thus, they get silly, shortsighted, blighted Lot drunk not once but twice and have sex with him. From these incestuous unions Moab and Ben Ami, the ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites -traditional enemies of the Israelites arise-.

Hendrik Goltzius, Lot and his Daughters

Lot's message for today: a solid religiosity should not rest on miracles. Especially if these miracles are petty and immediate. The fact that we do not win the lottery every time we pray for it does not mean that God does not favor us. Nor does the fact of winning the lottery, present evidence to the contrary. Rabbi David Kimchi, a rationalist philosopher of the 13th century, said: "The pious man does not trust in miracles." Strong faith requires preparation, maturity and especially the ability to put things into perspective and not live, like Lot, from one moment to the other. Now, do not get me wrong, miracles do happen. Although they are, for the most part, an issue of perspective. The ability of witnessing the miraculous in every day causality is what distinguishes the Abrahams from the lot.
The Kirkergaardians out there may take issue with this but this is what blogs are for...