(יב) וַיֹּאמְר֨וּ הָאֲנָשִׁ֜ים אֶל־ל֗וֹט עֹ֚ד מִֽי־לְךָ֣ פֹ֔ה חָתָן֙ וּבָנֶ֣יךָ וּבְנֹתֶ֔יךָ וְכֹ֥ל אֲשֶׁר־לְךָ֖ בָּעִ֑יר הוֹצֵ֖א מִן־הַמָּקֽוֹם׃ (יג) כִּֽי־מַשְׁחִתִ֣ים אֲנַ֔חְנוּ אֶת־הַמָּק֖וֹם הַזֶּ֑ה כִּֽי־גָדְלָ֤ה צַעֲקָתָם֙ אֶת־פְּנֵ֣י יְהֹוָ֔ה וַיְשַׁלְּחֵ֥נוּ יְהֹוָ֖ה לְשַׁחֲתָֽהּ׃ (יד) וַיֵּצֵ֨א ל֜וֹט וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר ׀ אֶל־חֲתָנָ֣יו ׀ לֹקְחֵ֣י בְנֹתָ֗יו וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙ ק֤וּמוּ צְּאוּ֙ מִן־הַמָּק֣וֹם הַזֶּ֔ה כִּֽי־מַשְׁחִ֥ית יְהֹוָ֖ה אֶת־הָעִ֑יר וַיְהִ֥י כִמְצַחֵ֖ק בְּעֵינֵ֥י חֲתָנָֽיו׃ (טו) וּכְמוֹ֙ הַשַּׁ֣חַר עָלָ֔ה וַיָּאִ֥יצוּ הַמַּלְאָכִ֖ים בְּל֣וֹט לֵאמֹ֑ר קוּם֩ קַ֨ח אֶֽת־אִשְׁתְּךָ֜ וְאֶת־שְׁתֵּ֤י בְנֹתֶ֙יךָ֙ הַנִּמְצָאֹ֔ת פֶּן־תִּסָּפֶ֖ה בַּעֲוֺ֥ן הָעִֽיר׃ (טז) וַֽיִּתְמַהְמָ֓הּ ׀ וַיַּחֲזִ֨יקוּ הָאֲנָשִׁ֜ים בְּיָד֣וֹ וּבְיַד־אִשְׁתּ֗וֹ וּבְיַד֙ שְׁתֵּ֣י בְנֹתָ֔יו בְּחֶמְלַ֥ת יְהֹוָ֖ה עָלָ֑יו וַיֹּצִאֻ֥הוּ וַיַּנִּחֻ֖הוּ מִח֥וּץ לָעִֽיר׃ (יז) וַיְהִי֩ כְהוֹצִיאָ֨ם אֹתָ֜ם הַח֗וּצָה וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙ הִמָּלֵ֣ט עַל־נַפְשֶׁ֔ךָ אַל־תַּבִּ֣יט אַחֲרֶ֔יךָ וְאַֽל־תַּעֲמֹ֖ד בְּכׇל־הַכִּכָּ֑ר הָהָ֥רָה הִמָּלֵ֖ט פֶּן־תִּסָּפֶֽה׃
12. The men said to Lot:
Whom else have you here—a son-in-law, sons, daughters?
Bring anyone whom you have in the city out of the place!
13. For we are about to bring ruin on this place,
for how great is their outcry before YHWH!
And YHWH has sent us to bring it to ruin.
14. Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, those who had taken his daughters [in marriage], and said:
Up, out of this place, for YHWH is about to bring ruin on the city!
But in the eyes of his sons-in-law, he was like one jesting.
15. Now when the dawn came up,
the messengers pushed Lot on, saying:
Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here,
lest you be swept away in the iniquity of the city!
16. But he lingered,
so the men seized his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hand of his two daughters,
since YHWH’S pity was upon him,
and brought him out and left him outside the city.
17. It was, when they had brought him outside, that [one of them] said:
Escape for your life, do not gaze behind you, do not stand still anywhere in the plain:
to the highlands escape,
lest you be swept away!
(יח) וַיֹּ֥אמֶר ל֖וֹט אֲלֵהֶ֑ם אַל־נָ֖א אֲדֹנָֽי׃ (יט) הִנֵּה־נָ֠א מָצָ֨א עַבְדְּךָ֣ חֵן֮ בְּעֵינֶ֒יךָ֒ וַתַּגְדֵּ֣ל חַסְדְּךָ֗ אֲשֶׁ֤ר עָשִׂ֙יתָ֙ עִמָּדִ֔י לְהַחֲי֖וֹת אֶת־נַפְשִׁ֑י וְאָנֹכִ֗י לֹ֤א אוּכַל֙ לְהִמָּלֵ֣ט הָהָ֔רָה פֶּן־תִּדְבָּקַ֥נִי הָרָעָ֖ה וָמַֽתִּי׃ (כ) הִנֵּה־נָ֠א הָעִ֨יר הַזֹּ֧את קְרֹבָ֛ה לָנ֥וּס שָׁ֖מָּה וְהִ֣וא מִצְעָ֑ר אִמָּלְטָ֨ה נָּ֜א שָׁ֗מָּה הֲלֹ֥א מִצְעָ֛ר הִ֖וא וּתְחִ֥י נַפְשִֽׁי׃ (כא) וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֵלָ֔יו הִנֵּה֙ נָשָׂ֣אתִי פָנֶ֔יךָ גַּ֖ם לַדָּבָ֣ר הַזֶּ֑ה לְבִלְתִּ֛י הׇפְכִּ֥י אֶת־הָעִ֖יר אֲשֶׁ֥ר דִּבַּֽרְתָּ׃ (כב) מַהֵר֙ הִמָּלֵ֣ט שָׁ֔מָּה כִּ֣י לֹ֤א אוּכַל֙ לַעֲשׂ֣וֹת דָּבָ֔ר עַד־בֹּאֲךָ֖ שָׁ֑מָּה עַל־כֵּ֛ן קָרָ֥א שֵׁם־הָעִ֖יר צֽוֹעַר׃ (כג) הַשֶּׁ֖מֶשׁ יָצָ֣א עַל־הָאָ֑רֶץ וְל֖וֹט בָּ֥א צֹֽעֲרָה׃ (כד) וַֽיהֹוָ֗ה הִמְטִ֧יר עַל־סְדֹ֛ם וְעַל־עֲמֹרָ֖ה גׇּפְרִ֣ית וָאֵ֑שׁ מֵאֵ֥ת יְהֹוָ֖ה מִן־הַשָּׁמָֽיִם׃ (כה) וַֽיַּהֲפֹךְ֙ אֶת־הֶעָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֔ל וְאֵ֖ת כׇּל־הַכִּכָּ֑ר וְאֵת֙ כׇּל־יֹשְׁבֵ֣י הֶעָרִ֔ים וְצֶ֖מַח הָאֲדָמָֽה׃
18. Lot said to them:
No, pray, my lord!
19. Now pray, your servant has found favor in your eyes,
and you have shown great loyalty in how you have dealt with me, keeping me alive—
but I, I am not able to escape to the highlands,
lest the wickedness cling to me, and I die!
20. Now pray, that town is near enough to flee to, and it is so tiny;
pray let me escape there—is it not tiny?—and stay alive!
21. He said to him:
Here then, I lift up your face in this matter as well,
by not overturning this town of which you speak.
22. Make haste, escape there,
for I am not able to do anything until you come there.
Therefore the name of the town was called: Tzo’ar/Tiny.
23. The sun was going out over the earth as Lot came to Tzo’ar.
24. And YHWH rained down brimstone and fire upon Sedom and Amora, coming from YHWH, from the heavens;
25. he overturned those cities and all of the plain, all those settled in the cities and the vegetation of the ground.
(2) אל תבט אחריך LOOK NOT BEHIND YOU — You sinned with them but art saved through the merit of Abraham. It is not fitting that you should witness their doom whilst you yourself are escaping (Genesis Rabbah 50:11).
Author: Rashi
Composed: Middle-Age France, c.1075 - c.1105 CE
Commentary on the Tanakh written by Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi). Rashi lived in Troyes, France (1040-1105). Rashi’s commentary is an essential explanation of the Tanakh and resides in a place of honor on the page of almost all editions of the Tanakh. Over 300 supercommentaries have been written to further explain Rashi’s comments on the Torah. While quoting many midrashim and Talmudic passages, Rashi, in his commentary, states that his purpose is to present the pshat (contextual meaning) of the text.
Hevrutah questions:
1) Read source #6. Why do you think Lot's wife* turned back after being instructed not to?
2)Consider the commentaries in sources 7 and 9. Which (if any) resonates with you?
3) How might the concept of "turning back to see" relate to our own times?
4) If you have time, read commentaries in sources 10 and 12.
*note that Lot's wife is called by the Rabbis by two names-- Idit -- One-who-bore-witness, and Irit-- Of -the-city.
עירית אשתו של לוט נכמרו רחמה על בנותיה הנשואות והביטה לאחריה לראות אם הולכות אחריה אם לא (וראת אחרי) [וראתה אחריה] השכינה ונעשית נציב מלח, שנאמר ותבט אשתו מאחריו ותהי נציב מלח:
The compassion of Irit the wife of Lot was stirred for her daughters, who were married in Sodom, and she looked back behind her to see if they were coming after her or not. And she saw behind the Shekhinah, and she became a pillar of salt, as it is said, "And his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt" (Gen. 19:26).
Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer is a midrash that retells and expands upon the stories of the Torah, from the creation of the world through the story of Miriam’s leprosy. It incorporates discussion on topics like redemption, Messiah, and calculating the end of days. The work was likely edited in the eighth or ninth century.
The Open Door: The Tale of Idit and the Passover Paradox by Rabbi Sandy Sasso
(In the Women’s Passover Companion, ed. Anisfeld, Mohr, Spector)
So often before, Idit had followed Lot and had not turned back. This time was different. This time she turned back . . . Her heart swollen with compassion for her daughters, she looked back, out of mother love, to see if they were following. She lingered out of sympathy, out of lament for human life destroyed. She turned out of regret and anguish for life’s grandeur wasted . . .
Her turning was also a question, like Abraham’s to God. Is this the birthing of redemption or the world’s final kaddish? She turned and beheld the back of the Divine Presence and was consumed in tears. Were her tears for Sodom or for God?
No one saw with Idit’s eyes the wrath of God poured upon Sodom. Only her daughters bore witness to the reflection in their mother’s eyes. From the descendants of Idit’s daughters came Ruth, the great-grandmother of David; Naamah, the mother of Rehoboam; and from these kings, we are told the promise of the Messiah.
Tradition records the day of Idit’s death on the sixteenth of the month of Nisan . . . the time when, centuries later, Israel would be freed from Egyptian bondage.
When Idit confronts, in all its ugliness, that which brings death and destruction, she refuses to give her consent, to turn away, to follow the vision of another’s eye and the path of another’s foot. She becomes a witness. We have become accustomed to seeing the pillar of salt on a barren plain as an eternal symbol of punishment for disobedience. In light of Idit’s story, that pillar becomes a monument of tears – the tears of Idit, an eternal symbol of loving-kindness. Idit’s daughters saw her act of love and her defiance. They saw the way of Idit – the recovery of the soul with a raging kindness. From the descendants of the daughters of Idit comes the promise of the Messiah.
"But his wife looked back from behind him." We should have expected "from behind her." What this text really means is, "from behind the Sh'chinah" (the immanent Presence of God). Thus when "his wife looked back from behind him," she turned her face to the destroying angel, and, as a result, she became a pillar of salt. For as long as the destroying angel does not see the face of a person, he does not harm that individual; but as soon as Lot's wife turned her face to look at him, she became a pillar of salt. Zohar 108b
The Zohar (Splendor or Radiance) is the foundational work in the literature of Jewish mystical thought known as Kabbalah. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah (the five books of Moses) and scriptural interpretations as well as material on mysticism, mythical cosmogony, and mystical psychology. The Zohar contains discussions of the nature of God, the origin and structure of the universe, the nature of souls, redemption, the relationship of Ego to Darkness and "true self" to "The Light of God", and the relationship between the "universal energy" and man. Its scriptural exegesis can be considered an esoteric form of the rabbinic literature known as Midrash, which elaborates on the Torah. The Zohar is mostly written in what has been described as an exalted, eccentric style of Aramaic. The Zohar first appeared in Spain in the 13th century, and was published by a Jewish writer named Moses de Leon. De Leon ascribed the work to R. Shimon bar Yohai.
Irit looked back to see if her two firstborn daughters were following, and she saw that they weren’t and what had become of them.
In such a moment of grief one knows only one desire: to follow after one’s child, to experience what she’s experienced, to be one with her in every aspect of suffering. Only to be one with her.
And it was for this desire that Irit was turned into a pillar of salt. She was turned into salt either because God couldn’t forgive her this desire . . . or because he could.
(Excerpted and reprinted with permission from the essay “Looking Back at Lot’s Wife,” in: Reading Genesis Beginnings, Beth Kissileff, editor, Bloomsbury, 2016, p. 113).
Yehuda Amichai
The Precision of Pain and the Blurriness of Joy: The Touch of Longing is Everywhere
דִיוק הכאב וטשטוש האשר
מגע געגועים בכל
When tears yearn not for laughter,
nor for the eyes that wept them, nor for the cheeks they wet,
But for the sea, for the salt in the sea – these are the true longings.
Open, Closed, Open.
Deep down, deep down inside, the eye would be destined not to see but to weep. For at the very moment they veil sight, tears would unveil what is proper to the eye.
—Jacques Derrida, Memoirs of the Blind (126)
30. Lot went up from Tzo’ar and settled in the highlands, his two daughters with him,
for he was afraid to settle in Tzo’ar.
So he settled in a cave, he and his two daughters.
31.Now the firstborn said to the younger:
Our father is old,
and there is no man in the land to come in to us as befits the way of all the earth!
32. Come, let us have our father drink wine and lie with him
so that we may keep seed alive by our father!
33. So they had their father drink wine that night;
then the firstborn went in and lay with her father,
but he knew nothing of her lying down or her arising.
34. It was on the morrow that the firstborn said to the younger:
Here, yesternight I lay with Father.
Let us have him drink wine tonight as well,
then you go in and lie with him,
so that we may keep seed alive by our father.
35. They had their father drink wine that night as well,
and then the younger arose and lay with him,
but he knew nothing of her lying down or her arising.
36. And Lot’s two daughters became pregnant by their father.
37. The firstborn bore a son and called his name: Moav/By Father,
—;he is the tribal-father of Moav of today.
38. The younger also bore a son, and called his name: Ben-Ammi/Son of My Kinspeople,
—;he is the tribal-father of the children of Ammon of today.
Author: Radak
Composed: Provence, France, c.1185 - c.1235 CE
A commentary on the Tanakh written by Rabbi David Kimchi, Radak (1160–1236). Radak, one of the the most famous Bible commentators of his time, was a grammarian, which is reflected in his commentary.
Further Resources:
Harold Fisch, Ruth and the Structure of Covenant History, Vetus Testamentum
Vol. 32, Fasc. 4 (Oct., 1982), pp. 425-437 (13 pages)
Published By: Brill