The Others Of Sodom And Gomorrah

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                   

                             Men of Sodom

                  Lot and his Uncle Abraham splitting up

Sodom  is the Chief of the 5 cities of the Jordan Plain.  The others are Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar.  Lot, the nephew of Abraham, and his family settled in Sodom but escaped its destruction caused by the wickedness of its inhabitants as told in Genesis 19.  The site of the 5 cities of the plain has been disputed.  Some scholars  have assigned them to the northern end of the Dead Sea, while tradition expressed by the location of Jebel Usdum (Mountain  of Sodom) and the vicinity of Zoar (where Lot and his daughters took refuge) suggests the South.  This latter region  was once dry land and might have been overwhelmed by a catastrophe within human memory.  The potash works in Israel has taken the name of Sodom at the southern end of the Dead Sea.  

Two beings, thought by Lot to be angels,  came one night to Lot at his house in Sodom, and evidently he thought enough of them to bow;  and he offered them shelter, but they refused, saying they'd rather stay in the square.  However, he urged them otherwise, and so they stayed and Lot made them a dinner and even baked matzos, and they ate.  Lot didn't seem to be surprised that they spoke his language.                                    

Meanwhile, the Sodomites converged upon the house the whole population came-which must not have numbered a lot in numbers happening today.  They had come, wanting to see 2 strangers.  They had come to get to "KNOW" them, that meant that they wanted to sodomize them, and Rashi understood this.  Rashi is the great biblical interpreter that I am related to.  To sodomize a man means to perform anal sex or anal penetration on him. Depending on the context, the phrase carries distinct legal, linguistic, and historical implications.  Legal Context: Historically, "sodomy laws" criminalized non-procreative sexual acts. In modern jurisprudence, if the act is committed by force, without consent, or with someone unable to consent, it is classified as a felony offense equivalent to rape.  I believe that the idea was to use the newcomer as a sport, while being attacked, the crowd would watch, sort of the start of such sport in Greece and Rome much later on.  These people were dying for a show to watch!!!

Lot knew of the danger he had put himself and his family in by taking in strangers in this neighborhood. He had learned much from Abraham so had remained a righteous person.   Why he continued living with such people who held this disgusting act as a welcome new neighbor is beyond me.  

Lot went outside, shutting the door behind him, and spoke to the crowd, telling them not to  act wickedly.  Lot had 2 daughters and offered them to the crowd in place of the angels.  The daughters were virgins and he told the crowd that they could do anything to them as they pleased, but they were to leave the angels alone as they were there under his shelter.  

The crowd shouted that Lot was simply a sojourn amongst them and was now acting like a Judge, making them angry. They pushed him and tried to break down the door.  Then they took Lot into his own house.  

The men of the crowd at the entrance suddenly were struck by blindness and they couldn't find the entrance.  The angels told Lot to get out of the city and take his relatives with him as they, the angels were about to destroy the place.  Hashem (G-d) had sent them to destroy it. 

Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law and the betrothed of his daughters and told them the message, but they thought he was kidding, acting like a jester, so when it was dawn, the Angels told Lot to get up with his wife and 2 daughters or you will be swept away because of the sin of the city.   We know the rest of the story.  Being told not to look at the destruction taking place, the wife looked and turned to stone.  It sounded like an A bomb had hit the city.