Project Genesis




Why did Lot go to Sodom?

Question: If Abraham knew that Sodom was such a bad place why did he allow his nephew Lot to go there? Also why is it that the Torah uses such a phrase as “separate from me” instead of just go that way and I will go this way?

Answer: Lot is a grown man, and does not listen to what his uncle Abraham tells him. When they separate, Avraham says ‘If you go right, I will go left, if you go left I will go right’.

The commentary of Targum Onkelos translates as ‘If you go north I will go south..’. In other words, Abraham, as man of prayer, was standing on the mountain range which runs down the center of Israel. He suggested that they both remain on the mountain – a place which requires prayer for rain and which fosters a close connection to G-d. Lot, however, went east, down from the mountain to Sodom. he wasn’t interested in the closeness with G-d, but rather wanted to have the physical comforts of the plain.

This is the reason that the Torah describes Lot as ‘separating’ from Abraham – he gave up on his relationship with Abraham, and at the same time his relationship with G-d.

Rabbi David Sedley

 

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