Parashat Vayeira: Lot’s Daughters

Trigger warning: This article contains references to sexual assault and incest.*

Our parashah presents two acts of hospitality: Abraham welcomes strangers and cares for them; Lot invites strangers to his home rather than leaving them in the street. But Sodom being Sodom, the story darkens. The men of Sodom surround Lot’s house, “and they called to Lot, and said to him, ‘Where are the men who came in to thee this night? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.’” (Genesis 19:5). “That we may know them” is a euphemism for “we will abuse them, we will rape them.” The evil concentrated in this verse is staggering.

The price of desperation

Lot faces a decision, and what follows is almost unbearable: “So Lot went out to them to the entrance, shut the door behind him, and said, ‘I beg you, my friends, do not commit such a wrong. Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you please; but do not do anything to the others, since they have come under the shelter of my roof.’” (ibid. 6–8)

Lot is offering his own daughters to mass rape. Though his impulse springs from an excessive sense of responsibility to his guests, the act is horrifying. An angel strikes the men with blindness, rescues Lot and his family, and God destroys both cities. Yet Lot’s willingness to sacrifice his daughters lingers.

Later in the parashah, Abraham will nearly sacrifice his son, and there too an angel of God will stop him. The resemblance between the two episodes extends to the wording itself. In the case of Lot: “But the men put out their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut the door” (ibid. 10). And at the Binding of Isaac: “And Abraham stretched out his hand, he took the knife to slay his son. And an angel of the Lord called to him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, ‘Here I am.’ ‘Do not raise your hand against the boy, or do anything to him.’” (ibid. 22:10–12). Both involve a stretched hand, a sacrifice halted by an angel. Yet Abraham’s test differs morally from Lot’s offer – and the Torah seems to hint at kinship between them through a third instance: Abraham once claimed his wife was his sister to save his life, exposing her to sexual harm from a king. Uncle and nephew may share more in common than we wish to acknowledge.

The daughters’ response

After Sodom’s destruction, Lot lives in a cave with his daughters. Believing the world itself has ended, the daughters conclude that lying with their father is the only way to preserve humanity. “Thus the two daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. The older one bore a son and named him Moab; he is the father of the Moabites of today. And the younger also bore a son, and she called him Ben-ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites of today.” (ibid. 19:36–38).

The irony is deliberate: daughters who watched their father offer them to rapists now commit a violation against him. Yet the Sages regard their act as reasonable – even as a mitzvah, a transgression for the sake of Heaven. The Torah condemns incest fiercely, yet is silent here.

From Moab and Ammon came two peoples forbidden to Israel. Yet Scripture says: “No Ammonite or Moabite shall be admitted into the congregation of God; no descendants of such, even in the tenth generation, shall ever be admitted into the congregation of God” (Deuteronomy 23:4). And yet – from Moab came Ruth, whose lineage produced King David; from Ammon came Naamah, who married Solomon and bore Rehoboam. A terrible act produced peoples forbidden to Israel, yet also two of Israel’s greatest kings. The poison and the elixir inhabit the same vessel.

Perhaps there is also something to learn from the wisdom of hindsight. Lot did not have to abandon his daughters, because the angels were about to save both themselves and him; Lot’s daughters were not alone in the world and did not have to lie with their father. Sometimes we make decisions out of a crushing sense of distress. In those moments, we need someone to help us see things from other perspectives and to keep us from horrifying solutions.

Lior Tal Sadeh is an educator, writer, and author of “What Is Above, What Is Below” (Carmel, 2022). He hosts the daily “Source of Inspiration” podcast, produced by Beit Avi Chai.

For more insights into Parashat Vayeira, listen to “Source of Inspiration” (in Hebrew).

Translation of most Hebrew texts sourced from Sefaria.org

Main Photo: Main Photo: Lot and his Daughters\ Wikipedia