The Lot of Lot (1957)
In this Sidra, which records some of the greatest events in the history of mankind, such as the “Akeidah,” and through whose holy passages there move such spiritual giants as Abraham, Isaac and Sarah, we find one character more distinguished by the shadow in which he is hidden then by the light which is cast upon him. He flits through the last two portions in an incidental sort of way, a bit mysterious, never fully capturing our attention, seemingly a character accidentally and fortuitously rescued from total oblivion of history only because he had a great uncle. He is a man who intrudes upon sacred history, and never really becomes a part of it. This man is Lot, the nephew of Abraham. And perhaps his very importance lies in the fact that he is not a major character, a chief actor in the historical drama, but rather a secondary, stage-hand type. Why is that important? Because we can identify with him more easily than with Abraham. Most of us are not great, not giants, not Abrahams, but ordinary mortals with ordinary foibles and weaknesses, ordinary virtues and ordinary goals. Lot is the average man, and from him and his life, the average Jew can learn more in a negative way than perhaps even from Abraham in a positive way. In the life of this man we can see the pitfalls before all of us, the dangers in the life of every man, so that he can teach us how not to live and what not to do.Lot cuts a tragic figure indeed. He was given a number of real advantages early in life. For one thing, he had a rich uncle – Abraham – who set him up in business. This same uncle provided him with a Jewish home, a decent life, education. Lot proved loyal to Abraham even after he left him to settle in Sodom, the city of wealth and corruption. Even there, he still keeps many of the things he learned from Abraham, such as hospitality. He leads an “underground” Jewish life. He is the nephew of Abraham inside, the judge of Sodom outside. He becomes a respected member of their society. He is…
