Vayera | What Really (Almost) Happened in Sedom

Vayera | What Really (Almost) Happened in Sedom, by Rav Yitzchak Etshalom

How could Lot conceivably offer his daughters to the men of Sedom?

We are accustomed to reading the story of Sedom and imagining an angry gang of the men of the town surrounding Lot's house and demanding that he send out the two visitors for purposes of a gang-rape. We reexamine that assumption and note that our reading is influenced by the text in Shoftim 19 - and even that, as Rada"k points out, may not be as prurient a story as we imagine. In addition, Lot's readiness to offer his unmarried daughters to the gang is, in light of the common understanding, the most dastardly thing we could imagine a father doing. We propose a different understanding of the intent of the townsfolk and, in light of that, the context of Lot's offering his daughters to the crowd.

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