I must confess that before compiling these words, I had not paid too much attention to Chapter 19 of Genesis, the story of Lot, that we read today. I mean, it’s not the kind of story they teach you in Cheder, and the progressive lectionary readings don’t often go there. Other sections of Vayera are deemed more suitable, particularly for bat mitzvahs. Yet the Talmud (Megillah 25b) confirms that this passage should be both read and translated, so I would like to tackle this problematic chapter head on, and investigate this episode, and indeed the character of Lot, a little more attentively.
The views expressed in this D’var Torah do not necessarily reflect the position of Leo Baeck College.