The Visit to the Tent of Abraham and Sarah
The Visitor Blesses Sarah; the Diverse Reactions by Abraham and Sarah
Sarah in Humash
Sarah appears in Genesis in Noah (brief reference), Lech and Va-yera. Hayyei Sarah deals with her death and burial. The following are the main episodes:
Noah: 11:29-30: her name and marriage to an Avram; her bareness (twice)
Lech: (various references to her, that A took her to the promised land, etc.)
12:10 – 13:1: - Abduction by Pharoah
17: 15 – 16: her name changed to “Sarah” and promise of progeny
Va-yera:
18: 6 : A charges her to bake for the 3 guests
18: 9-15 : guests foretell the birth of a son; she “laughed to herself” and the Lord and A discuss her laughter
20: 1-18: Abduction by Avimelekh
21: 1-13: S gives birth to son, A names him, S laughs (rejoices) at this birth, she is distressed at the son of Hagar and has her expelled
[22: S is absent in the passages dealing with the Akeida of her son (!!)]
Hayyei Sarah:
23: 1-20: refers to S’s death and A’s efforts to obtain a burial plot for her
A Visit to Lot's house and Lot's treatment of his daughters:
A moral dilemma
Pater familias: compare Aeschylus' treatment of Agamemnon's sacrifice of Iphigenia, to appease the gods to allow the wind to carry the Greek fleet to Troy. He sacrificed his daughter without the knowledge of Clytemnestra, his wife and the mother of their daughter.
The visitors plan to save Lot and his family.
How do the members of his family view him and his authority?
Interpreting the death of Lot's wife
(כג) הַשֶּׁ֖מֶשׁ יָצָ֣א עַל־הָאָ֑רֶץ וְל֖וֹט בָּ֥א צֹֽעֲרָה׃ (כד) וַֽיהֹוָ֗ה הִמְטִ֧יר עַל־סְדֹ֛ם וְעַל־עֲמֹרָ֖ה גׇּפְרִ֣ית וָאֵ֑שׁ מֵאֵ֥ת יְהֹוָ֖ה מִן־הַשָּׁמָֽיִם׃ (כה) וַֽיַּהֲפֹךְ֙ אֶת־הֶעָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֔ל וְאֵ֖ת כׇּל־הַכִּכָּ֑ר וְאֵת֙ כׇּל־יֹשְׁבֵ֣י הֶעָרִ֔ים וְצֶ֖מַח הָאֲדָמָֽה׃ (כו) וַתַּבֵּ֥ט אִשְׁתּ֖וֹ מֵאַחֲרָ֑יו וַתְּהִ֖י נְצִ֥יב מֶֽלַח׃
(א) ותבט אשתו מאחריו. שֶׁל לוֹט: (ב) ותהי נציב מלח. בְּמֶלַח חָטְאָה וּבְמֶלַח לָקְתָה; אָמַר לָהּ תְּנִי מְעַט מֶלַח לָאוֹרְחִים הַלָּלוּ, אָמְרָה לוֹ אַף הַמִּנְהָג הָרַע הַזֶּה אַתָּה בָא לְהַנְהִיג בַּמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה (בראשית רבה):
(ב) במלח חטאת. ופרש"י שאינך כדאי לראות בפורענותם ואתה נוצל. כי גם אתה הרשעת כמוהם ובזכות אברהם אתה נוצל, כדכתיב ויזכור אלהים את אברהם וישלח את לוט
( ותבט אשתו מאחריו ותהי נציב מלח רבי יצחק אמר על שחטאה במלח. באותו הלילה שבאו המלאכים אל לוט, מה היא עושה? הולכת אל כל שכנותיה ואומרת להן, תנו לי מלח שיש לנו אורחים. והיא מתכוונת שיכירו בהם אנשי העיר, על כן ותהי נציב מלח.
The Wisdom of Solomon:
Not in Tanakh. Apocrypha; written in Greek c/1 BC; considered to be one of the Wisdom books.
(ו) וּבְיוֹם אֲבוֹד רְשָׁעִים וַתַּצֵּל צַדִּיק בְּנוּסוּ מִפְּנֵי הָאֵשׁ אֲשֶׁר תֵּרֵד עַל חֲמֵשֶׁת הֶעָרִים:
(ז) לְעֵדָה עַל פִּשְׁעֵיהֶם הָאָרֶץ הַהֲפוּכָה תֶּעֱשַׁן לְעוֹלָם וְעֵצֶיהָ עֲצֵי מַאֲכָל לֹא יַבְשִׁילוּ פְרִיהֶם. וּנְצִיב מֶלַח נִצָּב מַצֶּבֶת נֶפֶשׁ לָא אֵמוּן בָּהּ:
Flavius Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, 1.203 (Judea and Rome; 1 CE)
203God then cast a thunderbolt upon the city, and set it on fire, with its inhabitants; and laid waste the country with the like burning, as I formerly said when I wrote the Jewish War. But Lot’s wife continually turning back to view the city as she went from it, and being too nicely inquisitive what would become of it, although God had forbidden her so to do, was changed into a pillar of salt; for I have seen it, and it remains at this day.
N.Sarna: "The salt...may have a symbolic function; in the ancient Near East, a site was strewn with salt as a mark of eternal desolation in punishment for disloyalty and a breach of a treaty (e.g., Judges 9:45).
Lot's two daughters' plot to become pregnant through him but without his awareness.
(א) ותאמר אבינו זקן, ואין תקוה עוד שיקח אשה ויהיו לו בנים ואם אנחנו נמות בלא זרע הנה לא ישאיר זכר מאבינו, ואם תאמרי נקח לנו בעלים ויהיה לנו זרע לא נמצא,
(ב) כי ואיש אין בארץ לבוא עלינו, רוב המפרשים פירשו, כי חשבו כי כל הארץ כסדום ועמורה שלא נשאר איש ואשה בארץ.
וזהו רחוק שהרי יצאו הם מצוער שלא נהפכה וכן יש להם לחשוב כי שאר הארץ גם כן לא נהפכה, גם שמעו מאביהן כי סדום ועמורה מרעת יושביה נהפכה;
וטוב הוא מה ששמעתי בשם יוסף קרא כי אמרה הבכירה לא נמצא באדם שירצה לקחת אותנו לנשים כי יאמרו מאנשי ההפכה הן ואין ראוי להתחבר עמהן.
(1) ותאמר...אבינו זקן, there is no chance that he will marry again and have children from such a woman. If we will die without having children there will not be a memory of our father at all. If you were to say that we should take husbands and have children, where would we find such husbands?
(2) איש אין בארץ לבא עלינו. Most interpreters assume that these daughters thought that that just as there was no survivor left from the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, so there were none in the rest of the world.
It is very difficult to accept such an interpretation, seeing that they had just left Tzoar which had not been destroyed, so that they had every reason to believe that other regions of the earth had also not been affected. Not only that, but their father had told them that the reason why Sodom and Gomorrah had been destroyed was due to their inhabitants’ wickedness.
I therefore prefer an explanation which I have heard in the name of Rabbi Yoseph Karo (the elder) that the elder sister told her younger sister that none of the remaining men of the world would want to marry them, seeing they had lived in the wicked city of Sodom. People would not want to associate with anyone who had only narrowly escaped the fate of the Sodomites.
Who do these two women resemble in their resourcefulness and assertiveness?
(כג) הַשֶּׁ֖מֶשׁ יָצָ֣א עַל־הָאָ֑רֶץ וְל֖וֹט בָּ֥א צֹֽעֲרָה׃ (כד) וַֽיהֹוָ֗ה הִמְטִ֧יר עַל־סְדֹ֛ם וְעַל־עֲמֹרָ֖ה גׇּפְרִ֣ית וָאֵ֑שׁ מֵאֵ֥ת יְהֹוָ֖ה מִן־הַשָּׁמָֽיִם׃ (כה) וַֽיַּהֲפֹךְ֙ אֶת־הֶעָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֔ל וְאֵ֖ת כׇּל־הַכִּכָּ֑ר וְאֵת֙ כׇּל־יֹשְׁבֵ֣י הֶעָרִ֔ים וְצֶ֖מַח הָאֲדָמָֽה׃ (כו) וַתַּבֵּ֥ט אִשְׁתּ֖וֹ מֵאַחֲרָ֑יו וַתְּהִ֖י נְצִ֥יב מֶֽלַח׃