Monday, June 21, 2010

Of Lot and Bilam, Sdom and Moav

In preparing a parshah shiur for this week, I started to develop a concept that I won’t end up using. It’s interesting, but I don’t think it’s substantive yer; it’s more homiletic than real. I’m sharing it here, though, because a reader might be able to take it further.

The core idea:
Recall that Ibn Ezra believes that the Torah tells us the origins of nations in order to teach us about their descendants’ inherited natures. [See, for example, his comment to Bereishis 9:18.]
Avraham’s cousin Lot, of Sdom, is the patriarch of Moav, the nation which hires Bilam to curse the Jews in the wilderness. There are several parallels between the story of Lot/Sdom, and Bilam/Moav’s attempt to curse the Jews. Perhaps these parallels are the Torah’s attempt to teach us certain moral lessons, based on the character and identity of the nation of Lot/Sdom/Moav.

Here are the parallels I have noticed:

1) Selfish concern for their own resources
Sdom is not aggressively evil; they are only wicked to visitors, selfishly wishing to keep their resources for themselves. [See also Avot 5:10 on שלי שלי.]
Moav is likewise concerned for their resources. They are not concerned that the Jews will come to fight against them; rather, as one reads Bamidbar 22 it is evident that Moav is worried about the Jews moving to the neighborhood and consuming all of their grassland.

2) Angels
Angels are sent to destroy Sdom
Angels are sent to keep Bilam/Moav from succeeding against the Jews

3) Reluctance to do as Gd instructs
Lot is reluctant to leave Sdom, even when instructed by angels to do so.
Bilam is reluctant to abandon his plan to curse the Jews, even when instructed by angels to do so.

4) Involvement with sexual immorality
Lot is accused of knowingly sleeping with his daughters, or at least the second one. See Nazir 23a, which suggests he planned this.
Bilam is accused of sleeping with his donkey, per Sanhedrin 105a.

5) An unsuccessful attempt to direct people in a proper path
Lot attempts to convince the people of Sdom to leave his visitors in peace.
Bilam attempts to convince the Moabite emissaries to abandon their plan of cursing the Jews.

There also may be something in Lot telling his visitors to stay for the night, and Bilam telling his visitors to stay for the night.

I also found an interesting contrast between Avraham on one side, and Bilam on the other:
Gd tells Avraham that He will destroy Sdom, and he prays to Gd to change His mind and save these strangers.
Gd tells Bilam not to harm the Jews, and he prays to Gd to change His mind and harm these strangers.

Interesting, but could just be the common pre-shiur desperation to find a pattern. Not enough for me to feel this is quite real, yet, but interesting.

11 comments:

  1. The Bilam/Avraham parallel is interesting bearing in mind that Pirkei Avot 5.22 already encourages us to look for parallels between these two.

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  2. Is it okay to steal some of this for my shiur? (Obviously i will attribute it)

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  3. But wasn't Lot the EXCEPTION to this character trait (selfishness)? How does it then follow that his descendants would display it? This makes no sense.

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  4. "Reluctance to do as Gd instructs
    Lot is reluctant to leave Sdom, even when instructed by angels to do so."

    But so was Moshe.

    "Lot is accused of knowingly sleeping with his daughters, or at least the second one. See Nazir 23a, which suggests he planned this."

    Wow, this is a new one for me. The story in TNKh doesn't read this way.

    "An unsuccessful attempt to direct people in a proper path"

    This can also be said of all the prophets - how is it unique to Moab or Lot?

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  5. Daniel-
    Good point; I didn't think of that.

    Laya-
    Sure!

    Tzipporah-
    1. What makes you think Lot is the exception? I see Lot as a funhouse mirror version of Avraham.
    2. True, but that doesn't remove the parallel here. The point is not an indictment, only a parallel in the stories.
    3. The accusation against Lot is built on nuance in the pesukim, such as the difference in the descriptions of the elder and younger escapades.
    4. See #2.

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  6. Here is a paper in the Jewish Bible Quarterly that carries through this paralellism.

    http://jbq.jewishbible.org/assets/Uploads/351/351_bilaam2.pdf

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  7. "1. What makes you think Lot is the exception? I see Lot as a funhouse mirror version of Avraham."

    Because he was the one "good" man that G-d was willing to save. As disturbing as we find his offering up of the daughters, instead of the guests, to the crowd outside his door, it's always been held up as an example of generosity towards guests, protecting their virtue, rather than stealing it.

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  8. "1. What makes you think Lot is the exception? I see Lot as a funhouse mirror version of Avraham."

    Because he was the one "good" man that G-d was willing to save. As disturbing as we find his offering up of the daughters, instead of the guests, to the crowd outside his door, it's always been held up as an example of generosity towards guests, protecting their virtue, rather than stealing it.

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  9. Laya-
    Interesting; thanks for passing it along.

    Tzipporah-
    Couple of thoughts:
    1. In the text itself, Gd declares that the reason Lot is getting out is the merit of his family, not his own goodness.
    2. I've never heard his offer of his daughters portrayed in a positive light. I've always heard it as evidence of his bizarre values - I'll save the guests at the expense of my daughters.

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  10. Re: point 2 - I thought that was just liberal Judaism's feminist take on the Lot story, and that the traditional interpretation was favorable toward him. Weird. :)

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  11. Tzipporah-
    See Ramban Bereishit 19:8. He goes on at length in his criticism, citing various sources.

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