This year I was asked to teach a few extra classes in the synagogue school, on Saturday mornings, focusing on the week’s Torah portion (the chapter of the Hebrew Bible that is read by Jews around the world at the same time). I was nervous and excited about the opportunity, because it was new to me, but also because I’ve never really had the chance to teach the stories from the first and second books of the Hebrew bible. I usually teach the book of Leviticus, which is full of laws and holiness, but not many plotlines or characters or dramatic scenes. And then I found out which Torah portion I’d be teaching the kids, and I thought, when it rains it pours, because I would be teaching the Torah portion that contains Sodom and Gomorrah, The banishing of Ishmael, and The Binding (and almost sacrificing) of Isaac. You know, the light stuff.
I could, almost, imagine how to teach the drama of a parent who is willing to risk the life of his child on the say-so of God (kids sort of feel like this is what happens every day of their lives when their parents insist on sending them to school against their will), but Sodom and Gomorrah, with its themes of unforgivable evil and sexual violence, and God turning two whole towns into rubble? Not so much.
I wrote up my lesson plan, tap dancing and editing and omitting my way to a version of the Torah portion that would be interesting to the kids, without giving them too many nightmares. But I still found myself thinking about Sodom and Gomorrah, and how hard this story is to reckon with, and why.
The biggest problem, for me, is that the English word “Sodomy,” clearly based on the town of Sodom, has come to refer to homosexual acts, and many religious people have decided that this story is meant to teach us that God will punish you with death and destruction for engaging in homosexual acts, or allowing/supporting others to engage in those acts. Now, I know that the Hebrew Bible is often brutal, and I know that there is a biblical law against homosexual behavior (it’s in Leviticus, so I see it a lot), but it still felt unreasonable that God (and/or my ancestors) would see homosexuality as such a heinous crime that it should earn the destruction of whole towns, whole families, including children. So I decided to re-read the story to see what I was missing.
In Genesis 18-19, three men come to Abraham in the plains of Mamre, two angels and God in disguise, to tell him that the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah will be judged and punished for their grievous sins (unspecified). Abraham tries to bargain with God, because his nephew Lot lives there, and he says, if there are fifty righteous people, or forty, or thirty, will you save the town? And God agrees to save the town even if there are only ten righteous people, but there aren’t even ten, so God tells Abraham that he will have to destroy the towns after all. But he sends his angels to warn Lot ahead of time, so he can save himself and his family.
The two angels, in disguise, then go to the main square in the town of Sodom, and Lot invites the strangers into his home, without knowing who they are, and serves them a meal. The men of Sodom then surround Lot’s house and tell Lot to bring the two strangers outside so they can know them (to “know” is sometimes a euphemism for sex in the Hebrew Bible). Lot refuses to hand over his guests and instead offers up his two virgin daughters to the crowd. The men of Sodomrefuse his offer and try to break down Lot’s door.
The angels then blind the men of Sodom and tell Lot about their mission to destroy the city. They command Lot to gather his family and leave, and not to look back. And then the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed with fire and brimstone, and Lot’s wife looks back at the destruction and becomes a pillar of salt (I could do a whole essay on Lot’s wife, and how looking back at what you’ve lost is natural and not a crime, but I’ll save that for another time).
Israelite prophets, in later books of the Hebrew Bible, named the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah as adultery, pridefulness, and un-charitable behavior. Many Rabbinic commentators have focused mostly on the lack of hospitality to the stranger as the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, hospitality being the one Mitzvah (commandment) that Lot performs in the story, by inviting the strangers into his home.
The habit of blaming homosexuality for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is much more recent. No Jewish literature, until the writings of Philo in the first century of the Common Era, actually mentioned same-sex behavior as a possible cause for the destruction of the towns. And the term Sodomy wasn’t coined until the 11th century of the Common Era, and even then it was widely used to refer to all non-procreative sexual acts (including heterosexual acts) rather than specifically to same sex relationships.
There is a strikingly similar story to Sodom and Gomorrah in chapter 19 of the book of Judges. An unnamed man from the tribe of Levi is traveling with his concubine and his servant. He arrives in the town of Gibeah and plans to spend the night in the town square. A local man, from the tribe of Ephraim and therefore not a native of the town (like Lot wasn’t a native of Sodom), offers the Levite and his concubine and his servant shelter in his home. Soon the men of the city surround the house and demand that the owner send out the Levite “so that we may know him.” The owner, like Lot, offers up his virgin daughter and the Levite’s concubine instead, and the crowd rejects the offer, just like the men of Sodom did. Except, in this version there are no angels to intervene, and to save himself the Levite forces his concubine out the door, and the men of Gibeah rape her to death. There is no response from God, no fire and brimstone, instead the Levite carries his dead concubine home and cuts her corpse into twelve pieces, sending one piece to each of the twelve tribes, showing them the results of their baseless hatred of strangers.
It’s a brutal way to send such a message, and the Levite doesn’t seem like the best messenger, since he offered up his concubine to save his own life, but the message in this version of the story is clear: If you don’t wise up and learn how to treat the strangers in your midst, destruction will come to you. If only because, at some point in your life, you yourself will be the stranger.
The mitzvah of hospitality to strangers was very important in the ancient Middle East, where traveling on arid land was a life or death venture. The conventions of hospitality were created to protect both the traveler, who would die without food and water, and the host, who could easily be killed by a traveler in need. These were basic codes of behavior that were meant to keep everyone safe, so when the Sodomites tried to attack the two men in Lot’s house simply for being strangers, it threatened the moral code of the area, and the safety of everyone.
Sodom and Gomorrah feels like a lesson we keep having to learn, and a lesson we keep choosing to learn incorrectly. If you recognize rape as a weapon, rather than as a variety of sexual behavior (heterosexual or homosexual), then you can see Sodom and Gomorrah for what it is: a story about how selfishness, and violence, and baseless hatred of the stranger ultimately leads to the destruction of the people who commit these sins. The punishment doesn’t have to come from an outside force, like God, because it is already an inevitable result of making enemies out of everyone around you. If you send your daughters out to be raped by a crowd, they will die, or they will come back to you full of rage; either way you have destroyed the future of your family. If you treat strangers as enemies and abuse them, you will not receive any help from future strangers; in fact, they may strike out at you first, to protect themselves, knowing your reputation.
If we read Sodom and Gomorrah through the lens of its sister story, the evil here, the “sodomy,” is clearly the baseless hatred of people who are not like us, and has nothing in particular to do with homosexuality. At some point the story was turned inside out, but that doesn’t have to be the last word. We can re-read the story and turn it right side out again to see the power of hospitality and welcoming the stranger to save all of our lives.
By the way, when I taught my students about the banishing of Ishmael from his home, after the birth of his half-brother Isaac, they said that Ishmael should have been allowed to stay so that he and Isaac could have grown up together. And if Ishmael had been able to stay, then the descendants of Ishmael (commonly seen as today’s Arabs) and the descendants of Isaac (the Jews) would have been one family, one people. We are so quick to see each other as strangers, imagining that our differences are unbridgeable oceans, but maybe we are all half-brothers and sisters, feuding over our birthrights and our parents’ love, fighting over resources that don’t have to be scarce if we can heal the wounds of the past. Maybe, if we re-read our own stories, we can find a way forward that makes all of us safer and better off.
If you haven’t had a chance yet, please check out my Young Adult novel, Yeshiva Girl, on Amazon. And if you feel called to write a review of the book, on Amazon, or anywhere else, I’d be honored.
Yeshiva Girl is about a Jewish teenager on Long Island, named Isabel, though her father calls her Jezebel. Her father has been accused of inappropriate sexual behavior with one of his students, which he denies, but Izzy implicitly believes it’s true. As a result of his problems, her father sends her to a co-ed Orthodox yeshiva for tenth grade, out of the blue, and Izzy and her mother can’t figure out how to prevent it. At Yeshiva, though, Izzy finds that religious people are much more complicated than she had expected. Some, like her father, may use religion as a place to hide, but others search for and find comfort, and community, and even enlightenment. The question is, what will Izzy find?
rachelmankowitz 
Cuteness overload!
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Beautiful. Thank you for the insight and reminders of how and why to re-read these texts.
Thank you so much!
I have been wanting to know more about the Torah, then you liked my recipe and I found your blog!! Wow 🤩. Clearly G-d heard my heart ♥️. I look forward to reading more of your blog. Thank you 😊
Thank you!!!
I think we have to allow that the times have changed in the past 2000+ years and some of these stories have to be taken with a “pillar of salt.” Maybe the core values, the point of the whole thing, could be toned down to fit with something that is more acceptable to modern times, while still allowing for loose adherence to the commandments. Let your dogs guide you with their comments. They seem to be “right on.”
The dogs know!
Yes, they do, and I think yours are extra smart. I love them!
Me too! Thank you!
When it comes to healing we need to heal from the source. Thank you 👏
I love your students’ response, saying that Ishmael should not have been banished from his home.
And they said like, duh, it’s so obvious. I loved that!
❤ Rachel this was a fascinating and quite informative read. Would it be okay to reblog it ? I rarely do that unless something moves me.
Of course! Thank you so much!
Fascinating!
Thank you!
Impressed with all the work you have done to prepare for teaching this chapter to the students. They are lucky to have you guiding them.
Thank you so much!
As one who was taught by Jesuits I have never studied the Old Testament, but you make me see this as an omission. Your reading of the stories and your insights are very helpful
Thank you so much!
As a gay man, the Sodom and Gomorrah story has been thrown in my face countless times. Your recognition of the width and depth of its true meaning reinforces that of other enlightened scholars.
Thank you!!!
My goodness I do learn a lot from your posts. I can imagine how your heart dropped when you saw the content you had to teach. Your students are so lucky to have such a committed and thorough teacher who really makes them think and question the underlying messages that the old texts provide. 🙂
Thank you so much!
I agree that the Scriptures tell some brutal stories no matter what lessons are taken from them. I knew these stories well as a young person. It’s also true that we–all people of those stories–have learned some of the wrong lessons. It’s those wrong lessons that have driven me away from the Scriptures.
I can understand that.
I used to read the Torah online, a little each day, (I’m not Jewish), and I hit Judges chapter 20 and after that, I couldn’t read anymore. It was so brutal. That he just tossed her out to suffer and die, I couldn’t get past it. The same stories are in the bible I know. I don’t know how to read them and still be able to stomach them. I can’t reconcile the justification in my head. I can’t help but think, if it were a woman, she would never sacrifice her children or spouse to save herself, she would offer herself instead, to save them. But why is it, in the scriptures, women are always disposable for the sake of the man? Is it because the men are telling the stories? If that is the case, are they always true and accurate stories or just men’s versions? It bothers me.
It bothers me too. Women were brutalized and silenced, both in the ancient world and in the writings about that world.
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These stories and this blog post fascinated me! I will be re-blogging this on my own site, but I wish I could find a way to make this post go viral! It is clear and concise and a real light-bulb moment to know the deeper history of the story and all of its intricacies. One of my favorite movies of all time is “Sophie’s Choice” starring Meryl Streep. In case you’ve never seen it, I don’t want to give you spoilers, That movie, to me, truly imparts what the Jewish people have gone through in their history and the choices that had to be made in order to survive.
Thank you for this post!
Thank you so much!
Reblogged this on Ramblings and Ruminations and commented:
This is a must-read!
A wonderfully informative and beautifully articulated post. Thanks Rachel and the kids are so lucky to have you as their teacher.
Thank you so much!
Pleasure Rachel
What a beautiful way you tell what could be a really traumatic story (well both of the ones you told are that way). It is true that how we treat others (strangers) is how we, ourselves, can expect to be treated. The Golden Rule is based upon that concept. In today’s world it’s disheartening to see how much the actions of the people in Sodom and Gomorrah are coming back into favor, with hatred, racial bias, and entitlement being acceptable. I’m glad there are a few voices in the wilderness still, calling out the truth for such people to hear, if they only will.
Thank you!
Thank you again for your wonderful insights. I wish you had been my teacher in religious school.
BTW, Sarah demanding Ishmael and his mom be sent away has always bothered me.
Thank you!
I never thought of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah that way, but it’s interesting. Hospitality was important to the ancient world in general: I remember in “The Odyssey,” Odysseus and Telemachus kill Penelope’s suitors for abusing their hospitality and mocking their guest (Odysseus in disguise).
Interesting!
I guess as always you can make the Bible(in my tradition) say anything you want it to say. That is why right wing Christians here focus on sodomy and ignore the prohibitions about shrimp. I appreciate that you are teaching the context for the stories to your kids. I knew from my own study that the story bore little or no resemblance to the way it has been used to bludgeon gay people. Context is everything. In addition, every person in the Bible is not to be used as an exemplar. Rather, we learn that the people of God in the past as now are deeply flawed, proud, confused and muddling through.
Exactly!
My little Southern Baptist Church in rural Texas sermonized about this passage many times – always with the understanding that homosexuals would be destroyed by fire and brimstone. That was a huge worry for the lesbian child in the pew.
I like your version better. The power of welcoming acceptance cannot be denied. Chances are you have a “different” child in your class. Always give everyone hope.
That’s definitely the goal!
Wow, thank you for this insightful and compassionate analysis of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, Rachel.
Thank you!
It was hard for me as a kid to think that not even 10 righteous people (especially children) could be found to be spared– considering how large those particular cities were. Unless, of course, Lot felt that even the children were too brainwashed to be saved. Anyway, that event was indeed a most violent punishment of its time.
Art
I have a hard time believing that Lot was saved based on his own worth, given his treatment of his daughters. I think it was a favor to Abraham, though Abraham was pretty questionable himself.
Thank you so, so much of this article. I never had a course about this particular story, but talked with a friend of mine who had worked on this in another course and she gave me a photocopy of the text they had used and it followed your argument exactly.
As you know, I’m Christian, but it always baffles me how quickly people tear parts of the Scriptures out of context only to use whatever they see fit at the moment. Both cities are punished for their violence and their lack of self-control, and I also find it interesting that Lot’s wife is punished when she looks back, and thus looking at something that was absolutely none of her business and, more over, which she knew would be incredibly traumatising.
You must be a fantastic teacher, honestly. And I also love that the kids were so quick to realise that yes, it does make a big difference when you treat people like Hagar and her son with kindness.
Thank you!!!
I mean, I’m not that big into all the Religious. I feel like though, your explanation is great! No matter whether a legend or story, is from the Bible, a fairy tale. Most, if not all, these tales comes from a lesson of some sort. I think you’ve found it wonderfully. Goodness knows though, that’s not a easy story to teach anyone!
Hmmm. Thoughtful instruction. What do you think the additional moral is to the Levite story, i.e. sending out his concubine in order to save himself?
I think the message is that even imperfect messengers can teach us something.
I learned so much from reading this post. I think you must be a very good teacher Rachel!
Thank you!
I’ve been thinking about this post, and bless you for trying to teach about it. I have such mixed feelings–should we even be talking about crazy Lot at all? Will mean and crazy men actually get the moral out of the story? And then, the bit where the daughters decide to get him drunk and…Yikes! iLately, I’m thinking both the OT and the NT both needed some better editors! 😉
Julie
I would love to attack those books with my red pen; but then, I feel the same way about the Harry Potter books.
Absolutely feel the same way about Harry Potter!
Love that your dog said I was a stranger once. Hilarious!
Good insights, Rachel.
Thank you!
Interesting! I’m not familiar with the bible or Torah but I did enjoy you explaining things. A bit intimidating to have to teach it to kids! Never thought about how traumatizing religious books can be. Good for you for figuring it out.
It’s an ongoing challenge! Thank you!
A great post.
Thank you!
Thanks for sharing your interpretation — it was enlightening and thought-provoking!
Thank you!
That’s awesome! When my daughters and I read the Bible, specifically the old and new testaments ‘thou shalls and shall nots’, we learned by reading both testaments side by side that God only had 10 commands, most were regarding how to treat others, but the elders would have an issue, bring it to Moses, and thus another law or ordinance was in place. When we get to the new testament, there’s only 2 commands-so easy. Just love God and love others. However, once again, this fledgling church is having issues, so they write letters to Peter, John, and Paul for guidance. Hence instead of stressing those 2 commands, the replies that were given were often of judgment and condemnation. And now we have ppl who are so busy looking at other people’s sins, rather than their own.
So interesting! Thank you!
Interesting take on the Sodom and Gommorah story. I hope your lesson for the students went well.
Thank you!