Lot and Abraham lived in the same area. But when the shepherds of Abraham and Lot quarreled, Abraham suggested to Lot that each one should take separate ways. “Look at the land that is in front of you,” said Abraham to his nephew, “and choose where you want to settle in. If you want to go north, I will go south. If you go south, I will go north”. Lot does not doubt and chooses to settle in Sedom. Why? Because Sedom was a city of wealth and economic stability. At that time, the area had abundant rivers, and those who lived there did not depend on the rain, and droughts did not affect them. Surely Lot imagined that there, in Sedom, he would build a beautiful house , he would have the best car , and he and his descendants would marry people of great wealth. What a successful life awaited Lot in Sedom!
But the Tora also warns that the people of Sedom were evil ואנשי סדם רעים וחטאים ליהוה מאד. They did not let anyone share their wealth. And instead of assisting, they oppressed and exploited the weak and the poor. Our Hakhamim said that in Sedom a law was established “those who help a poor person, an orphan or a foreigner would be executed”. (Sedom’s ideology always remind me of Nietzsche, whose philosophy was later adopted by the Third Reich. For them the weak or the sick should NOT be assisted or helped, as this represents a “waste” of the totalitarian state resources. Every resource should be devoted exclusively to the progress of the healthy and superior– Arian men and women– following the most basic law of nature, learned from Nietzsche’s contemporary Charles Darwin: the survival of the fittest).
Lot came from an environment that could not be more different from Sedom. Lot had been raised in the home of Abraham Abinu. An open house where all those in need are welcomed. Lot must have absorbed these lessons from Abraham. And I imagine that when Lot realizes the nature of the inhabitants of that city, he will have asked himself: “And now what should I do? Do I stay in this city, or I leave?” Lot decided to stay. Maybe he thought that he would have enough emotional strength not to let himself and specially his children to be influenced by others. But Lot failed. And while it is true that he retained some characteristics of Abraham, for example, he received foreigners (malakhim) risking his life, we see that he did everything by himself. Unlike Abraham, who together with his wife Sara prepared the banquet for their visitors, Lot’s wife does not appear in that scene… Lot had to prepare the food for his guests all by himself. When Abraham asked HaShem not to destroy the city of Sedom if ten righteous people were in the city, Abraham was thinking of Lot and his family. Lot, his wife, his two married daughters, their husbands, his two single daughters and their fiancees. a total of 10 people. HaShem, in the end, destroyed the city, which shows us that Lot was not able to influence even his family. What is more. When Lot offered his daughters instead of the strangers that people wanted to kill (I imagine that helping a foreigner in Sedom was as dangerous as helping a Jew –protecting him and giving him shelter– in World War II). Lot was actually influenced by others. He was culturally and morally transformed, inadvertently, into a citizen of Sedom.
One of the most important lessons I heard in my life has to do with the frog. How do you cook a frog? (I do not know if this story is true or it is an urban legend. In any case, please do not try it at home, since apart from being tremendously cruel, it is not Kosher :). In France, and in the far East cooked frogs are an exquisite delicacy. The problem is that the frog must be cooked while he is alive. So, how do you cook a frog? If you place the frog in boiling water, the frog will immediately jump out of the pot. But if the live frog is placed in a pot with water at room temperature and at a low heat, the frog would not jump out of the pot and will be slowly cooked. And this is why: The body of the frog detects drastic temperature changes. Therefore, if we move the frog from a temperature of 70 degrees and expose it to 212 degrees of boiling water, the frog will jump out. However, and very unfortunately for the frog, its body “tolerates “small” changes in temperature. Its body “adapts” the small temperature changes and is unable to “sum up” those small changes and realize that “a big change” has taken place . When the slow fire brings the water temperature from 70 to 75 degrees, the body of the frog feels that: “5 degrees is nothing. There is no danger.” And the body adapts to 75 degrees. When the water reaches 80, the frog –that already got used to 75 feels that: “5 more degrees, it is nothing”. And when it reaches 85, the frog experiences the same thing: “5 degrees, do not affect me”. The frog tolerates and adapts to those small changes, and is unable to add up those changes and realize that: “…that there are 15 degrees difference between 70 and 85 and this can end badly”. Finally, when it reaches 210 degrees, it’s too late for the frog…
Something very similar happens with most people in terms of “influences”. When we live around individuals with questionable values, we begin to absorb those values very gradually. So gradually, that those changes become almost imperceptible. Over time, it happens to us what happened to the frog. We do not realize that those small changes are adding up. And when we want to realize it, it’s already too late ….
The lesson we learn from Lot is that we have to choose very carefully the environment where we live, and where we educate and raise our children. So it does not happen to us what happens to the poor frog.
