Menachem Mirski
Where in the Bible is matza mentioned for the first time? Interestingly, the first mention about it is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah:
He said, “Please, my lords, turn aside to your servant’s house to spend the night, and bathe your feet; then you may be on your way early.” But they said, “No, we will spend the night in the square.” But he urged them strongly, so they turned his way and entered his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked matzot, and they ate. (Gen 19:2-3)
Lot welcomes in his home to two angels/men who have been sent to Sodom to save him and his family from extermination. It seems that they were those very few righteous ones, whose number did not exceed ten, in both cities, and because of that God decided to destroy both of them. Sodom, like Egypt, is the biblical and rabbinical embodiment of injustice and corruption. However, in the eyes of the rabbis, the main sin of the Sodomites was not, as it has been often presented in the Christian tradition, homosexuality or sexual promiscuity. Sodom’s main sins were: the unjust, even criminal social system and the treatment of strangers. The former is already mentioned by Ezekiel:
Only this was the sin of your sister Sodom: arrogance! She and her daughters had plenty of bread and untroubled tranquility; yet she did not support the poor and the needy. (Ez 16:49)
as well as by Isaiah, in a similar spirit, when listing the multiple sins of Israel he compares it to Sodom and Gomorrah (Is 1:9):
The faithful city That was filled with justice, Where righteousness dwelt— But now murderers. Your silver has turned to dross; Your wine is cut with water. Your rulers are rogues And cronies of thieves, Every one avid for presents And greedy for gifts; They do not judge the case of the orphan, And the widow’s cause never reaches them. (Is 1:21-23)
About the latter we are told by the Midrash which says that the strangers were treated in a bestial manner and robbed of money (Bereshit Rabbah 50:7). Thus, courtesy and hospitality towards strangers was a crime in the eyes of the Sodomites. The book Bereszit presents the following sequence of actions: “…turn aside to your servant’s house to spend the night, and bathe your feet; then you may be on your way early […]”. Rashi asks here: Is it then customary for people first to tarry all night and then to wash? Then he gives us the answer: This is what Lot thought: If when the men of Sodom come they see that they have already washed their feet, they will make a charge against me saying, “Two or three days have already elapsed since these come to your house and you did not report it to us” — consequently he said: it is better that they should stay here with the dust on their feet so that they would seem to have just arrived.
Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Quick, three seahs of choice flour! Knead and make cakes!” Then Abraham ran to the herd, took a calf, tender and choice, and gave it to a servant-boy, who hastened to prepare it. He took curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared and set these before them; and he waited on them under the tree as they ate.
Apart from the fact that Abraham serves the guests meat along with the cream and milk, the Midrash says that it was the season of Passover (Bereshit Rabba 48:12). These events take place shortly before the debate between Abraham and God (Gen. 18: 23-33) and the escape of Lot from Sodom and Gomorrah. This escape can be seen as a kind of prototype of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt. Of course, there are a lot of differences in both stories, but they seem to have a certain common denominator: if a righteous person wants to remain faithful to his or her own principles, he or she must take into account the necessity of own exodus. The individual exodus might have a different scope or extent: it does not have to lead to emigration but, for example, it can mean the necessity to change social environment. It can also have different dimensions: it can be only of a spiritual nature – a process involving the reevaluation of one’s own belief system and complete rejection of some of the ideas or beliefs. That kind of exodus may also involve the necessity of (temporary) sacrifices. These, however, are often necessary to be able to get “to the other side” and leave our “dark places” forever behind our backs.
Menachem Mirski
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