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November 17, 2000/Heshvan 19, 5761, Vol. 53, No.8
Torah urges adopting ethic of observation
Torah Study
RABBI BETSY TOROP
Vayera/Genesis 18:1-22:24
If you have ever been to the Dead Sea, you have surely been struck by the remarkable salt formations found in the region. If your imagination is particularly vivid, you, like others before you, may even have thought that you saw Lot's wife, as the Torah describes her: "God annihilated those cities and the entire plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation of the ground. Lot's wife looked back, and she thereupon turned into a pillar of salt." (Genesis 19:25-26)
The tragedy that befalls Lot's unnamed wife represents one of the most intriguing aspects of the Sodom and Gomorrah narrative. (Genesis 18:16-19:38) For lack of a minyan of righteous people, God resolves to annihilate Sodom and Gomorrah. Two divine messengers (malachim, angels) then visit Lot and offer him and his family the opportunity to escape to safety.
Because Lot delays, the messengers bring him, his wife and two daughters to the outskirts of the city, saying, "Flee for your life! Do not look behind you, nor stop anywhere in the plain; flee to the hills, lest you be swept away." (Genesis 19:17) Because she disregards this directive, Lot's wife is turned into a pillar of salt.
Why did she look back? And why was she turned into a pillar of salt as a result of this backward glance?
Many traditional commentators suggest that by looking back at the destruction, Lot's wife became, so to speak, "infected" by it. In the words of the 15th century Italian commentator Sforno: "The evil will spread to you as if it were following you but will not harm you. However, if you stop to peer (behind you), it will (overtake you) and cleave to you."
Rashi adds a slightly different emphasis: "It is not fitting that you should witness their doom while you yourself are escaping."
In "In the Image of God: A Feminist Commentary on the Torah," feminist commentator Judith Antonelli summarizes these comments as reflecting "the notion that watching the violent destruction of others is harmful to oneself. The concept that there are certain things at which one should not look is the antithesis of acceptable behavior in our modern society, which validates voyeurism as a 'normal' activity."
Was it voyeurism that drove Lot's wife to look back? Was it her empathy for the depraved citizens of Sodom? Or was she being pulled toward her two married daughters who, the text relates, refused to leave Sodom and were caught in the whirlwind of destruction?
The Torah does not answer these questions. But the actions of Lot's wife draw our attention to the "ethics of looking," which must lead us to strike a balance between empathetic witnessing and voyeurism. In the age of television shows like "Survivor" and "Big Brother," we must agree with Antonelli that voyeurism has spun out of control and the urge to look at others in their most private moments, in the midst of pain and suffering, knows no bounds.
And yet, surely we must question the notion of some commentators that looking at the existence of suffering in our society causes the pain of others to adhere to us like a disease. As Jews, we teach the contrary lesson: We must know the heart of the stranger. Looking into the eyes of another panim el panim (face-to-face) is the first step to true knowing.
If we turn from the beggar on the street, if we avert our eyes from the person with a disability or a disfigurement, if we fail to look at the wounded person lying in the hospital bed, then how can we ever truly hope to make a difference to those who are suffering in our midst?
We'll never know what motivated Lot's wife to turn around and look. But her tragedy highlights our challenge: to develop our own ethic of observation and to strive to move beyond voyeurism to an open-eyed view of the world that leads us l'tikkun olam, to repair the world.
Rabbi Betsy Torop is the director of Jewish Life and Learning at the Sid Jacobson Jewish Community Center in East Hills, N.Y. Torat Hayim, produced by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, is on the Internet at www.uahc.org/growth.
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