Welcome to Sodom

Places, like people, can change. Sodom, the worst city ever, has become a haven of hospitality for Israel's newest refugees. Now, can Gaza change? And, as with Sodom, will it take 3,000 years?

One of the great ironies of the past few weeks is that when survivors of the Oct. 7 massacre looked for a place of refuge, the hotels at the Dead Sea opened their doors. Many of these are located an hour and a half due east of Sderot, in En Bokek, an enclave frequented often by tour groups on the way to Masada. It's an oasis of luxury in the forbidding moonscape located near what was the ill-fated biblical city of Sodom. The refugees are staying at places like the Lot Hotel, where an ensemble of musicians from Bet Tefila Israeli, the popular progressive congregation from Tel Aviv, recently came to entertain them.

In this week and next week's Torah portions, Lot, Abraham's nephew, and Sodom play a central role. When given the choice of where to settle, Lot opts to live to live in those low lying plains near the Dead Sea because of its abundant pastures for his flocks; but it turns out to be a bad choice. The people of Sodom are not the most hospitable, and in fact the Midrash goes on to show that they routinely tortured guests. Jewish commentaries on Sodom and Gomorrah are less concerned with depravity and sexual immorality than their Christian counterparts, and more consumed by their lack of hospitality. Only the wealthy were welcome. The poor were expelled or killed.

There is the famous midrash of the torture bed, found in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 109b):

If Trip Advisor had existed back then, Sodom would have gotten the the worst rating ever. Yet now, one catastrophic fire-and-brimstone destruction and 4,000 years later, it is the very model of hospitality.

Places, like people, can change. Think of Vietnam, Berlin, Tokyo...Cobb County (think “Trail of Tears,” Leo Frank and Newt Gingrich). Three decades ago, California was the most unwelcoming state in the union, passing Prop 187 to stifle immigration (it was later overturned by the courts) and later trying to ban same sex marriage. Look at California now! Change has happened in Sodom, the very place whose name is synonymous with evil. If goodness can make it there, it can make it anywhere. Maybe it can happen in Gaza too.

Think about it. Living in the shadow of the valley of death near Gaza was so unbearable for the residents of the south, and the destruction so heartbreaking, that they left there and went to Sodom, the worst place ever -- which makes Gaza worse than the worst place ever.

But Sodom now has become a city of refuge.

Maybe someday, Gaza will be too. Maybe college students will flock there for the gap years, like they now flock to places like Hanoi and Soweto. And I truly hope that can happen without it having to endure the kind of devastation meted out in Sodom, Berlin and Tokyo.

Either way, Gaza will have to change.