This weeks Parsha has one episode in it that has always intrigued me. Its
the part when all the wicked townspeople of Sodom come to Lots house and want
him to send out his guests. The play begins: Act one , scene one, -19/4 - But
before they went to sleep, the men of the city, all the men of Sodom (the
wicked men) , surrounded the house, both young and old,all the people from every
quarter.
Scene 2 - 19/5 - And Lot went out to them on the door front, and he locked
the door behind him.
Scene 3 - 19/9 - And they said: Stand back. And one said: This fellow
came to live with us, and he will play the judge; we will deal worse with him,
then with them. And they pressed greatly against the man Lot, and drew near to
break the door.
Scene 4 -19/10 - But the men from inside put forth their hand, and brought
Lot to them into the house,and the door they shut.
Scene 5 - 19/11 - And the men that were at the door of the house,they
smote with blindness, both small and great; so that they wearied themselves to
find the door.
So why does this imagery strike such a chord with me. Its because I saw
the movie. It was a scene out a very old Luis Bunuel movie called The
Exterminating Angels. Black and white ,Spanish with English subtitles. There
was a large party in a large house, and at the end of the party, when the guests
wanted to go home, somehow they could not get out. All the doors and windows
were locked tight. When the townspeople began to come to the house and
surrounded it and tried to get in from anywhere, those at the front door were
blinded and ran away in terror. More came with axes and sledge hammers to smash
the door in and they too went screaming away blinded and terrified. No one was
able to get near the front door. It was like there was an invisible field
surrounding the house and when you stepped near to it , you were zapped with
blindness and fear. This is the image I can imagine happening at Lots house. A
virtual riot with mobs of hundreds of people screaming and running away from the
house as fast as could be. Terrified, blinded faces, running from the
Angels.
From the biography of Luis Bunuel,even though he was an Aino Yehudi, it is
probable that he read the Bible and this weeks episode.
Shabbat Shalom
Rb Yossi
Important Numbers
