I am very excited for the opportunity to share words of Torah with you. Each week, in this spot, I look to share an idea I've found that speaks to me and that I think will resonate with you as well. This week, I share an excerpt from an article by Rabbi Yehonasan Gefen entitled ‘The Curiosity of Lot's Wife’ that elaborates on the positive and negative sides of curiosity.
[...] In the midst of the story of the destruction of Sodom, the Torah tells us of the tragic death of Lot's wife; that she turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back at the destruction of Sodom. Rashi explains that she turned into salt because she acted cruelly with regards to salt when her husband asked her for salt to give to the guests. Rashi's explanation seems to give rise to a new question: according to the account in the Torah, the apparent reason for her death was that she looked back at Sodom, not because she didn't give salt to the guests. If her cruelty was the true reason for her death, then why was she punished when she looked back at Sodom? It could have happened any other time. It seems that there is some kind of link between her cruelty with regards to looking back at Sodom and not giving salt to the guests. What is the connection?
In order to understand this, it is necessary to understand what motivated her to look back at the destruction of Sodom. Interestingly, she was not the only person to gaze at this tragic event; Abraham also did, but different words are used to describe their looking. With regard to Lot's wife, the Torah uses the word, 'lehabit', which means to stare at something, whereas with regard to Abraham, the word used is, 'lehashkef' which implies looking that is based on deep thought. This is supported by the fact that the Hebrew word for an outlook on life is hashkafa, which comes from the same root word. Abraham's viewing of the destruction of Sodom was one that was full of contemplation. In this vein, the Rashbam writes that he was looking to see if there were ten righteous people in whose merit Sodom would be saved. Thus even in this time of destruction, Abraham's overflowing sense of kindness was apparent.
In contrast, the 'looking' of Lot's wife did not emanate from kindness, as demonstrated by her cruel behavior in the incident involving salt. Why was she looking? Perhaps she was simply looking for the sake of curiosity; not because she cared about the people being destroyed, but because she wanted to see what was happening to them. This in and of itself may well have been worthy of punishment, but it seems that the bizarre nature of her death came as a result of her previous callous actions with regards to salt. This demonstrated that she was not a caring person by any means, and that her 'looking' at the destruction of Sodom did not stem from any sense of caring, rather as a result of pure curiosity.
The curiosity of Lot's wife proved to be her undoing. This teaches us an important lesson about the attitude that we should develop towards the trait of curiosity. In the positive sense, curiosity causes a person to have an interest about the world and expand his horizons. However, if the curiosity is misapplied it can become damaging. Curiosity for the sake of itself at best can lead to a person wasting their time being overly concerned in other people's lives. At worst, it can lead to a considerable amount of negative speech, and involvement in unsavory matters. [...] The story of Lot's wife teaches us an important lesson about how and when it is appropriate to delve into the affairs of others.
Have a Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Davies
Rabbi@SOICherryHill.org
