Lot Urges the Angels In and Bakes Them Matzah

"And he said, Behold now, my lords" (Genesis 19:2). Rabbi Yudan said: [Lot meant] even if I am not worthy, bend the road aside on my account [come by way of my house]. Rabbi Huna said: [he meant] bend the road aside for me, so that you not be seen coming to my house [directly, lest the Sodomites notice]. "Turn aside to your servant's house, and stay the night, and wash your feet": Abraham would put washing before lodging, but Lot put lodging before washing. The difference: Abraham was strict about the dust of idolatry [and wanted feet washed at once], while Lot was not strict. And some say: even in this Lot acted properly, so that they would go out in the morning and people would see dust on their feet and not say, "Where did they lodge?" "And they said, No, but we will spend the night in the street": one may refuse a lesser person but not a greater one. "And he pressed them greatly" (Genesis 19:3): he forced his way upon them with insistence and trouble, "and they turned in to him and entered his house." This supports the one who said: bend the road aside so that you not be seen coming to me. "And he made them a feast": it was in the manner of Abraham, who received passersby. "And he baked unleavened bread, and they ate": Rabbi Yitzchak said: a great quarrel arose over the salt, for he said to her [his wife], "Give these guests a little salt," and she said to him, "This evil custom too you wish to introduce here?" [She betrayed his hospitality to the townsfolk.] "Before they lay down" (Genesis 19:4), the men of the city began asking him questions. The men of the city, the men of Sodom, said to him, what are they? He said to them: every place has good people and bad, but here the majority are bad. And the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, not one of them holding back. "And they called to Lot and said to him" (Genesis 19:5-8). Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said in the name of Rabbi Pedaya: all that night Lot was pleading for mercy on behalf of the Sodomites, and they [the angels] were accepting it from him. But once they said, "Bring them out to us, that we may know them" [carnally], they said to him (Genesis 19:12), "Whom else have you here?" Read it: you no longer have a mouth [permission]; until now you had leave to plead their defense, from now on you have no leave. "Only to these men do nothing" harsh [Lot said, pleading for his guests].