Brimstone From Heaven and the Wife Turned to Salt

"Brimstone and fire from the LORD" (Genesis 19:24). This is the meaning of what is written, "Upon the wicked He shall rain snares" (Psalms 11:6), live coals and traps, "fire and brimstone." Rabbi Yudan said: When a person smells brimstone, his soul recoils within him. Why? Because it knows that it will be judged by it in the time to come, "and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup" (Psalms 11:6). Rabbi Yishmael bar Nachman in the name of Rabbi Yonatan: like vials of bitter draught after the bathhouse. Rabbi Chanina said: No evil thing comes down from above. They objected: but is it not written, "fire and hail, snow and vapor" (Psalms 148:8)? He said to him: it is a stormy wind doing His word. The statement of Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish disagrees with this; for Rabbi Chanina ben Pazzi said, "The LORD shall open to you His good treasury" (Deuteronomy 28:12), from here that He has bad treasuries. "From the LORD out of heaven" (Genesis 19:24), like a hammer-blow from a mighty man. (Genesis 19:25) "And He overturned those cities." Rabbi Levi in the name of Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman: these five cities sat upon one rock. The angel stretched out his hand and overturned them. This is the meaning of what is written, "He puts forth his hand upon the flinty rock" (Job 28:9). One said: the whole hand; and one said: with one finger, for the letter lamed taken out of "flinty rock" [chalamish] leaves "five" [chamesh]. Rabbi Yehoshua said: "and the growth of the ground" (Genesis 19:25), even the growths of the ground were stricken. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: to this day, if a man takes rain from the air of Sodom and puts it on another garden bed, it will not make anything grow. (Genesis 19:26-29) "And his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt." Rabbi Yitzchak said: because she sinned with salt. On the night the angels came to Lot, what was she doing? She went around to all her neighbors and said to them, Give me salt, for we have guests, intending that the men of the city should take notice of them. Therefore, "she became a pillar of salt." "And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham" (Genesis 19:29). Our rabbis taught: One who sees the wife of Lot recites two blessings: over his wife he recites, "the true Judge," and over Lot he recites, "Blessed is He who remembers the righteous." Rabbi Yochanan said: Even in the hour of the Holy One's anger He remembers the righteous, as it says, "and God remembered Abraham." What remembrance did He remember for Lot? The silence he kept for Abraham, when Abraham said of Sarai, "She is my sister," and Lot knew and was silent. "And He sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow" (Genesis 19:29). Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman said: because he had dwelt among them. The rabbis say: because he used to lend them at interest. "And Lot went up out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountain" (Genesis 19:30). This is the meaning of what is written, "To the chief musician, do not destroy; of David, a psalm, when he fled from Saul in the cave" (Psalms 57:1). He said before Him: Master of the universe, before I entered the cave You did kindness with others for my sake; now that I am placed in the cave, may it be Your will, "do not destroy." (Genesis 19:31) "And there is no man in the earth," for they thought the world had been destroyed as in the generation of the flood. (Genesis 19:32) "Come, let us make our father drink wine" and so on. Rabbi Tanchuma in the name of Rabbi Shmuel: "and let us preserve seed of our father" (Genesis 19:32). It is not written here "and let us preserve a son of our father," but "and let us preserve seed of our father": that seed which comes from another place. And what is this? The King Messiah. (Genesis 19:33) "And he did not know when she lay down and when she arose." There is a dot over the letter vav of "and when she arose" [uvkumah], for when she lay down he did not know, but when she arose he knew. And from where did they have wine in the cave? It was that they had it in abundance and used to store it in the caves. Rabbi Yehudah son of Rabbi Simon said: something resembling a sample of the world to come was made for them, as you say, "and it shall come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drop sweet wine" (Joel 4:18).