The Torah says the angels came to Sedom at night (Bereishis 19:1), which was the night of Pesach (see Rashi 19:3), yet Lot was sitting by the city gates at that time. What was he doing there? (Wouldn't he have been making a Seder with matzah in his home?)
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3Are you serious? Why would Lot be making a Seder centuries before the Exodus happened and we received a commandment to remember it?– MikeCommented Nov 10 at 17:38
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1@Mike Why would Lot be making matzah on Pesach? It seems Avraham taught him about the 613 mitzvos, which indeed the Avos kept.– NJMCommented Nov 10 at 19:34
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1@NJM doesn't say anything about pesach. He made a quick meal for the surprise last minute guests who came late in the day– Double AA ♦Commented Nov 10 at 20:01
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1@Yø-cRo 1) The comment was clearly not assuming like that midrash. 2) That is now circular: you can't argue that it must be he was keeping the mitzvot because why else make matza on pesach, if the whole source for it being pesach is already midrashic.– Double AA ♦Commented Nov 10 at 23:25
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1@DoubleAA I understood the question to be within the midrashic interpretation, although I guess that would be more of a question on the midrash than on the pasuk.– Yø-c RoCommented Nov 10 at 23:29
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2 Answers
You asked:
Wouldn't he have been making a Seder with matzah in his home?
The Or HaChaim HaKadosh explains that Lot did not observe the Torah and its mitzvos as Avraham Avinu did:
The correct meaning of the verse is that while Lot prepared a meal for them the angels ate only matzot. This was because Lot did not observe the commandments of the Torah as did Abraham.
So, according to this, he wouldn't have been making a Seder.
Interestingly, the Chizkuni writes that his house was at the gates of the city, and he sat there judging:
ולוט יושב בשער סדום, while Lot was seated (as a judge) in the public square of Sodom;” this was at the time when the quarrel about his guests broke out and he returned home, which was close to the gate of the city.
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The fact that Lot was a judge can be learned by anshei Sodom, in Bereshis 19:9 וַיִּשְׁפֹּ֣ט שָׁפ֔וֹט sefaria.org/… Also Rashi on Bereshis 19:3– Y DJCommented Nov 11 at 4:14
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@YDJ Yes, but I knew Rashi was going to get quoted so I found some other(s).– ShmuelCommented Nov 11 at 11:05
According to Chazal (Bava Metzia 86b, and cited in Rashi 18:1), the angels visited on the third day from Avraham’s bris milah.
Avraham’s bris, according to Rabbi Eliyahu Mizrachi’s interpretation of Rashi, took place on Erev Pesach, and the angels visited either on the third day of Pesach or in the afternoon of the first day. In either case, the angels did not arrive at Lot’s house on the seder night. This is why, instead of ובכן ויהי בחצי הלילה, on the second night of Seder we sing ובכן ואמרתם זבח פסח, which mentions the story of Lot in the 3rd stanza:
זוֹעֲמוּ סְדוֹמִים וְלוֹהֲטוּ בָּאֵשׁ בַּפֶּסַח, חֻלַּץ לוֹט מֵהֶם וּמַצּוֹת אָפָה בְּקֵץ פֶּסַח, טִאטֵאתָ אַדְמַת מוֹף וְנוֹף בְּעָבְרְךָ בַּפֶּסַח. וַאֲמַרְתֶּם זֶבַח פֶּסַח.
The men of Sodom raged and burned in fire on Pesaḥ. Lot was saved; he baked matzot at the end of Pesaḥ (i.e. end of 1st day of Pesaḥ). You swept bare the land of Mof and Nof [Egypt] in Your great rage on Pesaḥ. TELL [your children]: “THIS IS THE PESAH.”
[See here for @YDJ’s thorough explanation of the various opinions, and the discussion in the comments.]
