Romach

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Daughters of Lot

Lot's daughters use their father to conceive. The names of the children (Amon & Moab) are hints to this. Some explain that the daughters thought there were no men left, after the destruction of Sdom, they were all that remained of the human race. As such, they took the required actions, reproducing via their father.

But that can't be the case. We are told that Tzo'ar is saved (see my post here), and that Lot (and his family presumably) stayed there. So they had to know the human race survived. Unless of course, Tzo'ar was only spared temporarily, destroyed after they left (I seem to recall hearing this somewhere).

A close reading of the pesukim bears this out as well. The pasuk doesn't say that no men were available for the human race, rather it states that no men were available to them.