As Robert Kaiser reminds us:
"Classical Jewish texts concur that God did *not* destroy Sodom and Gemorrah because their inhabitants were homosexual. Not at all. Rather, the cities were destroyed because the inhabiants were uncompromisingly greedy. Classical Jewish writings affirm that the primary crimes of the Sodomites were, terrible and repeated economic crimes, both against each other and outsiders. Saying "God killed them because they were gay" is, to say the least, not the Jewish teaching on the subject."
For proof, consider the following texts:
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Ezekiel 16:46-50 This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them when I saw it.
Ezekiel 16:46-50 This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them when I saw it.
Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 109a If one wounded his neighbor they would say to the victim, Give him a fee for [performing the service] of bloodletting... If a poor man happened to come there, every resident gave him a coin upon which he wrote his name, but no bread was given [the store owners recognized the coins, and refused to accept them]. When he died, each came and took back his[coin]
Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer: Rabbi Ze era said: The men of Sodom were the wealthy men of prosperity, on account of the good and fruitful land whereon they dwelt... Rabbi Nathaniel said: The men of Sodom had no consideration for the honour of their Owner by not distributing food to the wayfarer and stranger, but they even fenced in all the trees on top above their fruit so that so that they should not be seized; not even by the bird of heaven... Rabbi Joshua... said: They appointed over themselves judges who were lying judges, and they oppressed every wayfarer and stranger who entered Sodom by their perverse judgment, and they sent them forth naked... Rabbi Jehudah said: They made a proclamation in Sodom saying: Everyone who strengthens the hand of the poor or the needy with a loaf of bread shall be burnt by fire
Ramban: ... [in] the opinion of our Rabbis, all evil practices were rampant among them. Yet their fate was sealed because they did not strengthen the hand of the poor and needy - since this sin represented their usual behavior more than any other. Besides, since all peoples act righteously towards their friends and their poor, there was none among all the nations who matched Sodom in cruelty.
Mendel Hirsch: Boundless selfishness, greed for profits, misuse of power in service of their own interests on the part of those in authority and greed for lucre in all classes of the people, the oppression of the defenseless widows and orphans was what made the prophet give the people the resounding appellation of "the Lords of Sodom and the people of Gomorrah."
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In short, the sin of Sodom was not the sin of Ellen, but the sin of Trump and McConnell and others like them who do too little to protect the vulnerable or defend the rights of the innocent
This is his language:
הוציאם אלינו ונדעה אותם פירוש נדע כל מאווייהם וחפציהם אם רוצים לרגל את הארץ וזה שאמר הנה נא לי ש"ב כו' כי על כן באו בצל קורתי פירוש על כן בשביל הבנות להתחתן אתם באו האנשים הנה בצל קורתי.
Rabbi Kooperman in the notes section to the modern Meshech Chochma asks a good question - the Meshech Chochma has not explained why Lot says "And do whatever you want with them" - i.e., to rape his daughters.
My initial answer is that "do whatever you want" means to interrogate them as to why the men are here, or, perhaps even worse, to examine his daughters for virginity (since that was sometimes done back then).
I even considered whether Meshech Chochma agrees with Ramban that it was meant to be a piece of mussar, and not to actually offer his daughters. So he gives an explanation and says "Hey, you want to marry them instead"??
But ultimately, I think Meshech Chochma is just trying to make sense of Lot's offer, which seems crazy cruel, and perhaps not all the pieces work.
