Written by Julian Alper
Lot’s daughters thought that they were the only survivors in the world after they witnessed the destruction of S’dom. On consecutive nights, the two surviving daughters gave their father too much to drink and had incestuous relations with their father. The first daughter bore Moav – ‘from my father’ and the second daughter gave birth to Amon. There is significant criticism of the daughter[1] who named her son Moav, highlighting that he was born from her father. However, before being too critical consider the following incident recounted in the Introduction[2] to Volume eight of Rav Moshe Feinstein’s great halachic work, Igrot Moshe. While still a young man in Europe, but already the Rav of his Community, Rav Moshe was called to visit a sick man who asked to see him. When he arrived, the man asked all those present to leave the room so that he could talk alone with Rav Moshe. His tongue was swollen[3] and he was barely able to speak. He told Rav Moshe that he was dying, and he knew why he was dying. The previous Shabbos he had spoken about the daughters of Lot and had been extremely critical of them, particularly for the way the older daughter had named her son. The following night he had a dream. Two old women, dressed in black cloaks, with hoods over their heads, visited him. They said they were the daughters of Lot and had come to explain why they acted as they did. They thought they were the only survivors in the world after S’dom was destroyed – they didn’t understand that only S’dom was wiped out. They thought the future of mankind rested on them, so they had relations with their father and gave birth to sons. By the time their sons were born they knew that they were not the only survivors. They were concerned that people would say that their conception was immaculate, given that the only other person with them was their own father. To avoid this, they publicized that their sons were born from their father. After telling Rav Moshe his story, the sick man turned away and died.
We should be very careful before we speak badly of others, even if the subject of our lashon harah is from the distant past.
[1] See Rashi to Bereishit 19:37
[2] The introduction was written, after his death, by Rav Moshe’s son and or son-in-law.
[3] This was the same punishment that the Meraglim received for their lashon harah.
