Offering Daughters for the Guests
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Question
Hello, In Genesis 19:8 Lot offers his two daughters to the men of Sodom to leave the angels alone. Why does Lot do this? Was the mitzvah of hospitality important to him? Or kindness? And what about kindness to his daughters? Earlier, Rashi also mentions that he baked matzah in honor of Passover. Does this mean Lot observed Passover like a Jew?
Answer
Hello
Lot did this to protect the guests who came to his house.
The importance of hospitality was in his heart, but without proper consideration.
For without a doubt, this behavior of offering his daughters for the sake of the guests is a moral distortion.
And the Sages said that this came to him because immorality was insignificant in his eyes.
[Lot learned from Abraham Avinu the laws of the Passover festival, which he knew and understood on his own].
Source
Ramban Genesis 19:8
From the praise of this man, we come to his disgrace, as he was very diligent in saving his guests because they came under his roof, but to appease the townspeople by offering his daughters is nothing but an evil heart, as immorality with women was not distant in his eyes, and he did not consider it a great violence against his daughters according to his view.
Therefore, our Sages said (Tanchuma Vayera 12) that in the usual practice, a person sacrifices himself for his daughters and wife, killing or being killed, and this man offers his daughters to be abused.