Yesterday was my Dad’s 12th Yahrzeit.
It’s so hard to believe that he has been gone for such a long time.
My Father zl was a larger than life person. He was an accomplished Torah scholar and a successful businessman. He garnered the respect of so many people.
There are many exceptional qualities that my Father embodied and so many lessons that I learned from him. As I get older, I’m still uncovering nuances that I didn’t fully grasp until now.
For example, I recently came to the realization that my Father never looked back.
He was a child of World War 2. While he was spared from the concentration camps as his family emigrated to Palestine in 1933, his whole world was turned upside down. The dreams he had for his future were destroyed as he had to help support the family. They suffered from hunger and other challenges. He lost many extended family members in the Holocaust, and was even arrested by the British for being a spy.
(It was a case of mistaken identity of course, but he was imprisoned and threatened with hanging until he could prove his innocence.)
Despite the complexity of his youth, and many losses he experienced, my Dad kept going. He did not allow those experiences to hold him back from building a family and creating a successful life.
It is easy to allow oneself to get mired in the past and not move forward.
In this week’s Torah portion which is called Vayera, we learn about Lot, nephew of Abraham. Lot grew up in Abraham’s home and journeyed with him.
At a certain point in time, Abraham told Lot that the time had come for them to part ways. This was due to the fact that Lot was not sufficiently meticulous in respecting the property of others. This was evidenced in the fact that Abraham muzzled his camels to make sure his animals would not graze in fields that were not his own. Lot was not careful in this manner and therefore, in this nuanced detail, Abraham recognized a lack of respect for others and decided it was time to part ways.
Lot surveyed the land before him and chose the most verdant of options which was Sodom. He chose the most lush area despite the decadent values of the inhabitants of Sodom.
Sodom was a city of iniquity and by choosing to make it his home, we are afforded another glimpse into Lot’s skewed values.
Gd decides to destroy the city of Sodom and tells Abraham of the plan. Abraham immediately prays for the salvation of Sodom in the hope that there are some worthy of saving, but Abraham is unsuccessful, and the Divine plan to destroy the city unfolds.
Immediately before the city is destroyed, Lot is warned and told he must leave immediately or else, he too, would be caught up in the maelstrom and be destroyed. Just moments before Sodom is destroyed, the angel says to Lot, “Run for your life. Do not look behind you, nor stop anywhere in the Plain; flee to the hills, lest you be swept away.”
The only caveat given to Lot and his family as they escape - don’t look back.
Why were they told not to look back?