A winding path – Vayyera
When the angelic beings come to Lot’s town he tells them (Gen. 19:2), “Please turn to your servant’s house”.
We wonder why he doesn’t use the more straightforward words, “Please come…”
The Midrash, followed by Rashi, says he means precisely what he says: “Don’t come into the house by the direct route but take a roundabout path so that the people of Sodom will not see where you are going”.
Giving hospitality was natural to Lot, as it is to every Jew, but in Sodom the inhabitants had a contrary view and they treated wayfarers harshly and cruelly.
