Parshat Lech-Lecha

SARAI, ABRAM' WIFE, HAD BORNE HIM NO CHILDREN. SHE HAD AN EGYPTIAN FEMALE SLAVE WHOSE NAME WAS HAGAR. AND SARAI SAID TO ABRAM, "LOOK, THE LORD HAS KEPT ME FROM BEARING. CONSORT WITH MY MAID; PERHAPS I SHALL BE BUILT UP THROUGH HER." AND ABRAM HEEDED SARAI'S REQUEST.

(Bereishit 16:1-2)

 

Perhaps I shall be built up through her - Thanks to the merit I gain for inviting [her as] a rival into my house.

(Rashi ad loc)

 

Consort with my female slave [shifhati] - [Sarah spoke] not as Rachel spoke to Jacob: Here is my maidservant, Bilhah. A maidservant is not really like a female slave, who is owned bodily. Rather she need [only] be obedient, like a Hebrew female servant. Even though Laban gave her [Bilhah] to her [Rachel] as a female slave, in any event ever since Rachel passed her over to Jacob she became a maidservant. However, this was not true of Sarah, who continued to treat her [Hagar] as a female slave, as shall become clear.

Perhaps I shall be built up through her - Rachel said: that she may bear on my knees and that through her I too may have children. The meaning is that she will raise the child as if she had given birth to it. That is not the case with Sarah, who did not want to raise her female slave's son. That is why she said perhaps I shall be built up [as if to say]: "That I might have some merit and be remembered for the good through that offspring."

(Ha'Amek Davar ad loc)

 

 

Dedicated to my mother who gave birth to me,

Ya'el bat Morenu ve'Sarah

Hagar - Danger, Fear, and Repair

Daliah Marx

The morning benedictions include three benedictions of Tannaitic origin with which the worshipper thanks God for his lot in life (Tosefta Berakhot 6:8 [Lieberman pg. 38] and in the version better known to us in Menahot 43b-44a). By reciting the benedictions - "Who did not make me a gentile", "who did not make me a slave," and "who did not make me a woman" - all of them formulated in the negative - the worshipper gives thanks for his lot inasmuch as he belongs to the Jewish group, the freemen, and the males. These three benedictions comprehend human existence in terms of national, social, and gender status. In each case, they place him in the preferred class of persons.

Hagar, our mother Sarah's female servant and mother of Ishmael, belongs to every category from which the worshipper is thankful for having been excluded - she is a gentile, slave, and woman. Hagar is not only the perfect stranger; she occupies the wrong side of every equation set up by the three benedictions.

How surprising, then, to discover that when it comes to their children, there is a great deal of similarity between the story of Abraham, Father of the Jewish People, the perfect and ideal Jew who was granted direct and continuous connection with God and the story of Hagar, the gentile slave-woman. The story of Abraham and his beloved son Isaac is similar to that of Hagar and her son Ishmael, whom she had born for Abraham. If we place the two narratives side by side, the very similarity of the two makes the differences between them all the more salient. To our great surprise, the comparison is not always complimentary to Abraham.

In parashat Lekh Lekha, we read of God's revelation to Abraham, of Abraham's readiness to respond to the revelation, and of God's promises to him and to his descendants. Hagar's story lies hidden within Abraham's.

Neither Abraham nor Hagar accepts the conventions of their societies; they act against them. In the beginning of the parasha, upon receiving divine revelation, Abraham leaves his home, the land of his birth, and his father's house. By departing, he cuts himself off from the framework in which he had grown up and whose values were supposed to direct his actions. Hagar the slave refuses to serve as a surrogate mother for her mistress Sarah, even though that function was accepted by her cultural environment (after all, two generations later we see it occurring in the story of Zilpah and Bilhah). Lacking any real ability to oppose the hierarchical and patriarchal institutions that throw her to Abraham's bed, she exploits her power - the power of the weak - and takes rebellious action, deprecating Sarah: Seeing that she had become pregnant, her mistress lost honor in her eyes (16:4).

The lines of comparison between the two stories are numerous. Both are framed by Abraham's two revelations that begin with the words lekh lekha [go!]. The first tells him to leave his home and the second to sacrifice his son. These are traditionally referred to as Abraham's first and final trials (Tanhuma Lekh Lekha 5; Tanhuma [Buber] Vayeira 46). Hagar also experiences two revelations. First, an angel addresses her after she flees from Sarah, saying, Return to your mistress and be afflicted under her hand (16:9). (This revelation is largely opposite to that received by Abraham in the opening of our parasha; God tells Abraham to leave his home, the cultural center of the age, and go to an unknown land, while the angel of the Lord tells Hagar to leave the wilderness and return to the house which had been a source of suffering for her). The angel promises the pregnant Hagar that I will surely multiply your seed, it will be numerous beyond counting (16:10) - a promise similar to the promise received by Abraham after the binding of Isaac. He also promises that the son will be a free man, a ruler rather than a lowly slave like herself. It seems that Hagar agrees to return to Abraham's house in order to attain her son's promised freedom at the price of her own. Hagar experiences her second revelation when God opens her eyes and she sees the well. She is the first biblical character whom God addresses by name. In fact, she is so addressed on two occasions (16:8, 21:17). (Franz Rosenzweig claims that when he said Here I am, Abraham became the first person to answer upon being called by name by God. Rosenzweig explains that by saying Here I am, Abraham responded to the first call of God to humans; Where are you? Adam had found it impossible to contend with that call and instead hid from God's presence. Abraham was able to "look God straight in the eye" and say Here I am! However, Hagar remains the first person whom an angel addressed by name.)

Both stories depict loving parents confronted by a situation in which the beloved son faces danger. In both cases, the danger is connected to leaving home and a journey that the parent is commanded to undertake.

Abraham, father to both boys - Isaac and Ishmael - acquiesces in both cases to powers that ask him to act in a way that will place the children's lives in tangible danger. In Isaac's case, he unquestioningly obeys the divine call. Regarding Ishmael, he also obeys God's command that he obey his wife Sarah, although, there we also read: The matter distressed Abraham greatly because of his son (21:11). In both cases we see that Abraham rises early in the morning to fulfill his difficult mission.

Abraham travels with Isaac to Mount Moriah out of a choice to obey the divine command that he sacrifice his son's life. He is the one who holds the knife over his son. In contrast, Hagar does not acquiesce to the evil decree. However, as an enslaved gentile woman, she cannot actively resist the expulsion that is forced upon her.

While Abraham took an active step and brought his son to be sacrificed on Mount Moriah, Hagar engages in passive protest, the resistance of the weak. She does not accept her fate and instead she refuses to watch the child die. She leaves Ishmael to die of thirst, while she sits away at the distance of a bow-shot (21:16), so expressing her refusal to cooperate with the cruel decree. Hagar's tears contrast strongly with Abraham's restraint in the story of the binding of Isaac. It is the first mention of someone crying in the Bible; a mother crying at her son's bitter fate.

In both cases an angel of God addresses the parent and halts the terrible course of events just before its consummation. In both cases, divine intervention connected with the act of seeing snatches the son from an awful death. In the binding of Isaac, Abraham sees the ram and sacrifices it instead of his son. God opens Hagar's eyes and she sees a well. The motif of vision is important to both stories; indeed, the place where Ishmael was saved is named Be'er Ro'i [well of my seeing] and the site of the binding of Isaac is Har HaMoriah, in which is embedded the verb ra'ah [saw].

The tension between these two interwoven stories that are found in the parashiyot of Lekh Lekha and VaYeira is not resolved in the framework of Scripture. It seems to be only further intensified by the fact that Isaac is later to be counted among the nation's founding patriarchs, while Ishmael comes to be viewed by both Jewish and Islamic tradition as having founded the Moslem nation.

A midrash now comes to our aid. There is a midrashic tradition that identifies Hagar with Keturah, who Abraham married after Sarah's death (Bereishit Rabbah 61:6) It views them as being one in the same woman. The midrash suggests a kind of repair [tikkun] in that the female slave turns into a married woman, and the hierarchical relationship is replaced with a spousal relationship.

Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai gives voice to a different midrashic tradition, according to which Hagar the Egyptian is none other than the Pharaoh's daughter (Bereishit Rabbah 45:1). Hagar becomes the daughter of pharaoh known as Batyah. In her youth, she suffered a terrible trauma, almost losing her only son. Later, thanks to her human compassion, she saves the infant Moses, a son of the Israelites. The mercy she shows contrasts with the stern decree that she had herself experiences; it creates a kind of tikkun and allows for consolation.

According to this tradition, Abraham and Sarah, who had oppressed Hagar, would beget descendants who themselves would be enslaved by the descendents of Hagar and Abraham. Hagar had suffered because of her fertility, and her children would want to destroy the descendents of Abraham and Sarah because of their great fertility - Let us deal shrewdly with them say the Egyptians, lest they lest they increase (Shemot 1:10). Interestingly, this tradition may involve the principle of measure for measure. (Concerning the verse, Sarah afflicted her, and she [Hagar] took flight from her, the RaMBaN writes: Our mother Sarah sinned by this affliction and Abraham sinned likewise for letting her do it. God heard her affliction and gave her a son who would become a wild man in order to afflict the descendents of Abraham and Sarah in all manners of affliction).

It even seems that we can find a dimension of repair and solace within the biblical text itself. Two boys, both sons of Abraham, sons to mothers who were at odds with each other, sons, each of whom had stood on the edge of violent death, join together to make the effort to bring their father to a proper burial: And his sons Isaac and Ishmael brought him to burial in the Cave of Makhpelah (25:9). Perhaps because of this, Scripture mentions that he died well-satisfied and at a good old age. Isaac and Ishmael knew how to get over the past, over the hatred that lasted a generation, and cooperate in the care of their beloved father.

This cooperation allowed the two sons to each make his peace with the fact of his half-brother's existence; it also allowed each of them to live in peace with himself.

And may Hagar live forever

And look forwards forever. (Anda Amir Pinkerfeld, "Hagar." From Gadish Ve'Omer, pg. 1)

Each of us is Hagar sometimes - lost and abandoned in the middle of the wilderness, standing hopelessly and full of yearning in the face of dangers that beset that which is dear to us.

Each of us is Abraham sometimes - torn between our great loves and unable to repair the tears.

Each of us is Sarah sometimes - hurt and abandoned and feeling forsaken, even within our own homes and families.

May we not have to wait a generation's time for repair and consolation! May we learn to open our eyes and see a well of living waters and pour balm over the wounds of the past!

Dr. Daliah Marx teaches at the Hebrew Union College and at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

 

 

"The Deeds of the Fathers are a Sign for the Sons": Israel's Flight as a Moral Consequence of Hagar's Flight

It is from the presence of my mistress Sarah that I flee [borahat]: It [the word borahat] occurs twice in the traditional biblical text. Here, and there [i.e., in the verse:] All of the city flees from the sound of cavalry and bowman (Jeremiah 4:29). Since Sarah caused Ishmael to flee, Israel had to flee from him; for bowmen refers to Ishmael, as he is called a shooter of bows (21:20).

(Ba'al Ha'Turim Bereishit 16:8)

 

And you shall come to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age

You shall be buried at a good old age: He revealed to him that Ishmael would repent during his lifetime.

(Rashi on Bereishit 15:15, following Bereishit Rabbah 38)

 

...here the deeds of the fathers are a sign for the sons. It hints at how the children of Ishmael will draw near to the truth and believe in one God in the end of days, and separate themselves from the idolaters, as our rabbi [the RaMBaM] wrote. That is what Isaac meant when he pleaded for Esau: Let the scoundrel be spared [yet he learns not righteousness; in a place of integrity he does wrong - He ignores the majesty of the Lord] (Isaiah 26:10); [Isaac pleaded] that he [Esau] would also distance himself from idolatry in the end of days, but the answer [to his plea] was in a place of integrity [he does wrong] therefore he ignores the majesty of the Lord, and will worship idols until and in that day the Lord shall be one.

(Rabbi Meir Simkha Mi'Dvinsk's Meshekh Hokhmah on Bereishit 15:15)

 

 

Ten Years since the Assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin z"l

Some prayer books include a kabbalistic custom which calls for the daily recitation, after the Shaharit service, of the "Six Remembrances" listed in the Torah: the Exodus from Egypt, Shabbat, the Revelation at Sinai, the wanderings in the wilderness, Miriam's punishment, and the annihilation of Amalek.

These "remembrances" differ from each other in character, but they are all intended to shape the collective memory that is part of every Jew's mindset, a collective memory that is intended to influence one's culture and way of life.

It seems to me that more than a few additional mind-shaping events have occurred through the course of history; it is imperative that we remember them. Forgetting or erasing them may lead to catastrophe.

There is no doubt that the murder of Yitzhak Rabin by a young kippah-wearing Jew, who was motivated by ideological reasons born of a false religious faith - is an event that must be burned into our consciousness.

Indeed, despite polarized differences of opinion and statements by politicians and rabbis branding decisions made by the Israeli government and Knesset as illegitimate and calling for a refusal to follow orders, most people who opposed those political moves maintained relative self-control and stayed within the limits of legitimate protest.

Of course, incitement, violence, and death threats against public servants should not be taken lightly. Violent acts create an atmosphere that hurts the tissue of relationships within Israeli society and can legitimize people who act out of zealous faith in their political world-view, which is tinged with religious terminology.

A "disagreement for the sake of Heaven" should not be understood as meaning the deployment of "Heaven" for the justification of villainous deeds. Citing "Heaven" in connection with such acts is a desecration of the Holy Name. Jewish tradition and democracy both require that that the majority should decide controversial issues. HaRAYaH Kook ztz"l interpreted the phrase "Torah scholars bring peace to the world" in this way:

Some people mistakenly believe that world peace can only be achieved by [establishing] uniformity of opinion and character. And so, when they see scholars investigating wisdom and Torah ideas, and as a result of these investigations the number of viewpoints and methods multiplies, they think that they [the scholars] cause controversy and the opposite of peace. But in truth it is not so, for the true peace can only come to the world by way of the value of the multiplicity of peace. The multiplicity of peace occurs when all viewpoints and methods become visible, and it becomes clear how each has its own place, each according to its worth, its place, and its concerns. (HaRav Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook, ztz"l Olat RaAYaH, pg.330)

May we learn to internalize this deep truth!

Pinchas Leiser,

Editor

 

 

 

 

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