Parshat Vayera

HIS WIFE LOOKED BEHIND HIM AND SHE THEREUPON TURNED INTO A PILLAR OF SALT.

(Bereishit 19:26)

 

His wife looked behind him - behind Lot.

And she thereupon turned into a pillar of salt - By salt she had sinned and by salt she was punished. He [Lot] said to her [once]: "Give a little salt to these strangers" and she answered him, "Do you mean to introduce this bad custom, also, into our city?"

(Rashi ad loc, Silbermann translation)

 

Now as to the significance of the prohibition of looking, Rashi said: "You have sinned with them but are saved through the merit of Abraham. You are not permitted to see their doom."

There is yet another matter. Looking upon the atmosphere of a plague and all contagious diseases is very harmful. Therefore, the leper is isolated and dwells alone. Similarly, those who have been bitten by mad animals such as a mad dog and other animals besides, when they look into the water or any mirror, they behold in them the likeness of the offender, and as a result of this, they did just as the Rabbis have said in the Tractate Yoma 84a, and as the students of nature have mentioned. It was for this reason that Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt for the plague entered her mind when she saw the brimstone and salt which descended upon them from heaven, and it cleaved to her.

I am inclined to say that when God destroyed these cities the destroying angel stood between the earth and heaven (I Chronicles 21:16) appearing in a flame of fire, as did the destroying angel whom David saw. Therefore, he prohibited them from looking.

In Pirkei d'Rabbi Eliezer (25) there is a similar text: "The angels said to them, 'Do not look behind you since the Divine Presence of the Holy One, blessed be He, has descended to rain brimstone and fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah.' The compassion of Edis, Lot's wife, welled up for her married daughters who were in Sodom, and she looked behind her to see if they were following her. She thereupon saw the back of the Divine Presence, and she became a pillar of salt.

(RaMBaN loc cit, Chavel translation)

 

 

Hagar is Keturah?

Amirah Ilan

Parashat VaYeirah describes several peak moments - both positive and negative - in Abraham's behavior. One of these is the expulsion of Ishmael, which has been referred to as the Akedah of Ishmael. Could it be that Hagar disappears, never to return, from the biblical narrative?

In next week's parasha, Hayyei Sarah, we will read that in his twilight years, after burying his wife Sarah and marrying off his son Isaac to Rivkah, Abraham returned to married life, this time with Keturah. The Torah tells us nothing about Keturah - not about where she came from, nor about her ethnic origin, not about her appearance, nor about her personality and behavior. The commentators and darshanim took over where the Torah remained silent. Study of several excerpts from their works will help reveal their exegetical considerations as well as their literary and ideological purposes. My article is concerned with these issues.

As early as the midrash Bereishit Rabbah we already find contrasting opinions regarding Keturah's identity. Was she Hagar? That view would raise the question of why she was referred to by a different name in the parshiyot preceding Hayyei Sarah. Or perhaps she was a different woman, leaving us to wonder why she was called Keturah. Remember that the names of many of the characters mentioned in the first parshiyot of the Torah are explicitly explained, adding to our interest in an explanation of Keturah's name. The midrashic disagreement demonstrates the ambiguity of the first verse of chapter twenty-five, and that it invites more than one interpretation.

The name Keturah is explained along two principle lines. The first is that "she is fragrant [mekuteret] with commandments and good deeds." According to this midrash, the name Keturah is close in meaning to ketoret [incense] which exudes a pleasant odor. Indeed, the Tanhumah's version states that "Her actions were as pleasing as incense," while Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer says, "She was perfumed [mekuteret] with all manner of perfumes." The other view has it that she is like "one who seals up a store and finds it sealed and knotted," an allusive way of saying that from the moment Abraham expelled Hagar to the wilderness, she kept herself from having sexual relations with other men. Later midrashim replaced Bereishit Rabbah's euphemisms with plainer language. In Midrash Aggadah, a late medieval work produced by the school of one of Rashi's teachers, R. Moshe HaDarshan, we read: "She was perfumed with purity, for no other man ever came unto her." It is a short jump to Rashi's own combined formulation: "She was called Keturah because her deeds were as pleasing as incense and because she tied up her opening, - from the day she left Abraham, she did not couple with any man." The Targum attributed to Yonatan ben Uziel expresses this idea in stronger language: "She was Hagar, who was bound to him from the start."

Before leaving this line of interpretation, let us momentarily turn our attention to Bereishit Rabbah's claim that Isaac was the one who brought Hagar back home to his father after Sarah's death. This midrash does not express hatred, or resentment, or alienation, or vengeance, or rejection, or any other negative attitude. Rather, it expresses appreciation and legitimization, and it deserves to be the subject of an entire separate discussion!

Not everyone identified Keturah with Hagar. Besides the alternative view recorded in Bereishit Rabbah, some of the leading medieval exegetes, including RaShBaM, RaMBaN, and Ibn Ezra, rejected the Hagar equals Keturah equation. They based their interpretations upon careful readings of the verses in question. Everyone is invited to study their comments and decide whether their arguments are convincing.

What are the implications of my discussion so far?

First of all, Abraham is portrayed as a man who remains virile into his old age - it is only then that he most fully realizes the blessing of offspring that he had received several times in the course of his life. Second, the midrashic tendency to identify unknown characters with known characters comes to the fore. Third, beyond the possible identification of Keturah as Hagar, there develop two clear lines of praise for her - for what she avoided doing and for what she chose to do. In any case, she is described as a positive character. Actually, these two lines of praise do not teach us about Keturah, but rather about the moral world-view of the darshanim and exegetes. A positive woman is one who remains faithful to her first husband, even if she is treated terribly, e.g., she is expelled from the home; or she is a woman who diligently performs the commandments and other good deeds. Her strength is mostly practical rather than intellectual. Fourth, did Abraham begin a new cycle of marital life, or did he return to an earlier wife? Again, we do not have an historical recreation before us, but rather a literary shaping of the biblical characters. It seems to me to reflect - in part consciously and in part unconsciously - the values and concepts of the exegetes more than the actual content of the biblical text.

It seems to me that all of the darshanim and commentators agree in viewing Abraham's marriage to Keturah in a positive light and as a legitimate relationship. More than that: they engage, in one way or another, in an open exegetical effort to develop a flattering description of Keturah's personality. Finally, when they identified Keturah with Hagar, in effect they made Hagar's expulsion into a more serious affair. Could it be that a woman who was so faithful to Abraham, or one so involved in the performance of commandments and other good deeds, be deserving of an expulsion that was tantamount to a death sentence? There is more than a pinch of criticism of Abraham and Sarah hiding here.

If Keturah was Hagar, her marriage to Abraham constituted a kind of tikkun [repair] of the terrible deed that Abraham perpetrated against her in parashat VaYeirah - expulsion to the wilderness, which amounted to sending her to her death! Since we are not dealing with an historical record but rather with a literary reading, it is clear that those who adopted this line of interpretation would think that Abraham was in need of such a tikkun. It turns out that disappointment with Abraham's role in Hagar's expulsion was so deep that it welled up in the interpretation of other sections of the book of Bereishit.

Amirah Ilan is a veteran landscape architect and a guide for overseas tours

 

 

And you shall walk in his ways - He is..., so you should be

Let Me go down and I shall see - From this verse it seems as if He did not yet know the extent of the wickedness of the people of Sodom, since it says that He will go down to see if they have acted on their intentions yet or not. It is forbidden to think this, for the blessed Lord probes the heart and searches the mind [literally: "kidneys"] and nothing great or small is hidden from Him...

Rather, the truth of the matter is this: The blessed Lord undoubtedly knew that the people of Sodom were greatly wicked and sinful to the Lord, and that no measures intended to return them to the good would be of any help or usefulness. However, despite all of that, He saw with His wisdom that He should give them another chance before destroying them, for several reasons:

A) In order that Abraham be aroused to pray for them when he hears that their fate is not sealed.

B) In order that all the peoples of the earth know that God does not desire the death of the wicked man, but rather that he return from his ways, and so He offered an opportunity of repentance for those who might be interested.

C) In order to teach judges not to find defendants guilty before investigating the matter, as the Tanhuma says regarding the verse, And the Lord went down to see the town.

D) In order that Lot understand how he had sinned by associating with corrupt people. This test will make him recognize their evil, and as is implied by the other reasons.

The test consisted of sending the two angels to Sodom, disguised as guests to see whether they would be greeted with joy or whether they would be treated cruelly and [the people of Sodom would] try to do them great harm. Their fate would be sealed in accordance with their deeds. That is why God said to Abraham that despite His knowing the magnitude of Sodom's outcry and sins, He still wanted to test them again... I will go down and see whether or not they persist with their evil deeds and continue to treat those guests wickedly, inflicting great abominations, as in their outcry that came to Me. If I see that everyone is dross, altogether foul (Psalms 53:4), I will completely destroy them, and if not, I will know what to do with them and perhaps have mercy upon them.

(Rabbi Y"S Reggio on Bereishit 18:21)

 

Then the elder said to the younger: "Our father is old and there is not a man on earth to consort with us in the way of all the world."

(Bereishit 19:31)

 

She who began the harlotry would end with harlotry - Their mother began the harlotry, [as it is written] Then the elder said to the younger: "Let us serve our father drink...". The next day came and the elder sister told the younger... - She taught her harlotry. That is why God took pity on the younger and did not make her known [as someone who slept with her father], but only [wrote] she lay with him, while regarding the elder it is written, she lay with her father. That one began the harlotry, and her daughters continued after her, for it is said, Then the people began to whore after the daughters of Moav.

(Tanhuma Balak 26)

 

It could be that Lot's daughters were naïve and unthinking, both because of their youth and because they had been born in Sodom and never left it. The people of Sodom were not hospitable to visitors; they had nothing to do with anyone else, leaving Lot's daughters ignorant of geography and of the existence of other nations under heaven. When they saw the great destruction of Sodom and its satellite towns, and that they had to flee Tzoar as well, they believed that the entire world had been destroyed in a flood of fire. That is why they thought their father had hidden in a cave - because no city of refuge survived. And so, they did what they did out of good intentions, in order to preserve life on earth. The Sages praised their deed, and said:

"A person should always hasten to perform a commandment. In reward for having preceded her younger sister by one night, the elder merited [having her descendant] become king over Israel four generations before her [sister's descendent became king over Israel]" (Nazir 23b-24a).

(Reggio ad loc)

 

And raise him up there as a burnt offering - Divine Will, the Test and its Intention

It is as the prophet spoke to Israel: Is there no balm in Gilead is there no cure there? (Jeremiah 8). And it is written: Which I did not command, and of which I did not speak, and which did not enter my mind (Jeremiah 19). Which I did not command - that is the son of Misha, King of Moav, for it is said, and he took his firstborn son who was to rule after him, and offered him up as a burnt offering (II Kings 3); and of which I did not speak - that was Yiftah; and which did not enter my mind - that is Abraham's son Isaac.

(Ta'anit 4a)

 

If the intention of this command had been that he slaughter his son and burn him up, it would have said ve'ha'aleihu sham olah [and offer him up their as a burnt offering] as Yiftah had spoken ve'ha'alitihu olah [and I shall offer it up as a burnt offering] (Judges 11:38), for it was his intention to slaughter whatever left the entrance to his home... these [Yoftah and Misha King of Moav] are the only two instances of the expression offering up a burnt offering that we find referring to human beings. In both cases the verb alah [raise up] is connected with its object without a prepositional prefix...in the case of animal sacrifices, we often find the verb alah connected with the letter lamed appearing as a prepositional prefix (e.g., habakar le'olah - cattle for a burnt offering, etc.) This is because there is no mistaking the fact that an animal is only brought up on the altar in order for it to be burned. However, it is possible that a human being is brought up to a high place for some other purpose, as we shall explain. Thus, the phrase ve'ha'aleihu sham le'olah may be understood in two different ways:

The first is that he actually slaughter his son to make of him a burnt offering. The second, that he bring him up the mountain for the sake of the burnt offering that Abraham will make there. That is to say, Abraham will take his son Isaac with him so that he can attend the sacrifice and learn how to perform offerings honoring God. That is what the letter lamed is used for in connection with sacrifices, as in and he sanctified Yishai and his sons and called them to sacrifice [la'zevah] (I Samuel 16:5)... so too here, the word le'olah - for the sake of the burnt offering that you will make there in Isaac's presence in order to teach him about how it is done.

The blessed Lord did not command him to sacrifice his son, God forbid, since such a sacrifice would be a great abomination in the Lord's eyes, for He is compassionate and merciful and hates acts of cruelty, as the Torah states: You shall not act thus toward the Lord your God, for they performed for their gods every abhorrent act that the Lord detests; they even offer up their sons and daughters in fire to their gods (Devarim 12:31), and as the prophet cried out: and they built high places...to burn up their sons and their daughters in fire, which I did not command and which did not enter my mind (Jeremiah 7:31). The Sage said: which I did not command - to Abraham. However, in His wisdom He saw fit to hide the intention of the command in ambiguous language in order to impose a great trial upon Abraham. That is, since Abraham knew the Lord and His ways and loved the Lord fiercely, and because of this he wanted to imitate Him in His ways of kindness, forgivingness, and mercifulness, since he knew that these ways were beloved of the Lord, but at the same time he despised the abominations of his father's house, since they would attribute all kinds of wicked and cruel deeds to them, and now he was suddenly commanded - as he understood it - to slaughter his son, how could he not be shocked to hear this from the mouth of the merciful Father! His heart would not allow him to perform such an act of cruelty, an act contrary to nature and reason, without questioning the Lord's ways. However, our father Abraham did not only love the Lord very much - he also greatly feared the Lord. One who has fixed this quality in his heart will not set his thoughts free to investigate with his mind and understanding things which are mysteries to him. Rather, he drapes the veil of modesty upon his soul, and will not think about them, even if they contradict his own judgment...These things are deep and broad and this is not the place to deal with them at length. Rather, just to say that the purpose of the trial was to actualize the fear of the Lord that dwelled in his soul in its potentiality. Abraham, in his greatness, stood this test and perfected that virtue, as Scripture testifies; Now I know that you are one who fears the Lord.

(Rabbi Y. S.H. Reggio ad loc)

 

 

 

 

If you enjoy Shabbat Shalom, please consider contributing towards its publication and distribution.

• Hebrew edition distributed in Israel $700
• English edition distributed via email $ 100

Issues may be dedicated in honor of an event, person, simcha, etc. Requests must be made 3-4 weeks in advance to appear in the Hebrew, 10 days in advance to appear in the English email.

In Israel, checks made out to Oz VeShalom may be sent to Oz VeShalom-P.O.B. 4433, Jerusalem 91043. Unfortunately there is no Israeli tax-exemption for local donations.

US and British tax exempt contributions to Oz VeShalom may be made through:

New Israel Fund, POB 91588, Washington, DC 20090-1588, USA

New Israel Fund of Great Britain, 26 Enford Street, London W1H 2DD, Great Britain

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE NEW ISRAEL FUND IS NO LONGER ACCEPTING DONATIONS UNDER $100.

PEF will also channel donations and provide a tax-exemption. Donations should be sent to P.E.F. Israel Endowment Funds, Inc., 317 Madison Ave., Suite 607, New York, New York 10017 USA

All contributions should be marked as donor-advised to Oz ve'Shalom, the Shabbat Shalom project.

 

About us

Oz Veshalom-Netivot Shalom is a movement dedicated to the advancement of a civil society in Israel. It is committed to promoting the ideals of tolerance, pluralism, and justice, concepts which have always been central to Jewish tradition and law.

Oz Veshalom-Netivot Shalom shares a deep attachment to the land of Israel and it no less views peace as a central religious value. It believes that Jews have both the religious and the national obligation to support the pursuit of peace. It maintains that Jewish law clearly requires us to create a fair and just society, and that co-existence between Jews and Arabs is not an option but an imperative.

Oz Veshalom-Netivot Shalom's programs include both educational and protest activities. Seminars, lectures, workshops, conferences and weekend programs are held for students, educators and families, as well as joint seminars for Jews, Israeli Arabs and Palestinians. Protest activities focus on issues of human rights, co-existence between Jews and Arabs, and responses to issues of particular religious relevance.

5,000 copies of a 4 page peace oriented commentary on the weekly Torah reading are written and published by Oz VeShalom/Netivot Shalom and they are distributed to over 350 synagogues in Israel and are sent overseas via email. Our web site is www.netivot-shalom.org.il

Oz Veshalom-Netivot Shalom's educational forums draw people of different backgrounds, secular and religious, who are keen to deepen their Jewish knowledge and to hear an alternative religious standpoint on the subjects of peace and social issues.

Oz Veshalom-Netivot Shalom fills an ideological vacuum in Israel's society. Committed both to Jewish tradition and observance, and to the furthering of peace and coexistence, the movement is in a unique position to engage in dialogue with the secular left and the religious right, with Israeli Arabs and with Palestinians.