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

Perhaps I shall

be built up through her – Rachel said: that

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

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);

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,

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