Parashat Vayera

Someone once asked me if reading the Torah each year was boring. After all, you know the story already. I explained that I always found something new to think about because, as I matured, I read more commentary, thought more about the humanity of the Biblical world, and pondered more about life. This parashah, with its supernatural episodes, geriatric conception and birth, destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the binding of Isaac, has so much “action” that it really does take a lifetime to comprehend it. Parashat Vayera cannot be sloughed off after reading it one time.

The relationship between Sarah and Hagar is most interesting. In Parashat Lech-Lecha, Sarai has told Abram to create a family through Hagar, her Egyptian handmaiden. Hagar becomes Abram’s concubine and conceives a son, but as the Torah says, “…her mistress was lowered in her esteem.” When Sarai complains to her husband about Hagar’s attitude toward her, he tells Sarai, “Deal with her as you think right.” Sarai treats Hagar badly, and Hagar runs away. When an angel finds Hagar by a spring in the wilderness, the angel exhorts her to return to Sarai and submit to her harsh treatment. The angel explains that Hagar will have a son, which she will call Ishmael, but he also tells her that “He shall be a wild ass of a man; his hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him; he shall dwell alongside of all his kinsmen.” I know that God’s hand is in all of these “works,” but I have a problem with the idea that God felt it necessary to create a “wild ass of a man with his hand against everyone…,” especially when God will destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for sinful and lewd behavior. If we want to think about genetics and understand the midrash about Abraham’s smashing of his father’s idols, we might start to think that under Abraham’s belief in one God is a wild streak. Just a thought. 

    

Near the end of Parashat Lech-Lechah, God changes Abram’s name to Abraham and Sarai’s name to Sarah; Abraham has circumcised himself, “Ishmael, the homeborn slaves, and those he had bought, every male in Abraham’s household.” While God will make “Ishmael the father of twelve chieftains and [the father of] a great nation, God will maintain God’s covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year.”  

    

What God has told Abraham comes to fruition; Sarah, in her old age, gives birth to Isaac. Again, if the ultimate goal of God is to create a holy nation with fealty to God, we understand that God can fill the womb of a ninety-year-old woman. Abraham circumcises Isaac on his eighth day, as God has commanded him. Sarah nurses Isaac, and when it is time to wean him, there is a great feast. However, this joy does not last, for Sarah tells Abraham, “Cast out that slave woman and her son, for the son of that slave shall not share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.” The Torah says that Sarah saw the son of the Egyptian woman playing, and almost immediately tells Abraham to cast out Hagar and Ishmael. A note in The Etz Hayyim: Torah and Commentary states that “Ishmael was either playing by himself or playing with Isaac.” Was Ishmael playing too roughly with Isaac? Was Ishmael’s language harsh? Biblical scholar Robert Alter states: “Mocking laughter would surely suffice to trigger her outrage. Given the fact, moreover, that she is concerned lest Ishmael encroach on her son’s inheritance, and given the inscription of her son’s name, for Isaac means laughter, we wonder if Sarah believed her son was being mocked.” Or was Isaac picking up “bad habits” from the older boy? The Etz Hayyim: Torah and Commentary reveals that “Sarah fears that the danger of Ishmael corrupting his younger brother is greater than the prospect of Isaac being a good influence on Ishmael” [Hafetz Hayyim].   

There is a cognitive dissonance when thinking about Sarah and Hagar. God had opened Sarah’s womb so that she might conceive; it is clear that God will continue to watch over this family, for God has made his covenant with Abraham. Sarah cannot and will not ameliorate her situation in regards to Hagar. Is she jealous? Is she frightened by Ishmael? Is Hagar that nasty a human being? Could they have sat and talked things out? Sarah emanu, Sarah our matriarch, is in a higher position than Hagar, her handmaiden. Why must Hagar be banished?  

According to Rav Yaakov Medan, “Rambam (Bereshit 16:6) is the fiercest critic of Sarah, concerning whom the Torah records that “‘She afflicted [Hagar], and [Hagar] fled from her,’” and of Avraham, who permitted her to behave in this way.” The Torah tells us that Abraham was distressed by Sarah’s demand to “cast out” Hagar and Ishmael. God consoles Abraham by telling him, “‘As for the son of the slave-woman, I will make a nation of him, too, for he is your seed.’” Abraham gives Hagar bread and water and sends her out. In Beersheba, she runs out of water, is afraid that Ishmael will die, and moves a “bowshot” away from him so she does not have to see that happen. As she weeps, so does Ishmael. God hears her cries, and an angel calls to her: “Fear not, for God has heeded the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” God opens her eyes, and she sees a well of water. Hagar fills her skin with water and Ishmael’s thirst is quenched. This section concerning Hagar and Ishmael ends with statements about Ishmael’s future: “God was with the boy, and he grew up; he dwelt in the wilderness and became a bowman. He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.”

Parashat Vayera reveals that our forefathers and mothers were truly human. Sarah complains about Hagar, which annoys Abraham, but he does what God and Sarah tell him to do. When we think of the phrase b’tselem elohim (in God’s image), we understand why our ancestors behaved the way they did. There are times when God is angry, when God is provoked to employ destructive methods to bring man back to spiritual goodness. But the goal is teshuvah, to turn away from sin and return to God’s graces. In today’s world, we see the effects of war and violence, poverty and hopelessness on children. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z”l writes: “Throughout history, Jews were called on to treasure children. Our entire value system is built on it. Our citadels are schools, our passion, education, and our greatest heroes, teachers.” Looking down the ages from Sarah and Hagar, we understand how both women loved their sons, yet the division created by God’s covenant with Abraham, making Isaac the heir to the Jewish brit (covenant), exists in our world. Would the world be different if Sarah and Hagar had sat down and discussed their issues?

Shabbat Shalom.