Spiritual and Ethical Issues in the Historical Books of Tanach; SPIRITUAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES IN THE BEREISHIT STORIES
by Dr. Meir Tamari

These four books ostensibly are merely the history of Israel from the entry into the Promised Land until the destruction of the Temple and the temporary loss of independent statehood. In fact they are actually, in a specifically Jewish sense, the most deeply religious and spiritual books of the Bible. One does not have to be specifically Jewish to see or feel the religion and spirituality in the revelations of the prophetic writings or in the words of the Tehillim. They speak to all people, as evidenced by the fact that the Bible is still the world's bestseller and there are millions of non-Jews who regularly recite the Psalms. However, it is specifically and intrinsically Jewish to understand that G-d is revealed in the prosaic material, in the political, social and military events in the lives of ordinary men and women, kings and leaders that are described in the Nevim Rishonim. Here are described the ideology and religious thoughts in Judaism, while in Chronicles we have the purely historical.

HAGAR and YISHMAEL [1]
Three times Hashem had revealed Himself to Avraham, promising sons, a great nation and Eretz Yisrael, still Avraham and Sarah remained childless. Two revelations came while Lot was still with them and it was easy to assume that he would inherit these promises. When the third came [BRIT BEIN HABITARIM, the Covenant between the Pieces] Avraham assumed that his disciple-servant Eliezer would inherit, only to be told that Avraham's son would inherit him; yet he still remained childless. The text tells us that after ten years of their sojourn in Eretz Yisrael, Sarah, seeing their bareness as due her shortcomings, took all the initiative to give Avraham a son through her handmaiden Hagar, the Egyptian princess given to her by Pharaoh. "One who was married to a woman who did not give birth, may divorce her and give her the value of her ketuva. Even though the verse is a not a proof for this ruling, nevertheless it alludes to it. Furthermore, from the reference in the verse to Eretz Cana'an we learn the special sanctity of that Land makes the many years of their marriage spent in chutz la'aretz, spiritually irrelevant" (Yevamot 65a). In her religious and spiritual zeal to make that Divine promise come true, Sarah initiated and brought about the introduction of her maidservant into their marriage. She intended either to rear the son in the Abrahamic way or perhaps to bear her own son in the merit of her action. This was a prototype action, later followed by Rachel who gave Yaakov, Bilha her handmaid and by Leah who gave Zilpa to him, both of them in their zeal to fulfill the destiny of the Twelve Tribes. Avraham, who was passive in the decision, was quite prepared to await the fulfillment. He only acquiesced in order to please Sarah and to do her will. "It is written, 'Avraham hearkened to Sarah's voice', but it does not say 'Avraham took Hagar', rather Sarah gave her servant to him (Ramban); another example of the Avraham-Sarah love story.

The Midrash gives us many examples of Hagar's behavior, all of them mocking Sarah's suffering through her barrenness; this was ONA'AT D'VARIM. "You shall not oppress your fellow" (Vayikra 28:17), this is verbal oppression; for example one who sees another's misery and suffering and tells him that the suffering comes because he is not a tzaddik" (Bava Metzia 58b) or "goes into a store without any intention of buying anything and inquires as to the prices etc." (Choshen Mishpat 228).

Whilst all our commentators note the selflessness, nobleness and religiosity of Sarah's initiative and actions, they are less unanimous about the righteousness and morality of her treatment of Hagar when she became pregnant and forgot her subservient role as Sarah's maidservant. Broadly speaking, there are two schools of thought, the one radically castigating Sarah while the other, paying close attention to the wording of verses 5-6, finds legal and ethical justification for her actions.

First, Sarah upbraids Avraham for ignoring the slights and insults of Hagar, who, seeing herself pregnancy whilst Sarah remained barren, forgot their separate roles. "Sarah said, 'The CHAMAS [small wrongs, petty needling, slights and insults] that I endure rest on you', for you do not rebuke her and do not stand up for me against her. I thought only of you and the Divine Promise to you when I gave her to you. You, however, asked G-d about the promise and were told you'd have a son, yet you forgot to pray for me]. 'Let the Lord judge between us', from this we learn that whomever insists on MIDAT HADIN, is himself judged by the full severity of justice; Sarah deserved to live as long as Avraham yet Avraham lived longer and came to eulogize her" (B'reishit Rabba 44:5).

Then when Avraham told her that she could deal with Hagar as she saw fit, Sarah dealt with her rigorously until she (Hagar) fled to the desert.
"Sarah Imeinu sinned grievously in this regard, as did Avraham in not preventing her, therefore Hashem heard Hagar's cries and gave her a son who persecuted their descendants" (Ramban). "Sarah exaggerated and dealt too harshly with her and made her work rigorously. In this she behaved neither morally nor with righteousness. It is not fitting that one should deal harshly with those subject to one's authority; "how pleasant is forgiveness when one has power" (Ibn Gavirol). We see that her behavior was not good in the eyes of Hashem from the words of the angel "G-d has seen you travail" and from the promise of wellbeing in place of her suffering. Although Sarah's acts were wrong in the eyes of Avraham, he did not prevent them, because of SHALOM BAYIT" (Radak).

In contrast to these criticisms, there are the voices who claim that Sarah was completely justified. "According to the text we see that Sarah released her maidservant to Avraham but did not relinquish her own rights in her maid. Avraham refers to Hagar as 'your maidservant' even though she was given to him as a wife, while Hagar herself tells the angel that she is fleeing from her mistress; the angel then instructs her to return and continue to be subservient to 'Sarah, your mistress'. Furthermore, in regard to the words of the Ramban, there is no evidence that the descendants of Ishmael behaved worse towards Israel than they did to other nations whenever they had power over them or that we suffered more at the hands of Ishmael than at the hands of the Christian world" (Netziv). "Sarah sought to draw out the P'SOLET, spiritual impurity that still remained within Avraham and pass it on to Yishmael through Hagar. When Avraham agreed that she was still a maidservant, Sarah dealt harshly with her" (Or Hachaim). "We often have to punish people who are behaving incorrectly in order to turn them back to the correct path, so too Sarah acted. She only intended to teach Hagar good MIDOT of humility and respect" (Haketav ve Hakabalah).

"The whole story is related in the Torah in order to inculcate in us the good midot and to teach us to avoid the bad ones" (Radak).

This is the 102nd installment in Dr. Tamari’s series on “Tanach and its messages for our times”

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