Spiritual and
Ethical Issues in the Historical Books of Tanach;
SPIRITUAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES IN THE BEREISHIT STORIES 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. "To find a wife for my son,
for Yitzchak" [5] Judaism is an exquisite balance between spirituality and materialism, between prescribed acts and grace or faith, between Justice and Mercy, between ritual and inner feelings, between Nationalism and Universalism, between Olam HaZeh and Olam HaBa, between Heart and Brain, between truth and chesed. These two Matriarchs provide such balance to the merits of the Patriarchs. "All the years that Sara was alive, there was a cloud at the entrance of her tent... the doors of the tent stood wide open… there was blessing in the dough of the bread... There was a light burning from one Shabbat eve to the next" (B'reishit Rabba 60:10). That tent Sara had made into a place of sanctity, so that the Shechina rested on it. This is as, "and when Moshe came to the tent [the Mishkan] to speak with G-d the cloud of glory stood at the entrance" (Sh'mot 33:9), and as, "And Avraham saw the place from afar - he saw a cloud hovering over the mountain" (Pirkei d'Rabbi Eliezer B'reishit 22:4). All three were expressions of a religious dialogue between human beings and G-d. The tent that spoke of hospitality to wayfarers is often considered a characteristic of Avraham only, yet it was to Sara's tent that he hurried and said : "Make ready quickly and three measures of fine meal, knead it and make cakes", so it was her zealousness in feeding the hungry and the strangers that brought the blessings in the dough. Eishet Chayil that was Avraham's eulogy for Sara, speaks of: "she opened her mouth in wisdom and Torat Chesed is on her tongue; she possessed the wisdom to balance her and Avraham's chesed when needed. "Why did the destruction of Sodom have to be in Avraham's time and not in Yitschak's whose Mida is Din and Gevura? To teach him that sometimes Chesed has to be limited by Din" (Shem Mi Shmuel). Distinguishing that there could be no shaatnez in the Abrahamic Nation, she demanded that Ishmael ben Hagar bat Ham be sent away despite Avraham's love; and Hashem agreed. Her wisdom was not relegated to spiritual or religious matters: Chazal learn from,"she planned to buy a field", that hers was the plan to buy Marat HaMachpela, the eternal possession of Jews in the Promised Land. Avraham's mission was to bring the knowledge of Hashem to the whole world, and Sara shared in that mission; "the souls that they created in Haran - Avraham converted the men and Sara the women" (B'reishit Rabba 39:14). Yet she has two attributes that balance Avraham in that mission. The idea that Sara was greater than Avraham in prophecy is an often-quoted one, but the Netziv sees her rather as having an additional dimension to that prophecy. "It is difficult to see how Sara was greater that Avraham in prophecy when she received only one, whereas all the others were given to him and only relayed to her. Nevertheless, she had the Ru'ach HaKodesh to believe in the visions that were granted to him; therein lies her greatness" (Haameik Davar, B'reishit 23:1). Furthermore, Avraham had ten tests, yet had no real suffering, whereas Sarah did. Twice she was threatened by the abduction of kings, she had to suffer the ignominy of giving her handmaiden to Avraham, it was she that suffered the arrogance of Hagar, it was her life that was the shorter of the two, and she suffered all the anxiety and uncertainty of the Akeida. She added to the Abrahamic Nation the strength to withstanding suffering (Siach Sarfei Kodesh). Although like Sara, Rivka made her way from the pagan world of Aram Naharaim and the Abrahamic family to Eretz Yisrael, yet she did it alone, without a husband; showing the appropriate strength when she answered her family's question: "Will you go with this man?" with: "I will go"; this even though she was at the most 14 years old coming to a husband who was 40 years old, while there were only 10 years between Avraham and Sara. Like Sara, Rivka too, was a Baalat Teshuva, yet she had to join a husband who was not one, but a tzaddik ben tzaddik, thereby balancing his spiritual inheritance with her own free discovery, zeal, passion and wonderment. At home she had been familiar with evil and idolatrous people, so she had the wisdom to recognize the evil that was Eisav and not be blinded by his hunting of his father. Yitschak, the embodiment of Din and of Gevura needed the balancing Chesed of Rivka. Yet she knew that Chesed needs to be balanced therefore she had the wisdom to realize, as had Sara, that the Abrahamic mission of Torah, Land and Nation was not divisible. She also had the strength and initiative to make sure that its future remained unified, so could plan and execute the trick that would reveal the shaatnez that was Eisav, so that the blessings of Avraham would descend only on the tzaddik, on Yaakov. "And Yitschak brought her into the tent of Sara his mother. He married Rivka, she became his wife, and he loved her. And thus was Yitschak consoled after his mother" (B'reishit 24:67). "It is normal for most men to love their wives, but when Yitschak saw her spiritual merits, he loved her with a greater love because of them. They were indeed the merits of Sara, so when he brought Rivka into her tent [all four Matriarchs had their separate independent ones from their husbands' tents], lo and behold it was in reality the tent of Sara" (Radak). "Why tell us that it was Sara's tent? To teach that while Sara's tent was left empty for the three years after her death as a mark of the Kibud Eim of Yitzchak, now he saw that when Rivka came to that tent it became Sarah's again [since all four blessings that had been there now returned]" (Ramban). "He mourned his mother for three years but when he saw that Rivka was like Sara he was comforted" (Radak); "A peace came to him from that love and so he was comforted" (Netziv). "So that, in the specific Jewish attitude to marriage, Yitschak could first be married and then grow to love the wife who was so like Sara" (S. R. Hirsch). This is the 119th installment in Dr. Tamari’s series on “Tanach and its messages for our times” [The
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