My initial reading of this week’s parsha, Vayeira, left me with a weird feeling based on some intriguing similarities to Lech Lecha, last week’s Torah portion. Could it be that Avraham, our great forefather, the founder of monotheism, had areas of weakness where we can learn as much from his mistakes as his virtues? Here are the three big similarities between the two Torah portions:
- Sarah and Avraham tell people they are brother and sister, resulting in a king “taking Sarah” – Pharaoh last week, Avimelech this week. Why didn’t Avraham learn from last week?
- Avraham has a cattle/land/water dispute – first with Lot and now with Avimelech. Is he careless in doing business with others?
- Avraham saves his nephew, Lot. This is a virtuous act both times, no doubt about it, showing loyalty and care for others.
The majority of our tradition explains and rationalizes any seeming faults in Avraham’s behavior; but this is not satisfactory for me this week. Last week is understandable: Pharaoh and Egypt represent a lot of impurity and immorality. I can reasonably believe that Avraham was the better man, he was the man in the right and Pharaoh was running a corrupt society, with he himself leading the immoral actions that people there committed. But this week is different: in Vayeira, Avraham is not dealing with Pharaoh or Egyptians, but with Avimelech of Gerar – the king of a land that seems to be just and righteous - the land in which Avraham will raise Isaac. So why, again, does Avraham call Sarah his sister so that she is, again, the object of a king’s affection? (As an aside, I'm guessing Sarah didn't wear a hair covering because that would've made it obvious she was married.)
I struggled to understand this, and I was not able to dig up a lot of comparisons between the two parshiyot. But I did come across some comments of the Ramban, who (alone among the great Torah geniuses we study today) has same very harsh woods about Avraham. In Lech Lecha, he comments on the following verse:
If the Egyptians see you and think “she is his wife,” they will kill me and let you live. Please say that you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may remain alive on your behalf. (Genesis 12:12-13)
Ramban: Know that our father Avraham sinned grievously, albeit inadvertently, in placing a sinful obstacle in the path of his virtuous wife because he feared for his life…. He should have trusted in the Lord…. Also, his departure from the land (of Canaan) because of the famine was a sin [because God didn’t command it] and therefore it was decreed that his descendents would be exiled to Egypt by Pharaoh.”
According to the Ramban, Avraham made two big mistakes: leaving Canaan, where God had led him to; and putting his wife in an awful situation. So what does the Ramban say when the incident with Sarah happens a second time:
Avraham said of Sarah his wife, “she is my sister.” So King Avimelech of Gerar had Sarah brought to him. (Genesis 20:2)
Ramban: [Avimelech was] innocent and just and his people as well are good, but Avraham suspected them and would say to everyone ‘She is my sister.’
According to Ramban, Avraham doesn’t pay attention to his moral surroundings but suspects everyone to be as lowly as the Egyptian culture. But the Torah text itself does not appear demeaning of Avimelech. He did nothing wrong. And not just did he do nothing wrong, he was a man who knew God. God came to him in a dream to tell him of his sin and pending death for taking a married woman. Avimelech replies to this claim: O Lord, will You slay people even though innocent? He [Avraham] said to me ‘She is my sister!’ And she also said, ‘He is my brother.’ When I did this, my heart was blameless and my hands were clean.” And God agrees that he was innocent! Avimelech is not an immoral, sexual monster without regard for a woman’s well-being. As Keren Yishai points out the text says that “Avimelech arose early in the morning” to return Sarah to her husband…just as Avraham “arose early in the morning” to sacrifice his son Isaac, to God. Just as Avraham wanted to do God’s will as quickly as possible, so did Avimelech want to do what was right in the eyes of God with haste.
But where does this leave us? What do we make of Avraham’s actions? Or, maybe, we are putting too much emphasis on Avraham. Sarah is also an integral character.
Immediately after the story with Avimelech concludes, we read:
The Lord took note of Sarah as He had promised, and the Lord did for sarah as He had spoken. Sarah conceived and bore a son to Avraham in his old age, at the set time of which God has spoken…. Sarah said, ‘God has brought me laughter; everyone who hears will laugh with me.’ And she added, ‘Who would have said to Avraham that Sarah would suckle children! Yet I have borne a son in old age.’ (Genesis 21: 1-2, 6-7)
God gave Avraham ten tests, the final one being to sacrifice Isaac. Could it be that Sarah, our foremother, also had her faith tested? Could it be that one (or two) of her tests was how she dealt with being in the house of Pharaoh and Avimelech, in danger of committing adultery?
I am not aware of this stance being taken by any Torah commentaries, but I would like to propose that it was not just Avraham that was tested before being granted a son through which the Jewish nation would begin. After all, Avraham alone could not father and raise the would-be Isaac. An equally faithful, upright, smart and caring woman was needed. Sarah too was tested: being uprooted from her homeland, her generosity in preparing for guests, the pain of seeing her maidservant give birth to her husband’s child, the fright of being taken to the houses or Pharaoh and Avimelech. Sarah and Avraham both needed a superhuman amount of internal strength to live through the ups and downs that God dealt them. We, the Jewish people of today, do not come solely from an extraordinary man but also from an extraordinary woman.
Good Shabbas Everyone!
And for the most mind-blowingly awesome discourse ever (literally!!), see this awesome essay that takes a different route in understanding why Avraham said “she is my sister” in both of the last two Torah portions.
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