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Parshas Lech Lecha - Silent Heroes

By Rabbi Zvi Teichman

Posted on 11/07/19

Parshas HaShavua Divrei Torah sponsored by
Dr. Shapsy Tajerstein, DPM - Podiatry Care.
(410) 788-6633

Upon discovering how quickly she became pregnant in contrast to Sarah having been childless all these many years, Hagar diminishes her reverence for her mistress, Sarah, in her eyes.


Sarah turns to Avraham, seemingly distressed, accusingly points her finger at Avraham, exclaiming, “The outrage against me is due to you!” Sarah goes on to emphasize how it was her initiative to give the maidservant to his bosom, yet when Hagar conceives, she lowered her esteem of Sarah. With flourish, she frustratedly throws down the gauntlet by declaring, "Let G-d judge between me and you!”


The paradigms of kindness and devotion seem to have devolved into a bitter quarreling couple.


Impossible!


The Targums Yerushalmi and Yonoson, have a totally different read on this story.


It describes how Sarah, not angrily, but matter-of-factly lays out the situation as she observes it. She goes on to portray how throughout her long history with Avraham, from her acquiescence to their initial journey towards the unknown; to her readily feigning she is Avraham’s sister in Egypt to prevent Avraham from being killed; to her devising the plan to beget a child for Avraham through the agency of Hagar; to her being belittled by Hagar with no reaction from Avraham, she remains the loyal wife, yet look what has resulted. Sarah implies that it was due to this attitude of Avraham that gave rise to Hagar’s reaction. Sarah then goes on to suggest that it is time that G-d makes things right by bestowing His peace between them, allowing the world to be populated by a child born to them so that there will be no need to rely on an Egyptian maidservant, the daughter of Pharaoh, the son of Nimrod, who tossed Avraham into the fiery furnace. 


So she wasn’t asking G-d to intervene and judge Avraham for his behavior, but was rather pleading with G-d to allow them to bear the child that would carry his legacy.


There seems to be a highlighting of Hagar’s lineage to Nimrod that seems to be the root of what has gone awry here.


What was Sarah conveying in her review of her history with Avraham? How is that relevant to Hagar’s inappropriate behavior.


The moment Hagar conceived she questioned Sarah’s reputation as a righteous woman for how else she can explain herself becoming pregnant instantly, yet ‘righteous’ Sarah remained barren all those years. Hagar’s only conclusion was that Sarah was a phony.


Was Hagar who was exposed to the teachings of Avraham so shallow to think that life is that simple, that even good people struggle? Life isn’t about ‘winning all the toys.' One who lives happily, projecting good values and morals despite the disappointments that may come in one’s way, is what our character and relationship with G-d is all about. One who lives with that reality develops a sense of self that is not predicated on the external achievements we hope for, but rather on the deepening connection with G-d we attain in that journey.


Nimrod was the first proclaimed גיבור, hero in the Torah. He gained his reputation as such through his mighty conquests of wild animals and beasts. He went on to apply that heroic effort in overpowering nations, imposing his control over man as well.


No longer was success measured by the attainment of intellectual wisdom or by the altruistic actions in helping one’s fellow man, nor through one’s self-control of one’s thoughts and the disciplining of one’s instincts - the perfection of character.


All that mattered was winning at the game of life.


This toxic attitude wasn’t just the driving force behind the unhealthy competition in the arena of physical attainment, it infiltrated into the realm of the most exquisite of relationships, that of man and woman. The vying for validation and control would mar the ability to appreciate the other’s differences and accepting them without a need for supremacy.


Sarah painted a beautiful portrait of her and Avraham’s life. One without contention. One with understanding. One of acceptance. There was no need for asserting oneself for they meshed seamlessly in their goals and valuing of one another.


Sarah conveyed that Hagar simply didn’t fathom the ‘shprach’, the special language of Avraham and Sarah. Despite her exposure to this extraordinary home she knew only of the instinct to ‘win’ as the sole yardstick of success.


This is what Sarah revealed before Avraham. Only through the healthy relationship that existed between them both could possibly produce the family that could bring the world to its proper stature.


Hagar was gifted to Sarah by Pharaoh after having been awed by her greatness expressing his desire that his daughter would be better off as a maidservant to her rather than a mistress in the palaces of Egypt.


In fact, the Midrash explains her very name הגר, was bestowed upon her then for it is rooted in the Aramaic word for reward, אגר, as this was Sarah’s reward for her enduring in the house of Pharaoh. 


Reward connotes a payment of tribute for having done something that deserves compensation and admiration.


Is that a correct way to exhibit his reverence for her spiritual stature? A gift is the more appropriate expression of a privilege to connect with someone one truly admires. Why a reward?


In the world of Nimrodian values even when one loses to an opponent there exists a possibility of admiration for a ‘winner’, but never for the greater character of that individual. Beneath that veneer of esteem lies a determination to overcome and defeat the opponent the next time.


The Holy Kohen of Tzfas, the Sifsei Kohen, indeed reveals that Pharaoh’s apparently benevolent sentiment that Hagar shall be a ‘repayment’ of sort, has the subcontext of a Pharaoh’s subconscious hope that Hagar will repay in kind, causing Sarah suffering, in return for the  suffering Pharaoh endured at the hands of Sarah.


Hagar is eventually sent away. Yet we are told she repented and returned to Avraham as Keturah.


The great Kabbalist the Rama M’Pano teaches that the soul of Hagar reincarnated as the Canaanite maidservant of Yishai, the father of David.


In remarkable reversal of her original role she was instrumental in the birth of David.


Yishai doubted his worthiness as he descended from Rus the Moabite, and thus possibly also tainted and not permitted to remain married to his wife. Yishai decided the only solution would be to separate from her. Yishai longed for a child whose ancestry would be unquestionable. His plan was to engage in relations with his Canaanite maidservant, freeing her conditionally and asserting that if his status as a Jew is legitimate, then she is freed as a proper Jewish convert to marry him. If, however, his status is blemished and he has the legal status of a Moabite forbidden to marry an Israelite, he would withhold her freedom; but as a Canaanite maidservant, she may marry a Moabite.


The maidservant was aware of the anguish of her mistress, Nitzeves, the wife of Yishai. She understood her pain in being separated from her husband for so many years. She knew, as well, of Nitzevet’s longing for more children.


The empathetic maidservant secretly approached Nitzeves and informed her of Yishai’s plan, suggesting she replicate the deed of Rochel who switched places with Leah.


With a prayer on her lips that her plan succeeds, Nitzeves took the place of her maidservant. That night, Nitzeves conceived. Yishai remained unaware of the switch.


After discovering her pregnancy, her sons wished to kill their apparently adulterous mother and the illegitimate fetus that she carried. Nitzeves, for her part, would not embarrass her husband by revealing the truth of what had occurred. Like her ancestress Tamar, who was prepared to be burned alive rather than embarrass Yehuda. Nitzeves chose a vow of silence. And like Tamar, Nitzeves would be rewarded for her silence with a child of greatness who would be the forebear of Moshiach.


Having compassion on her, Yishai ordered his sons not to touch her, permitting the child that will be born be treated as a lowly and despised servant. In this way everyone will realize that his status is questionable and, as an illegitimate child, he will not marry an Israelite.


As history bears out Nitzeves and David were justified. But it took the strength of a matriarch to forge forward through life without any external validation other than the truth of her convictions and her relationship with G-d.


But it also required a true but silent ‘hero’, the perfected soul of Hagar, the Canaanite maidservant of Yishai, in bringing about the personification of the greatest attributes of our patriarchs and matriarchs, in whose hands Yishmael would fall.


It is the silent heroes whose sense of worthiness stems from an inner truth and connection to G-d that indeed are the true winners.


באהבה,


צבי יהודה טייכמאן