Our foremother Sarah is introduced at the conclusion of the previous Torah portion, Noach.
“And Avram and Nachor took themselves wives; the name of
Avram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nachor’s wife was Milkah, the daughter
of Haran, the father of Milkah and the father of Yiskah.” (Bereishit/Genesis
11:29)
Rashi contends that Sarai and Yiskah are one and the same.
He writes: “Yiskah – this is Sarah
because she would see (suchah) through Divine inspiration, and because
all gazed (sochin) at her beauty. Mrs. Nechama Rubinstein on chabad.org
points out that both explanations refer to sight. She writes: “The first being
a spiritual sight that Sarah herself possessed clearly affected the way she
perceived the world; and the second, regarding how the rest of the world
perceived her.”
Mrs. Rubinstein explains that Yiskah is a childhood name,
which changes when the young woman understands tzniut (modesty) and she
no longer allows people to admire her. The name she chooses for herself is
Sarai. Interestingly, Rashi writes that “alternatively, Yiskah is an expression
denoting princedom (n’sichut) just as Sarah is an expression of dominion
(s’rara) [from Talmud, Megillah 14a].”
Be’er B’Sadeh explains why Torah only mentions Milkah as
Haran’s daughter. Rather than calling Sarai the daughter of Haran, the text
calls Haran the father of Yiskah. Writes Rebbetzin Chana Bracha Siegelbaum:
“This alludes to the fact that Haran is inferior to Yiskah, since it is only in
her merit that Scripture publicizes his name.” She explains that Haran’s and
Milkah’s hearts are divided as to whether they should worship idols or G-d,
whereas Yiskah has clarity of vision and is not influenced by her father.
In this week’s Torah portion, G-d tells Avram to go to a
land that G-d would show him. “And Avram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his
brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had acquired and the souls
they had made…” (Bereishit 12:5)
The previous portion (Bereishit
11:30) states that Sarai is barren and childless, so who are the “souls” they
acquired? Rashi remarks that these are the people Avram and Sarai “brought
under the wings of the Shechinah. Avram would convert the men and Sarai would
convert the women.” Avram and Sarai are equal partners in the mission of
bringing monotheism to the world. To this day, converts to Judaism are called
sons and daughters of Avraham and Sarah.
When a famine forces Avram and Sarai to move to Egypt, Avram
suddenly recognizes Sarai’s extreme physical beauty and realizes that the
Egyptians would take advantage of her. (Bereishit 12:11) Until this
point, according to Midrash Aggadah (Tanhuma Lech Lecha 5), Rashi writes, “he
did not recognize her [beauty] because of their modesty…The simple meaning of
the verse is ‘the time has come when we must be concerned about your beauty. I
have known already for a long time that you are of fair appearance, but now we
are coming among the brothers of Cushites, and they are
not accustomed to a [fair and] beautiful woman.’”
Writes Rebbetzin Chana Bracha Siegelbaum in her book Women
at the Crossroads: “The relationship between Avram and Sarai was profoundly
spiritual. Avram was only aware of her inner beauty and holiness. Its outer
physical manifestation was not important to him. Likewise, Sarai did not feel
self-important because of her attractiveness.”
“And it came to pass when Avram came to Egypt that the
Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very pretty.” (Bereishit
12:14)
Rashi notes that the text should say “when Avram and
Sarai came to Egypt.” He understands from this that Avram hides Sarai in a
trunk. Avram has instructed Sarai to stretch the truth and tell the Egyptians (if
they open the trunk) that she is his sister. (She is actually his niece, daughter
of his deceased brother, and therefore his father’s granddaughter, and also his
father’s daughter-in-law.) As her
“brother” he would ask for a large dowry the Egyptians would not be able to
afford. (As her husband, he would have been killed.) Pharaoh’s princes,
however, pay the dowry and take Sarai to Pharaoh’s palace. (Bereishit
12:15) G-d protects Sarai’s purity by afflicting Pharaoh and his household with
great plagues. (Bereishit 12:17)
Avram and Sarai leave Egypt accompanied by an Egyptian
handmaid, Hagar. They dwell in Canaan for ten years and Sarai and Avram still are
childless. “And Sarai said to Avram, ‘Behold now, the L-rd has restrained me
from bearing; please come to my handmaid; perhaps I will be built up/I will
have a child from her.’ And Avram hearkened to/heeded Sarai’s voice.” (Bereishit
16:2)
Avram recognizes
Sarai’s divine inspiration. He marries Hagar and Hagar conceives. As soon as
she becomes pregnant, Hagar begins belittling the infertile Sarai. Sarai
complains to Avram and he tells her he trusts her to do with Hagar as she feels
fit. Sarai banishes Hagar and Hagar flees. (Bereishit 16:4-6) Hagar gives
birth to a son named Ishmael. (Bereishit 16:15)
When Avram is 99 years old and Sarai is 90 years old, G-d
appears to Avram and says, “Your name shall no longer be called Avram, but
your name shall be Avraham [Abraham], for I have made you the father of a
multitude of nations.” (Bereishit 17:5)
G-d also changes Sarai’s name. “Your wife Sarai – you shall
not call her name Sarai for Sarah is her name. And I will bless her, and I will
give you a son from her, and I will bless her, and she will become [a mother
of] nations.” (Bereishit 17: 15-16)
Writes Rebbetzin Siegelbaum: “The [name] change is connected
with their ability to have children. The Hebrew words for man and woman are ish
and isha. The letters that distinguish them are yud and heh.
Kli Yakar explains that Hashem exchanged the masculine letter yud of
Sarai’s name with the letter heh, in order to empower her with feminine
energy and enable her to give birth. Hashem created the world with the letter heh.
Therefore this letter is endowed with the power of procreation (See Rashi
on Bereishit 2:4).”
“The yud has the numerical value of ten whereas the heh
is equal to five. Thus the yud in Sarai’s name equals the sum of both the
heh for which it was exchanged and the heh that was added to Avram’s
name. The heh with its birthing power was added to Avram’s name from the
yud of Sarai to indicate that it was Sarah’s merit that caused both of
them to give birth to the progenitor of the Jewish people.”
The Rebbetzin notes that while Avraham was the father of many
nations, Sarah alone was selected to be the mother of the Jewish people.
From this we learn that Jewish descent follows the mother.
http://www.chabad.org/theJewishWoman/article_cdo/aid/765186/jewish/The-Three-Faces-of-Sarah.htm
http://www.breslev.co.il/articles/torah_portion/chanas_blessing/yiskah.aspx?id=14071&language=english
Published in honor of the bat mitzvah of Molly Noskin.
Published in honor of the bat mitzvah of Molly Noskin.
No comments:
Post a Comment