At the beginning of this Torah portion, Avraham and Sarah
receive three visitors, angels disguised as men. Avraham, although still
recovering from his circumcision, rushes to provide hospitality and asks Sarah
to bake for the guests. Out of modesty, Sarah remains in the tent and overhears
one of the men (the angel Michael) tell Avraham that she will have a son the same
time the following year, despite the fact that she and Avraham are advanced in years and Sarah “had ceased to have the way of the woman.”
(She is no longer menstruating.)
And Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have
become worn out, will I have smooth flesh? And also, my husband is old.” (Bereishit/Genesis 18:12)
Rashi notes that Avraham never serves the cakes Sarah bakes;
Rashi explains that Sarah’s menses suddenly begins, rendering the cakes ritually
impure and unfit for Avraham to serve. Sarah’s miraculously regained youth is
the answer to her disbelieving laughter.
Avraham and Sarah move to Gerar where Avimelech is
king. Avraham tells Avimelech that Sarah
is his sister, the same thing he tells Pharaoh when the couple passes through
Egypt in the previous Torah portion. This
time, instead of sending plagues to protect Sarah from a king’s advances, G-d
appears to Avimelech in a dream and tells him that Sarah is Avraham’s wife.
Avimelech wakes and confronts Avraham. This time, the text
provides an explanation for Avraham’s calling Sarah his sister. “And also,
indeed, she is my sister, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my
wife.” (Bereishit 20:12) Rashi
explains that grandchildren are considered like children, so Sarah is considered
Terach’s daughter. Further, Sarah’s father and Avraham’s half-brother, Haran, is
Terach’s son, but Haran does not share a mother with Avraham.
“And to Sarah he [Avimelech] said, ‘Behold, I have given
a thousand pieces of silver to your brother; behold it is to you a covering of
the eyes for all who are with you, and with all you shall contend.” (Bereishit 20:16) Explains Rashi: “They
will cover their eyes so they will not denigrate you, for had I returned you empty-handed,
they could say ‘After he violated her, he returned her.’ Now that I had to spend
much money and to appease you, they will know that against my will I returned
you, and through a miracle.”
“And Avraham prayed to G-d, and G-d healed Avimelech and
his wife and his handmaids and they gave birth. For the L-rd had shut every
womb of Avimelech’s household, through the word of Sarah, Avraham’s wife.” (Bereishit 20: 17-18)
The verses announcing the conception and birth of Avraham’s and
Sarah’s son, Yitzchak (Isaac), immediately follow:
“And the L-rd remembered Sarah as He had said, and the
L-rd did to Sarah as he had spoken. And Sarah conceived and bore a son to
Avraham in his old age, at the time of which G-d had spoken to him.”
(Bereishit 21:1-2)
Rashi describes an argument recorded in the Midrash (Bereishit
Rabbah 53:6) between Rabbi Yudan and Rabbi Chama regarding the length of
Sarah’s pregnancy. Rabbi Yudan teaches that Yitzchak is born after nine months
so it should not be said that he was conceived in Avimelech’s household. R.
Chama contends the pregnancy lasts only seven months, from Rosh Hashana to Pesach
(Passover).
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Rashi continues, citing Talmud (Bava Metzia 87a): “‘In his old age' means that Yitzchak’s facial features are like those of
Avraham [so that despite Avraham’s advanced age of 100, no one could say Yitzchak is
not Avraham’s son.]”
“And Sarah said, ‘G-d has made joy for me; whoever
hears will rejoice over me.” (Bereishit 21:6) The Midrash (Bereishit
Rabbah 53:8) tells that when Yitzchak is conceived, barren women become pregnant
and people are healed. The blind recover their sight; the deaf, their hearing;
and the insane, their sanity.
“And she [Sarah] said, ‘Who would have said to Avraham that
Sarah would nurse children?’” (Bereishit (21:7) Rashi writes that “children”
is plural because in addition to nursing Yitzchak, Sarah nurses all of the babies
of the noblewomen. “All those who convert in the world and all those who fear
G-d are from among those who nursed from Sarah.” (Pesikta Rabbati)
“And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she
had borne to Avraham, making merry. And Sarah said to Avraham, ‘Drive out this
handmaid and her son, for the son of this handmaid shall not inherit with my
son, with Yitzchak’…And G-d said to Avraham…‘Whatever Sarah tells you,
hearken to her voice.’” (Bereishit
21:9-12) Rashi explains that G-d tells
Avraham to listen “to the voice of the holy spirit within her.” He writes: “We
learn from here that Avraham was inferior to Sarah in prophecy.”
The end of this Torah portion recounts how G-d tests
Avraham by asking him to sacrifice Yitzchak. He is spared at the last moment.
The following portion, Chayei Sarah (life of Sarah), tells of Sarah’s
death. Some commentators, including Rashi and the Midrash (Bereishit
Rabbah 58:5), connect the near-sacrifice with her death.
Writes Dr. Lisa Aiken in To Be a Jewish Woman: “Upon
hearing that her only son was ready to give up his life at G-d’s command, she
felt that her life’s work in raising him had been completed. Her soul was so attached
to G-d that it simply left her body once it fulfilled its last mission on
earth.”
“And the life of Sarah was one hundred years and twenty
years and seven years; [these were] the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah
died in Kiryat Arba, which is Chevron (Hebron), in the land of Canaan, and Avraham
came to eulogize Sarah and to bewail her.” (Bereishit 23:1-2) Avraham
purchases the Cave of Machpela for her burial.
Some attribute to Avraham Eishet Chayil (Woman of
Valor), the song of praise from Mishlei (Proverbs) that husbands recite
to their wives at the Sabbath table. Others say that just the first line refers
to Avraham’s and Sarah’s relationship: “Her husband’s heart trusts her.”
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