Tale of Two Women

Torah Study 4/23 Rabbi Marder
Genesis 16 :1-5

Triangle – Avram – Sari – Hagar
All about ethics and misunderstandings. A tale of two women.

The story is full of emotions:
Pain of infertility, personal sense of failure, inadequacy to give to one you love, class and sexual jealousy.

At the end of chapter 11 we learn of Sari’s being ‘barren’ and in this chapter it softens the description to show it is possible but has not happened.
Sari takes the problem into her own hands to try to find a solution.

Samson Raphael Hirsch: Avram is desperate – he needs an heir to pass on the faith in God. It is a religious mission.
Sari feels she is not able to fulfill her obligation to Avram.

Obadiah ben Jacob Sforno
God didn’t promise Sari – God made the promise to Avram. She conjures the idea of mating Avram with Hagar the Egyptian.

Name: Hagar – in Hebrew = stranger. In Arabic = to flee / flight of Mohamed
related to Haj – the Muslim pilgrimage.

Muslim story is parallel to the Jewish story.
Hagar & baby in the desert and Hagar finds the well at Zamzam – when the Muslim’s go to Mecca they drink from this well.


V2: Sari implies that it is God’s fault that she is childless. She requests that Avram consort with Hagar. And she says that Hagar’s child will be hers.

What is her motivation?
Isaac Abravanel: Sari is afraid that Avram would take another wife. Her offer to give him Hagar was a selfless act. It offered a viable solution.

Sforno: She was afraid for her own position.

Avram is passive in this situation until God gives him the “go ahead”!

Ebone – Ben= son Bennah = build
There is a connection between “building” and “son”

Rashi: if there are no children the family is ‘torn down’ rather than ‘built up’

The child is the ‘building block of the house” “the house of ____”

Hagar becomes arrogant -
The emphasis on Hagar being an Egyptian -
Rashi: She is the daughter of the pharaoh - given to Avram & Sari as they left Egypt.
Exploring why Pharaoh would give his daughter – he saw miracles and thought she would be more powerful in the home of Avram.

One theory is that the enslavement in Egypt is payback for what happened to Hagar.

v3: Sari TAKES maid to give to Avram
TAKE = seems it was forced upon Hagar.
Rashi: Persuaded Hagar - ie Avram was an old man.

10 Years – Significant
Jewish laws of infertility: After 10 years with no child the man is required to divorce and remarry someone else so he can have a child.
Why? It breaks the covenant to be fruitful and multiply.
Mishna – obligation for men to have 2 children = 2 sons or a son and a daughter.
After 10 years with no children the obligation becomes null.

This is not enforced today. It is a tragedy to break up a happy marriage.

Story of a happy but childless couple – celebrates and she was told she could take one prized possession with her – she took her husband.

Progressive evolution of the law.

v4: Hagar conceives
One theory – Hagar conceives the first time they have sex – implied through the Torah Trope.

The status of women in Biblical times depended on fertility.

Ishmael is born – name = God Listens