October 22nd: Vayera
THIS WEEK IN THE TORAH
Rabbi David E. Ostrich
Amidst the many and faith-defining stories of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, Genesis also gives us three very curious and rather repetitive stories. One was last week, in Lech Lecha (Genesis 12.10-20); the second is this week, in Vayera (Genesis 20.1-18); and the third will come in two weeks, in Toldot (Genesis 26.1-16).
In each, the Patriarch journeys to a new place and is worried that the locals will kill him to take his beautiful wife. This happens when Abram and Sarai visit Egypt (in Lech Lecha), when Abraham and Sarah visit Gerar (in Vayera), and when Isaac and Rebekah visit Gerar of the Philistines (in Toldot). To avert this danger, they concoct a ruse: the wife will pretend that she is his sister.
In the first two cases, the local ruler—Pharaoh in Egypt and Abimelech of Gerar—is struck by Sarah’s beauty and takes her into his harem. In the third case, all the Philistines in Gerar are attracted to Rebekah. However, before anyone can cohabit with her, the truth comes out. In the first two cases, God visits some kind of plague on the leaders, and, in the third case, Isaac and Rebekah are a little too affectionate in public and raise suspicions.
The local ruler confronts the Patriarch. “Why did you do this?!” The Patriarch then explains that he was unsure whether the local inhabitants were God-fearing, and that this unusual strategy was for protection. The local ruler then returns the wife and favors the Patriarch with gifts and business connections. Finally, the Patriarch and Matriarch depart much wealthier than when they arrived. Very similar stories, three times.
Among the lessons we can derive from these stories are:
(1) Apparently, this survival strategy was taught to Isaac by his parents. It worked twice for them, and they recommended it. Then, it worked for Isaac and Rebekah.
(2) The Patriarchal families’ faith in God was mitigated by their fear of unknown people. Inasmuch as God protected Sarah twice and then Rebekah from the advances of men other than their husbands, one might wonder why God would not have protected Abraham and Isaac from murderous wife-stealers. The Patriarch’s faith in God was great, but they had human doubts and fears as well. This reminds us that, despite our own doubts and foibles, we too can achieve spiritual significance.
(3) God is quite inventive in dispensing punishment. The nature of the plague in Egypt is unspecified, but, in Gerar, the plague involved the reproductive systems. The Torah only says that, after Abimelech returned Sarah to Abraham, “Abraham then prayed to God and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his slave girls so that they bore children; for the Lord had closed fast every womb of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, the wife of Abraham.” (Genesis 20.17-18) However, the Midrash speculates that the infertility was more male-oriented—that God had rendered Abimelech impotent so he could not commit adultery with Sarah. This certainly got his attention!
(4) The Halachah was not operative yet: in Vayera, Abraham explains that the “she is my sister” story is not a complete lie: “Besides, she is in truth my sister, my father’s daughter though not my mother’s; and she became my wife. So when God made me wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘Let this be the kindness that you shall do me: whatever place we come to, say there of me: He is my brother.’” (Genesis 20.12-13) When the Torah was given at Mt. Sinai around 1200 BCE, this consanguineous relationship was prohibited, but 800 years before that, it was apparently not a problem.
(5) There are God-fearing people outside of the Hebrew tribe. Pharaoh and Abimelech claim that they would never have killed Abraham or Isaac to get to their beautiful wives—that they adhered to basic morality. Further, when God speaks to them about Sarah’s marital status, both listen to the word of God. It is also important to note that God’s communication is not limited to the founder of Judaism: God speaks to these non-Hebrews—indicating a Divine interest in more than just the Hebrews. Indeed, our special role in the world is not just for our own internal perfection. God’s mission for us is to teach the whole world and bring blessings upon them. As God explains earlier in the Torah portion, “Abraham is to become a great and populous nation and all the nations of the earth are to bless themselves by him. I have singled him out, that he may instruct his children and his posterity to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is just and right…” (Genesis 18.18-19) God is the God of all humanity—and all the universe!
(6) Finally, Sarai/Sarah and Rebekah were beautiful and fetching—a gift they bequeathed to all of the Jewish girls and women who follow them. Moreover, Sarah’s beauty was so great that, even in her seventies and eighties, she attracted the amorous attention of both Pharaoh and Abimelech. It seems clear: the beauty of Jewish women is a Torah fact!