Category: Beraishis Ch. 16

Biblical Origins of the Arab Israeli Conflict – Based on RSRH’s commentary to Beraishis Chapter 16

 

Beraishis Ch. 16, 1-16
pages 368-378

We can well understand Sarah’s sadness in not bearing children. She had a maidservant, Hagar, who was her maidservant. Hagar is referred to later in the chapter as שפחת שרי.

Sarah said to Avraham, “Until now we haven’t had children. Although you deny it, I know that the fault lies with me. (Sarah’s words indicated this when she said God עצרני has held me back from giving birth.)

She asked that Avraham marry Hagar fully as his wife. At the same time, she wanted her relationship with Hagar to remain the same. Hagar would remain dependent on Sarah.

Sarah had intended to raise the child from that marriage as her own.  “Perhaps I will be built up through her.” (As RSRH explains: There is a concept of a house in the dimension of time. All of history is ongoing work on one great building. Each generation is a building block in that great edifice. This is the meaning of the blessing that is said at a wedding: והתקין לו ממנו בנין עדי עד – God created man in His Own image. From man He has established Himself a building reaching into eternity.)

Avraham agreed to this, not for his own sake. He believed he would yet have children from Sarah. He did this to fulfill her personal wish. (And Sarah requested this not for her own sake but for Avraham’s sake. She had told him, If you won’t do it for your sake, then do it for my sake!” – to convince him to agree.

Beraishis 16: 1-3
pages 368-370

Hagar becomes pregnant and no longer considers herself dependent on Sarah. This creates difficulties, as now, Sarah cannot be that surrogate mother to Hagar’s child.

Sarah blames Hagar’s behavior on Avraham. He must have made her feel too elevated.

Avraham tells Sarah that if so, she should do what is necessary to reestablish that relationship with Hagar. Sarah humbled Hagar and Hagar fled.

– According to RSRH’s commentary on verse 11, the humbling of Hagar was not physical, rather it was verbal. She reminded Hagar that she was still in the previous relationship and that Hagar was still dependent on Sarah. Hagar had already tasted the elevated feeling of being married to Avraham. She now craved freedom and being dependent on Sarah was too much to bear. She needed to flee.

Beraishis 16: 4-6
pages 371-372

An angel of God meets Hagar by a well of water in the desert. The angel addresses her as “Hagar, maidservant of Sarah.” When he asks her where she is running to, the only answer Hagar gives is that she is running away from “Sarah my mistress.” – This is what she can no longer bear. She needs her freedom.

First the angel responds with the condition that she should return “to your mistress and recognize Sarah’s supremacy of your own free will.” This recognition will leave its impression on your child, and he will grow up under Sarah’s educational influence.      Hagar does not return.

Next the angel promises that in return for her sacrifice, her offspring will be too many to count.     Hagar does not return.

Finally Hagar is told that her descendants will be the freest of all mankind.    This is finally enough to convince Hagar to return. She has tasted freedom, and if this difficult phase will result in a nation that is free, it is worth the struggle.

Beraishis 16: 7-12
pages 372-374

The angel informs Hagar that she will have a son to be named Yishmael (translation is: God will hear) because God has heard your suffering.

RSRH points out that this is rare. Typically in scripture  suffering is “seen” as opposed to “heard.” He explains that in this case , there was no physical suffering ; nothing to be seen. The pain was the feeling in her heart after being reminded by Sarah of her dependence on her and the need to continue her and her son’s education under Sarah’s tutelage. It was heard (sensed and understood) by God.

(On verse 13 Hirsch adds that the name Yishmael in the future, God will hear, was a lesson to Hagar and added to her education about God. God hear and will always hear, even seeing into the unknown future. Hagar called God “the God who sees me. She was not yet free. She couldn’t yet understand that God is far beyond that.)

Beraishis 16: 11-14
page 374-376

The well where Hagar saw the angel of God became a monument for the Arab people, and their whole connection to humanity is connected to this well. Here their matriarch, Hagar, perceived that God is absolute in space. (She had learned that even if she fled, God was everywhere.) Avraham added a grammar change to one of the words she used to indicate that not only does God see, but He sees “me.” – There is Divine Providence over everything and everyone. An additional lesson in a word added by Avraham is that God is the Living God. He is All Powerful and gives life to all.

The gifts given to the Arabian people were these ideas, that God is the absolute Master of space and time, and that He watches over and guides all. All the Arabian thinkers and philosophers worked at developing these ideas for mankind. This work constitutes the essence of the Arabian people’s treasury of ideas.

[The Arabian character developed from Cham’s sensuality, Hagar’s thirst for freedom, and Avraham’s spirit. – as Hirsch developed in Chapter 16 – GS]

 

We, the Jewish people, have been assigned by God a dual mission.
A) Faith, intellectual truths, to be absorbed in our heart and which our minds are to develop
B) Mitzvos. Concrete actions which shape all of life according to the dictates of God’s Will, in harmony with those truths.

Jewish philosophical writings discussing the unity of God are largely based on the work of Arab thinkers. They attained Emunah but they did not attain Mitzvos.

It is not sufficient to have ideas about God’s unity. To the mitzvah of “שמע” should be added the Mitzvah of “ואהבת” , the practical subordination to Him of all faculties and aspirations –  בכל לב נפש ומאד.

Our mission is “to guard the way of Hashem to do Tzeddaka and Mishpat” (Beraishis 18:19. See the Nineteen Letters). That requires the subordination of all our faculties, especially physical energies and drives. ie. sanctification of the body. Only one who sanctifies the body is entitled to be called a Jew. (See more on page 387)

Beraishis 16: 13-14
pages 376-378

 

 

 

 

Beraishis 16: 13-14
pages 376-378