So, a lot happens in this parsha. Let’s start with a brief synopsis. Abraham just circumcised himself and the men in his camp. Sitting in the tent, three men appear. He immediately goes to welcome them and has Sarah bake bread for them. One of the men asks about Sarah, who says he will return in a year when she bears a son. Sarah laughs quietly at the notion as she’s 90 years old, and her husband is 100. She’s asked why she laughed? She becomes afraid and says she didn’t laugh, but HaShem says, “Yes you did.”
The men leave for Sodom, and Abraham learns of the coming destruction. He bargains with HaShem, what if there are 50 good men, 40, 30, 20 finally 10 good men, then He will spare the city? HaShem says yes. The men/angels show up at Lot’s front door and he invites them in. A crowd gathers and demands he deliver these men so they can have them sexually. Lot offers his daughters instead. More to say about this later. The angels tell Lot to gather his family and to flee because the city will be destroyed. His wife and two daughters go, but the daughters’ betrothed stay behind. Abraham is warned not to look back, but his wife does and is turned into a pillar of salt.
Lot and his daughters wind up in a cave in the hills. They are concerned they will not ever have children, and so cook up a plan to get their father Lot drunk, and one takes him sexually while he is asleep, then the next night the other one does. They bear children that later become the Ammonites and the Moabites, neighbors of Israel.
Meanwhile, Abraham travels to the land of Abimelech, king of Gerar. Abraham AGAIN introduces his wife as his sister. Abimelech summons Sarah to his court but does not molest her. Later he gets a message from HaShem that she is the wife of His chosen. Abimelech goes to Abraham and asks why he called her his sister. Abraham says he was afraid for his life, and offers something new, that they shared the same father but not the same mother. This is a one of however, and other genealogies in Torah suggest otherwise. Abimelech gives them cattle and oxen and offers choice land for them to graze and restores Sarah to Abraham.
God remembers Sarah and she becomes pregnant with Isaac. Isaac is circumcised on the eighth day and on the day he was weaned, there was a great feast. But Sarah sees Ishmael making mockery and Sarah asks that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away. Abraham didn’t want to (because of his son) but HaShem told him to do so anyway.
Hagar is wandering in the wilderness and has run out of water. She weeps, praying she doesn’t have to watch her child die. HaShem comes to her, has her rise, and pick up her child. Her eyes are opened, and she sees water and knows all will be well. Ishmael grows up to be a master archer. Then finally the Akedah, where Abraham is tested and told to go to the land of Moriah and sacrifice his son Isaac. He goes without questioning, and they go to the top of the mountain, and they prepare for the sacrificial killing and fire, Isaac is bound, but then an angel intervenes and says not to killing Isaac and a ram is provided in its place. They sacrifice the ram, and an angel comes telling them from Abraham and Isaac will become a great people. They them return to Beersheba.
We who are Jewish are also called Israel, that is One who wrestles with HaShem and prevails. I’ve got a lot of wrestling to do. At the beginning the three strangers who we later learn are angels arrive. Abraham welcomes them and tells his wife to cook them bread while he schmoozes with them. One asks about her; says she will give birth in a year, and she laughs to herself. I mean she is 90 and Abraham is 100 years old. I’d laugh as well! So HaShem confronts her, asking why she laughed? Now just in our last Parsha, Abraham is told of this, and he falls to the ground laughing hysterically and HaShem said nothing. I’m also wondering, since Abraham already knew, why did he not share that with Sara? It seems clear the primary role for the angels visiting besides telling Abraham about Sodom, was informing Sarah about what was to come. It is also clear that is far too often the case, this woman is held to a higher standard than the men around her.
Moving forward, the angels arrive at Lot’s door in Sodom. He of course shows hospitality and welcomes the strangers in. Soon however the townsfolk are banging on the door. They demand that he send them out so they can “have their way” with the visitors, i.e., rape them. He begs them to reconsider, but then offers his own daughters in their place. Hospitality is one thing, but this is a step too far. Thankfully the strangers/angels step in and shut the door. Later they escape the city, but his wife turns around despite HaShem’s warning and she is turned to a pillar of salt. Was she warned by her husband? Was she concerned about those left behind? We will never know because she became a part of the salt pillars by the Dead Sea.
So, following this, Abraham moves to the kingdom of Abimelech, and he repeats the story that his wife is his sister. Are wives so unimportant to their men that they willingly offer them up? I mean he knows what can happen because he did so with Pharoah. Of course, HaShem steps in and protects her, but could He not just say, Abraham, cut it out. Interestingly Abraham identifies Gerer as a people who do not fear G_d. He got it wrong with Sodom, and he gets it wrong here. He’s just not very good at this sort of thing it seems. Still HaShem intervenes.
After all of this, Sarah has Isaac. Wanting to protect Isaac’s legacy, she asks Abraham to send Hagar and Isaac away. Abraham doesn’t want to, but HaShem says to do it anyway. An aside: Tikvah Frymer-Kensky in Torah, A Women’s Commentary notes she is not sold as would be the usual fate of slaves but left a free woman. Anyhow, Hagar in the desert runs out of water. I can’t imagine the depth of anguish she feels, knowing she may be about to see her child die. Fortunately, HaShem intervenes, and her eyes opened to a well of water.
Towards the end, we have the Akedah, that final test. Why did Abraham agree without question regarding the sacrifice of his own son, when not long before, he spoke up for the Sodomites? Why does he not discuss any of this with Sarah before he leaves? In the next parsha, she pays a heavy price for this silence. Why does HaShem put him through this ordeal? He tests Abraham, but not Sarah. Why?
I believe we must ask these hard questions. Our Patriarchs and Matriarchs are visibly fallible, as are we all. But also, we must look to HaShem. They say we are created in His image, but if we are to call our ancestors to task, how much more to the creator of all humanity. Women in Torah are uplifted in places but very much subjugated by the beliefs of their time. Heck, some of that is still true today. We expect them to do better, but that applies for us as well. It’s from the failures, ours or HaShem’s, that we can learn and grow to repair the world. May it be so!
Jessica Wicks 11-7-2022
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