The Faithful Servant – Vayeira
There are so many interesting things to talk about in this week’s parsha - the three angels visiting Avraham, the destruction of Sdom, the birth of Yitzchak, the Akeida… In this shiur, however, I have chosen to discuss a subject that is often eclipsed by the above topics. It is the character – Hagar! The shiur is based on the teachings of מורי ורבי HaRav Rosenblum שליט"א.
In last week’s parsha we read –
ושרי אשת אברם לא ילדה לו ולה שפחה מצרית ושמה הגר (בראשית טז, א)
Who was Hagar?
The Midrash Rabba says that Hagar was the daughter of Pharaoh. Pirkei D’Rebi Eliezer says that Pharaoh was the son of Nimrod - which makes Hagar Nimrod’s granddaughter. Chazal say that her birth name was Keturah, not Hagar, but her father, Pharaoh, named her Hagar when he gave her to Avraham as a “gift”, following the episode of his kidnapping Sarah. The word Hagar comes from the Aramaic root meaning “gift”, for example “לפום צערא אגרא”. Hagar became Sarah’s maidservant. Pharaoh, after seeing the miracles HKB”H performed for Avraham, said “Better that she should be a maidservant in the house of Avraham than an aristocrat in this house”.
We tend to think of Hagar in a negative context, but we actually have no conception of the stature of this woman. The parsha is rife with appearances of angels – the 3 angels visiting Avraham, the angel in the Akeida. Hagar had conversations with no less than 5 angels! (actually it is a machloket whether it was 3, 4, or 5 – Midrash Rabba 45:7. Masechet Me’ilah 17b). The angels spoke directly to Hagar and she was not “phased” in any way. Contrast this with the story of Elkana and Chana - when they saw an angel, they were shocked to the core and Elkana thought they would die. Chazal say that Hagar was used to seeing angels, because they were frequent guests in Avraham’s house.
Chazal in the Midrash says that Hagar soaked up whatever Torah Sarah taught the women and she reached such a high level that she would give shiurim in Sarah’s absence. The fact that, when Sarah could not have children, she chose Hagar to be Avraham’s wife and bear children, shows the degree to which she respected Hagar and thought her worthy.
ותאמר שרי אל אברם הנה נא עצרני ה' מלדת בא נא אל שפחתי אולי אבנה ממנה וישמע אברם לקול שרי (בראשית טז, ב).
Avraham did not want to marry Hagar because he loved Sarah. Hagar did not want to marry Avraham because, Chazal say, a woman prefers to marry a poor young man than a rich old man (perhaps today it is different). Sarah had to tempt Hagar in order to get her to agree. This is why marrying Hagar is considered Avraham’s 5th נסיון according to the Rambam.
What does Sarah mean when she says אולי אבנה ממנה? To understand this we need to skip forward to parshat Vayeitzei, where it discusses the birth of the שבטים. When Rachel sees she cannot give birth, she offers her maidservant Bilhah to Yaakov as a wife –
ותאמר הנה אמתי בלהה בא אליה ותלד על ברכי ואבנה גם אנכי ממנה (בראשית ל, ג).
Leah, when she stops giving birth, also follows suit with Zilpah.
The modus operandi behind such a procedure is that if a child is born to the maidservant, but is born “on the knees of the גבירה” and is named by the גבירה and her husband (Sarah+Avraham, Rachel+Yaakov, Leah+Yaakov), then the child is considered as if the גבירה had given birth and would be equivalent to the other children of the גבירה and her husband. The fact is when the sons of the שפחות were born to Yaakov, they were considered of equal status and we thus have the Twelve Tribes.
It was Sarah’s intention for Hagar, her maidservant, to give birth and then Sarah and Avraham would name the child. If that had happened, this child would have been equivalent in every way to Yitzchak.
However, things did not turn out that way. After Hagar conceived, soon after marrying Avraham, Rashi says, she lost respect for Sarah. She would say to the women who she was teaching – “Sarah appears to be such a tzaddikah, but she is not. The proof of this is that in all these years she never conceived, and only after a very short time, I conceived a child to Avraham”. Slowly the women who used to go to Sarah to learn, stopped going.
Sarah complained to Avraham, חמסי עליך – “you have stolen from me”. By not speaking out against Hagar’s behavior, you have stolen my students from me. Nobody comes to me any longer to learn Torah! Avraham replies to Sarah – “She is your maidservant, you are still the גבירה, do with her as you wish”.
Sarah “tormented” Hagar, to such a degree that she ran away. The Mefarshim say, what was this “torment”? Sarah said to Hagar, “From this point on, you are no longer allowed to give shiurim!” Hagar flees and an angel appears to her and tells her that her purpose in life is to be Sarah’s maidservant and that she must return and endure. In addition, the angel tells her that she will give birth to a son and that she will call him Yishmael.
Hagar returns and gives birth to a son –
וַתֵּלֶד הָגָר לְאַבְרָם בֵּן וַיִּקְרָא אַבְרָם שֶׁם בְּנוֹ אֲשֶׁר יָלְדָה הָגָר יִשְׁמָעֵאל (בראשית טז, טו).
Hang on a minute! Three psukkim prior to that, the angel told Hagar that she would call him Yishmael and now it says that Avraham called him Yishmael? The Mefarshim say that Hagar in fact called him Yishmael, based on the angels instructions and that Avraham received that name by ruach hakodesh. However, in the end, Yishmael was named, not as originally planned by Avraham+Sarah, but instead by Hagar+Avraham. Therefore the whole scheme of Sarah that she would merit the birth, by naming him – fell through. The end result of this was that Yishmael was not considered the son of Avraham and Sarah as intended, and ended up being a פרא אדם, just as the angel told Hagar and not on equal status with Yitzchak.
Unlike Bilhah and Zilpah, who were faithful maidservants to their mistresses Rachel and Leah, Hagar was not a faithful maidservant to Sarah.
It is for this reason that the subsequent developments with Hagar and Yishmael, which appear in this week’s parsha, occurred. Yishmael did not turn into the tzaddik son he had the potential to become, he mocked Yitzchak and this resulted in Avraham, on Sarah’s behest, banishing Hagar and Yishmael from his house.
The Torah goes on to relate that Hagar, upon being banished, פרקה עול and returned to her prior life of עבודה זרה (Pirkei D’Rebi Eliezer). Yishmael turned into a no good, as the angel had predicted.
Later in his life, after Sarah died, Avraham remarried Hagar (Keturah) and we know that when Avraham died, Yishmael did tshuva and both he and Yitzchak buried Avraham. However, Yishmael had no further role in the destiny of Am Yisrael, aside from one thing, which I will get to later.
I would now like to take a pause with Hagar and tell you another story, a story of David Hamelech, related by the מדרש ילקוט המכירי on Tehilim, and the מצודות on sefer Shmuel.
Everyone knows David Hamelech’s father’s name – Yishai (it says it in Megillat Rut), but not many know David Hamelech’s mother’s name. David’s mother’s name was ניצבת בת עדאל. David’s father, Yishai, was a great tzaddik, he lived a life of פרישות and was part of the Sanhedrin. After having seven sons with Nitzevet (the Midrash tells us that he also had other children with other wives), he decided לפרוש ממנה for three years. After his three years of פרישות, Yishai decided to take Nitzevet’s maidservant as an additional wife. The Midrash does not give the maidservant’s name.
The faithful maidservant ran to tell her mistress Nitzevet and they devised a plan. The night after the wedding ceremony, before Yishai consummated the marriage, they switched places and Nitzevet slept with the unknowing Yishai. A few months later Nitzevet gave birth to a son. Since Yishai knew nothing of the scheme, he assumed that Nitzevet had committed adultery and that the boy was a ממזר. Yishai’s other sons wanted to kill the child, but Yishai commanded them to rather send him away to tend the flocks out in the field. For years the boy was an outcast, his father and brothers would have nothing to do with him.
After Shaul sinned, HKB”H told Shmuel Hanavi to go to the house of Yishai to anoint the new king. Shmuel was not told which of the sons of Yishai it was. So he went through them, one by one, asking HKB”H “is this the one?”until all seven of Yishai’s elder sons were rejected. Shmuel said “That’s it? No more sons?” They replied, there is one more, but he is an outcast. “Show him to me” said Shmuel. So they went out into the field where David was tending the flocks and as they approached, the שמן המשחה started to bubble in the flask. “This is the one!” said HKB”H and Shmuel anointed David as king. Yishai and his sons thought that Shmuel was trying to mock them and expose the dirty laundry in the family, until Nitzevet revealed what had really happened and said –
אבן מאסו הבונים היתה לראש פנה (תהילים קיח, כב).
This whole story seems bizarre, from beginning to end. Why would Yishai davka choose to marry a maidservant, rather than go back to Nitzevet his wife? Why the whole charade and switch? Why, when they thought that David was a ממזר did neither Nitzevet nor her maidservant speak up?
In a previous shiur on Vayeitzei, I explore the aspect of “deception” for the purpose of confusing the ס"מ in order to realize HKB”H’s divine plan.
Now for the “bombshell”. The רמ"ע מפאנו, Rav Menahem Azariah da Fano, in his sefer שער הגילגולים says that Nitzevet’s maidservant was none other than a גילגול נשמה of Hagar!
Hagar, who betrayed her mistress (Sarah), in order to repair the wrong caused during the conception of Yishmael, had to return to facilitate the birth of - David Hamelech.
Chazal tell us that just prior to the coming of Mashiach, after the lengthy galut Edom, there will be one more galut - galut Yishmael, where the Yishmaelim will persecute us so severely that Am Yisrael will beg Hashem for redemption and then the Mashiach will come. It is very possible (many Rabbanim and Mekubalim say) that we are now in this period of galut Yishmael.
According to the רמ"ע מפאנו, Hagar was instrumental in bringing about both aspects of the geulah לעתיד לבוא – the descendants of Yishmael, who will be the trigger that causes Am Yisrael to do tshuva and initiate the geulah and the descendant of David Hamelech – Mashiach ben David בבי"א.
