The parsha of Lekh L’kha is one of the richest in our Torah. There is so much to comment on (brit milah, G-D’s promise of offspring, the promise of a national territory), but one section of the parsha kept tugging at me….that of Sarai and her questionable moral character.
When Abram was about to enter Egypt, he “begins to fear that Sarai’s beauty will lead to his murder and her abduction “ (Etz Hayim, Torah and Commentary). He implores Sarai to lie and say she is Abram’s sister so that it will “go well with me because of you and that I may remain alive…” Sarai agrees and is taken into Pharaoh’s palace as his wife (Gen. 12:15-12:19). In other words, she has sexual relations with him even though she is married to Abram. I can understand Sarai’s desire to help keep her husband alive, but in the Torah she does not question Abram’s request and certainly does not protest. Perhaps the narrator chose to leave this important scene out of the parsha, but it allows one to think Sarai is either very naive or weak and perhaps even morally corrupt.
Later, Sarai gives her Egyptian maidservant, Hagar, to Abram so he can father a child. When Hagar becomes pregnant, tensions arise between the matriarch and her servant. Sarai treats Hagar so “harshly” that Hagar runs away from her. One is lead to believe that Sarai subjects the pregnant Hagar to either psychological abuse or physical abuse, or maybe even both.
It is hard to reconcile these images of a morally corrupt, abusive Sarai with the image of Sarah that we want our daughters to grow up and emulate. But maybe that’s the point…. at this section in the parsha, Sarai, a woman of flawed character, has not yet entered into a covenant with G-D. She is not yet Sarah. Perhaps the Torah is teaching us that even though we are flawed, we can still find G-D and become good people, although not perfect. We have the opportunity through Teshuvah, Tefillah and Tzedakah to redeem ourselves. And by doing so, hopefully we will become a better version of ourselves, like Sarah.
My posting is very personal. I understand and respect your post -- however, for me, re-reading this Parshah brought back a flood of memories. For me, this wasn't so much about Sarah going nuts, but of Sarah's pain. Reading your post made me think very carefully before, during and after I wrote my post. There are so many ways to interpret and understand our Torah! Thank you for making me think - and for providing an excellent point of view! I too hope that through Teshuvah, Tefillah and Tzedakah we can become better versions of ourselves!
ReplyDelete