Sermons and Divrei Torah
Avraham, Sarah and Hagar
by Michelle Illiatovitch
(Dvar Torah - Rosh Hashanah 5764)
The story of Sarah and Hagar is full of meaning. It contains messages and ideas that can teach us much and enrich our lives. With this in mind I sat down to read these passages, look into various interpretations and search the web for new and interesting points of view. However the more I read the more uneasy I grew with the anger I was experiencing.
Now you must understand that feeling angry about the Bible, religion and God is not a new feeling for me. God and I have had a tenuous relationship at best. Since I was quite young I questioned God's motives, challenged Gods rules and would have gladly entered into debate with God had that been possible. Looking back I do believe that my parents were mortified. Given this, why would feeling angry seem so uncomfortable to me? Let us go back to Abraham, Sarah and Hagar for the answer.
We all know the story. Abraham was to become father to a great nation. He could not conceive a child with his wife Sarah and so Sarah, offered her servant Hagar to Abraham to bear his child. Before Yishmael was conceived there are accounts of this story that suggest that Sarah was fond of Hagar. Sarah included her in her life as one would a friend. When Hagar became pregnant and later gave birth, this relationship greatly changed. Some accounts say that Hagar felt contempt for Sarah who until this time had been unable to bear a child. Other stories state that Sarah was clearly jealous of the child and of Hagar's relationship with Abraham. At any rate, be it contempt or jealousy or both, the bonds of friendship were destroyed. Later Sarah conceived and bore Yitzhak. He was her joy, her laughter, the light of her life. Abraham now had two sons both of whom he loved and cared about. Sarah, of course, felt protective of her son and Hagar was also worried now, wondering what if anything would be Yishmael's birthright. When Yitzhak turned two, there was a weaning party for him as was the tradition. Yishmael acted badly toward Yitzhak reminding the guests that he was the eldest and would receive double the inheritance. At this point Sarah deemed it time to get rid of mother and child. She went to Abraham with complaints against Yismael telling him to give Hagar a divorce and send her and Yishmael away. Abraham was very reluctant to do as Sarah asked and so turned to God for an answer to his domestic difficulties. There are various words attributed to God at this point. Some texts say God said to 'listen to Sarah', while others say 'hear Sarah'. Abraham did follow God's instructions literally and turfed Hagar and Yishmael out with only bread and a skin of water.
This is the point where I find myself with a sense of uncomfortable anger. Uncomfortable. Why? The answer to the why is because for the first time that I can remember, I am on God's side and feeling pretty upset with what PEOPLE have done. The literal interpretation of the Bible has gotten humanity into trouble through the ages. What if, what was being said to Abraham was really "Listen to Sarah. Hear what her heart is saying. Understand her pain and fear. Help her and help Hagar. Help them live together in peace as sisters." rather than "listen to Sarah and do what she is asking even though she is distraught and in no shape to make demands or decisions". I couldn't help but feel that possibly Abraham's agreement to tell Hagar to leave was based in part, on the fear of living with two women and two sons who were clearly not getting along. Perhaps Abraham found it much easier to lay the blame on God by asking them to leave and in so doing set up a pattern for scapegoating that has continued down through the centuries.
Are God's words to be taken literally, or are we to interpret them using the laws of morality to guide our decisions?
I'm going to return for a moment to my relationship with God. When I was little and I went to shul, the image I had in my mind always was one of an old man with a long white beard. As I got older that image faded with nothing much to replace it. Then I went through a period of not wanting to replace it. I didn't care. God was not relevant to my life. This was in many ways the easiest place for me to be. Yet I felt like the part of me, my spiritual being was not being nourished. After awhile, that began to bother me and I started a search that has gone on for many years. I have now come to a place where I feel comfortable and I think content with my sense of God, Goddess or ... the title doesn't seem to matter very much. I see God as a mass of energy. Tremendous energy. Positive, glowing, dynamic energy. This energy is so strong that it supported the creation of a planet and the life that inhabits it. It is so strong that it is part of every aspect of every thing both living and nonliving. It is so strong that it imbues us with the potential to do unimagined good. And, as because it resides in us, it gives us the innate ability to make moral judgments.
And yet, through the ages God has been 'blamed' if you will for some of the most heinous deeds ever committed as well as for everyday slights and personal hurts.
Although God was not directly invoked when atrocities were committed against the City of Shechem at the time a prince of that people wished to marry Dinah, daughter of Jacob, it was said that the angels of God agreed that the mass murder was justified because of the seduction of Dinah. It was 'God's words' that were cited when the soldiers marched off to the crusades to kill the 'infidels'. God was called upon again as women were tied to stakes and burned to death by fire fueled by the bodies of gay men tied together to serve as 'faggots'. People used the word of God again to justify the beating and hanging of slaves and later the terrorizing of the population while wearing white hoods and carrying burning crosses. There have been those who would invoke God's name to justify the deaths of millions in the death camps and scores killed by the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Today, in the enlightenment of the twenty-first century people use God's name to defend the actions of suicide bombers and American warplanes alike.
And although most everyone in this room would condemn these actions it is easy enough to say that it has been governments or mobs that committed these immoral acts not individuals. Yet how many beseech God to guide them as they seek out and hound women who try to make one of the most difficult decisions one will have to face, the termination of a pregnancy, so that they may live in dignity. Who has not heard the word of God quoted when making a case to deprive gay and lesbian citizens of the same rights as non- homosexuals. When I read of Orthodox Jews hurling objects at women who were attempting to pray at the Western Wall I was sickened. The conduct that I have described is indeed horrible, but what is worse is the fact that people 'scapegoat' God, use God, rather than claiming responsibility for their own acts of hatred. Do people truly believe that senseless slaughter in God's name makes it right, or is using God's name an excuse to vent our human rage?
If God said that Abraham should listen to Sarah, even if it meant kicking out his own son than he'd do that. It's easier than admitting 'I don't want the headaches. My home will become crazy for awhile if Hagar and Yishmael stay. With them gone, Sarah will be happy and I will have peace.'
And so the precedent was set. Sight God's will as the reason behind our actions and we are no longer perpetrators of wrongdoing but the humble servants of God.
Much has been said about Hagar's cry of despair as she went out into the desert and eventually watched her child deteriorating from lack of water, fearing for his death; the cry that pierced the air and left all those that would hear it shuddering. Perhaps that wail of anguish was not just for herself and Yishmael, but for all of humanity who would rather attribute human actions of destruction to God and who have turned their backs on the miraculous light, strength and potential for good that God offers us.
Sermons and Divrei Torah
Additional Resources
Elul: Period of Preparation
Yamim Noraim: Days of Awe
Rosh Hashanah: Introduction
Shofar Symbolism
The Custom of Tashlich
Yom Kippur: Introduction
G'mar Chatima Tova...
