Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your maid is in your hand. Do to her whatever is good in your eyes.” Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her face.”
(Genesis 16:6)

Sarai was jealous and upset. She tried to blame Abram for how her servant Hagar was acting. But Abram wasn’t having any. As far as he was concerned, the status of Hagar hadn’t changed. Hagar still belonged to Sarai, was still SARAI’s servant. HE wasn’t going to get involved. Hagar was under Sarai’s authority and not his. He would not take responsibility for Hagar’s attitude in any way. Not as the cause and not as the correction. He left it all in Sarai’s lap. His basic stance was: trying for a child with her was your idea, the fallout is your problem, the situation is all yours. As we’ll see, Abram didn’t intervene at ALL – not even to chase after her.

Sarai dealt so harshly with Hagar that the opinions on it are divided. Some feel she was merely verbally abusive. Others feel she was so abusive that Hagar miscarried. Regardless of whether she was traumatized with a miscarriage, the treatment was so bad that running away in a desert was seen by Hagar as the better choice. Think about that. Staying in a prosperous household of a prosperous man whose only biological child you are carrying was seen as the BAD option because of how Sarai was treating her. I think the bible toned it down when it chose the word ‘harshly’. The Hebrew word means to be bowed down or afflicted (the same kind of afflicted that the Israelites were in slavery to Egypt).

The sage Sforno writes: ‘שפחתך בידך, for she has not been given her freedom by you who are her mistress. ותענה שרי, Sarai’s objective in maltreating Hagar was to remind her of the fact that she remained her slave. She was not to insult her mistress any more. She meant to make clear that any gentile who insults Israelites will experience similar harsh treatment. Compare Isaiah 60,14 והשתחוו על כפות רגליך כל מנאציך, “all those who reviled you shall prostrate themselves at your (Israel) feet.”‘

The sage Radak writes: ‘ויאמר … שפחתך בידך, Avram meant that in spite of Hagar sleeping with him, i.e. being accorded wifely privileges from his side, she remained Sarai’s slave and as such Sarai could determine how to treat her. He made it clear that his own dignity was not to be a consideration in Sarai’s treatment of Hagar. ותענה שרי, Sarai overburdened her with work, and made her perform the work in an intolerably harsh manner. It is even possible that the word ותענה includes physical as well as verbal abuse of Hagar by Sarai. The Torah testifies that Sarai did not act morally and piously toward her. From a moral point of view, although Avram had given her a free hand when he said “do to her as appears fit in your eyes,” she should have treated Hagar in a manner befitting her status as a wife or legal companion of Avram. From the point of view of practicing piously, חסידות, she should have treated a subordinate with all possible consideration. The scholar Ibn Gabirol said “how beautiful is the attribute of practicing forgiveness in circumstances when this is possible!” Sarai’s actions as reported were not pleasing in the eyes of the Lord. This is reflected in the words of the angel to Hagar (verse 11) כי שמע ה’ אל עניך, “for the Lord has listened to the oppression you have endured.” This is why the angel gave her a blessing as compensation for the harsh treatment she had suffered. Avram did not prevent Sarai from acting as she did, even though it was displeasing in his eyes, because he was concerned primarily with preserving his relations with Sarai. The reason why this whole story is preserved for all future generations in our chapter is to teach moral-ethical lessons, and to warn us not to indulge in injustice.’