Shabbat Chayey Sarah

Was Hagar Abandoned?

Hagar was the maid servant that Sarai (later Sarah), the wife of Avraham, took as a surrogate when it appeared that she would remain barren and therefore Avraham would be without an heir. Sarah chose Hagar for this role after consulting with her husband. It is a heart-rending story that can be interpreted in several ways, to the credit or discredit of the parties.

When Hagar became pregnant, she stopped treating Sarah with the respect due to her position and age and treated her disrespectfully.  Sarah turned to Avraham to complain about Hagar’s attitude. He told her to do as she pleased with her maidservant, and Sarah disciplined her. Hagar then ran away and ended up at a nearby well. There, in a state of distress, she is addressed by an angel or messenger who tells her that God has seen her and promises that she will have a son who will begin a large dynasty and will be called Ishmael (that God has listened). Still, in the meantime, she was told to return to her mistress and accept her authority. Her son would thrive as a wild man in conflict with everybody around him, but would be the start of a great dynasty.

As a result of this, she said, “Ata El Roi”, literally “Now God has seen me.” And then called the place “The well where I have seen God”. In Hebrew Be’er Lechai Roi. The Well where I saw life or God (Bereishit 16:13).

There are many different ways of translating the words Be’er Lechai Roi. It could be that now God had seen her pain. Or it could be simply that this was where she encountered God. There are various explanations and translations of this phrase into English. How did God communicate altogether?  Directly, or through the agency of a messenger. We are uncertain.

However, what also interests me is that when she was exiled later due to her son’s disrespect of Yitzchak, she seems to have returned to the same spot. One of the issues that concerns modern readers is that Hagar seems to have been driven out with hardly any provisions, which strikes us as strange given Avraham’s concern for hospitality and care for her. Did he really cast her out with nothing? All the more surprising if, according to the Midrash, he married Hagar after Sarah died. Was his exile of her simply providing space between contending personalities rather than total abandonment? And did he send her to another part of his state where both his sons would live together with her?

This same location is connected several times to Yitzchak as much as to Yishmael. And where Yitzchak is reported to have made his base. This was where he went out to welcome Rivkah when she arrived with Eliezer (Chapter 24:62), and from where he and Yishmael went out to bury Avraham together (Chapter 25:8-10).

What starts off as a location specifically related to Hagar and, by implication, Yishmael, is now associated with Yitzchak. Does this mean that he took it over from Yishmael or that the two of them were reconciled, close and lived in the same area together and that there was no conflict between them as there would be between the next generation of Esav and Yaakov?  Perhaps this was part of Avraham’s plan.

PS. Whenever I read these chapters, I can’t help but be amused at the Koran’s version in which Ishmael is the favoured son and the one nearly sacrificed, whereas Yitzchak is the second. Regardless of when one thinks the Torah was written, or that of the Samaritans, we have the evidence of Ptolemy’s Septuagint that predates the Koran by at least a thousand years with our version. If ever there was misinformed appropriation and distortion, this has to be it.

Rabbi Jeremy Rosen lives in New York. He was born in Manchester. His writings are concerned with religion, culture, history and current affairs – anything he finds interesting or relevant. They are designed to entertain and to stimulate. Disagreement is always welcome.