Shabbat Vayeyra: Who Was Hagar?
The character of Hagar, Sarah’s maidservant, Avraham’s concubine, and Ishmael’s mother, has always fascinated me.
At first glance, she seems to be the victim of circumstances and ancient prejudices. She is given to Avraham to ensure he has an heir. But clearly, she is a woman of spirit who begins to assert herself when she is pregnant, and as the text says, she disrespected Sarah, and it showed. Strike 1. Sarah appeals to Avraham who supports her. she asserts her authority. Hagar does not like it and she runs away.
She ends up by a well. An angel appears and tells her to go back and submit to Sarah. But he also reassures her that her child will become a powerful and aggressive nation. Hagar herself then calls the well Be’er LeChai Roi. Which roughly translates either as The Well Where God Appeared to Me or The Well Where I saw Life. Reassured, she returns home and gives birth to Ishmael, and remains a servant.
In this week’s Torah reading, years later, Sarah gives birth to Isaac. Avraham celebrates with a feast, and there Ishmael disrespects Isaac (echoing what his mother did to Sarah). Sarah is incensed and demands that Hagar and Ishmael be driven out. Avraham is reluctant, but God intervenes on Sarah’s side. This shows how conflicted Avraham is and reluctantly does what he believes to be the lesser of two evils.
This time he sends Hagar away with what appears to be meagre provisions. This is strange, given how wealthy and charitable Avraham is. She wanders in a state of confusion, gets lost, her water runs out, and she thinks she and the child will die. She leaves the boy under a bush because, as she says, she does not want to see him die. Which is very strange. You would have thought a caring mother would nurse her child till the very end. Strike 2. But then she looks up and sees a well. They are saved. Ishmael thrives and becomes a successful hunter.
What was the name of this well? Was it the same well, Beer LeChai Roi that she ran away to the first time, and she was reassured of her and her son’s future? It must have been easily accessible and near Avraham’s encampment. Perhaps it was part of Avraham’s extensive holdings. And if this was the well she went towards the second time, then she was not being sent out randomly to get lost and die in the desert, but to a safe place on the family estate but far away enough from the main camp but near enough to be protected and cared for.
Later on, in the Torah ( Chapter 24:62) the well Beer LeChai Roi is mentioned as the place where Isaac himself was living and Sarah’s tent was so it must have been on Avraham’s estate. But both Isaac and Ishmael came to bury their father, Avraham in the Cave of Machpelah. And it appears that Isaac and Ishmael were not only reconciled but they were living near each other and around this well.
This puts a whole new complexion on how Avraham behaved when he sent Hagar away with some bread and water. He did not just eject her unfeelingly but sent her off to another home on his estates. And why was she lost when she knew about the well from before? Was she dramatizing?
And if we take the Midrash to heart, after Sarah died, Avraham actually married her. Keturah the woman he married after Sarah (Genesis 25:1) was Hagar according to Rashi.
So that this story is not just about rejection and ejection but also about how the Hagar was a much more complex and dramatic character than a superficial reading of the text might indicate. And her relationship with Avraham was much stronger and closer than one thought. To be fair to her, if the Midrash is right, she showed incredible constancy and devotion in waiting until Sarah died before she could step into her shoes.
All the Biblical characters are much more nuanced than one might have thought.
Genesis 18-23
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.
