Can someone explain this to me? Lech Lecha

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Aribenj

Mon, Nov 03 2008, 4:56 pm

This parsha is one of the most perplexing to me. The whole Egypt episode leaves me wondering about many things. Avraham and Sara go down to Egypt and Avraham pretends Sarah is his sister to protect himself from daner, while effectively SELLING Sarah to paroh in exchange for wealth. Ok, he didn't ask for wealth in her exchange. But still. How could he accept? This is supposed to be his wife! Avraham is supposed to be Avraham Avinu, our role model!

How can this be?

I know there HAS to be a logical reason, or some kind of happy ending and I am sure someone on Imamother has to be able to explain it to me...

Anyone?

yentaof8

Mon, Nov 03 2008, 6:25 pm

There is an explanation given in the Gutnick Chumash P.74 essentially saying according to the Zohar, Avraham believed that no harm would come to Sara due to her own merit. He knew that it was through her merit that he would become wealthy because one's assets are acquired in the merit of one's wife. So he accomplished both things by going down to Egypt to obtain food and gifts and felt safe to say "She is my sister" so that they would offer him more gifts to win him over (since Hashem promised him wealth via other nations) but he was also confident that no harm will come to her, again because of her merit.

ShakleeMom

Mon, Nov 03 2008, 7:45 pm

I must’ve stumbled into the men’s forum. Twisted Evil

I thought this post was about the le leche for breastfeeding!

yentaof8

Mon, Nov 03 2008, 7:48 pm

Why the men's forum? Can't women know the answer to parsha questions? Wink

Tefila

Mon, Nov 03 2008, 8:02 pm

Guess what it's not only this parsha that has me intrigued it's throughout Torah and the more one learns the more questions one has, yet it still pays to learn trust me Wink

mali

Tue, Nov 04 2008, 3:56 am

I'm sorry, but where does it say he sold her??? he hid her in a crate and they found her during customs check.

sarahd

Tue, Nov 04 2008, 4:43 am

They didn't ask Avraham for his permission to take her, did they? Arguing the matter wouldn't have helped Sarah and would probably only have gotten Avraham killed.

Besiyata Dishmaya

Tue, Nov 04 2008, 5:10 am

Avraham Avinu went to Egypt because there was a famine in the land, so he went south. He said it's his sister because if he would have said it's his wife, they would have killed him and taken her away. For pikuach nefesh he had to lie. And Yentaof8 already mentioned the famous Zohar that Avraham Avinu believed that no harm would befall Sarah Imenu because of her own merit.

Besiyata Dishmaya

Tue, Nov 04 2008, 5:17 am

ShakleeMom wrote:

I must’ve stumbled into the men’s forum. Twisted Evil

I thought this post was about the le leche for breastfeeding!

I have a feeling that the polls on: "What You Think Will Happen on Tuesday?" are wrong and will reflect the elections polls.
http://imamother.com/forum/vie.....ight=

Aribenj

Tue, Nov 04 2008, 11:21 am

mali wrote:

I'm sorry, but where does it say he sold her??? he hid her in a crate and they found her during customs check.

He pretended they weren't married to save his neck
Paroh was so thrilled with Sarah that he gave Avraham presents that made him incredibly wealthy. Ok, maybe Avraham didn't mean to sell her, but Pharoh sure thought he was buying her!

I don't know. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth... I mean there has to be more to the story. I've been trying to research in the midrash, in the chumash, in Rashi, online....

I remember I once heard a satisfying explanation, but for the life of me I can't recall it.

pacifier

Tue, Nov 04 2008, 11:30 am

MeThinks wrote:

yes, I read this explanation a few years ago.
also let's remember that it was a different period in time.
anyway, they still should have asked him if they could take sarah for Pharaoh.

yentaof8

Tue, Nov 04 2008, 12:23 pm

I won't possibly do this explanation justice that I heard from Rabbi Jacobson some years ago but I'll try. There are different types of love. There's the sibling love that no matter what happens, an innate love and bond prevails - even if you don't communicate every day, when you need your sibling you know you can count on them to be there for you thru thick and thin. Then there's the marital love. That's fiery and passionate so it goes thru hot and cold times. It's intense, so even if you just know each other a short time, an attraction is there but it's tenuous - your sibling can say something to you and not get offended but if your spouse did, you'd be insulted. Due to TH, we get to experience both relationships according to our cycle but I think in the case of Avraham and Sara when they were being challenged and confronted from outside sources, by Avraham saying "tell them you are my sister" he was reminding Sara that now is the time to act on our sibling connection - which as explained above - can run deeper and be stronger - in order to survive these circumstances. So it has nothing to do with putting her in danger, (b/c of the Zohar's explanation that no harm will come to her) rather it was about activating their deeper bond.

yentaof8

Tue, Nov 04 2008, 2:52 pm

Did any of that make sense?

Aribenj

Tue, Nov 04 2008, 3:04 pm

yentaof8 wrote:

Hmm... That's very interesting. I like that explanation. But how will making them activate their deeper brotherly bond help Sarah? Sure they'll stay alive, she might not resent her husband for abandoning her to save himself, she won't be angry, but it's still wrong... It's not really an example I'd want my dh to follow, KWIM?

But this is a great start!

yentaof8

Tue, Nov 04 2008, 3:11 pm

I think you have to let go of the notion that Avraham sold Sara out - He believed, knew without a doubt that she was not in any danger. Activating the sibling connection was just to enforce that "we're in this together no matter what - we will survive"

mali

Tue, Nov 04 2008, 6:23 pm

Aribenj wrote:

forget all midrashim for now. practically speaking, what would sarah gain if avraham would tell the truth? that she'd be taken to pharaoh as a widow?!

so avraham got gifts (which he passed onto others on his way back home) but his point of hiding their true relationship had nothing to do with money or the likes. (we know from later on that avraham avinu didn't want to accept anything from the king of sedom whom he saved, so surely the gifts here aren't the issue at hand.) he simply wanted to save himself, and thus his wife.

mommy4

Tue, Nov 04 2008, 6:43 pm

The Lubavitcher Rebbe asks this exact question in Lekutei Sichos chelek chof. I donÂ´t have time to write but it is an amazing explanation! Maybe itÂ´s translated somewhere and someone who finds it could put a link.

zaq

Thu, Nov 06 2008, 12:53 pm

[quote="ShakleeMom"]I must’ve stumbled into the men’s forum. Twisted Evil

I thought this post was about the le leche for breastfeeding![/quote]

Oh, wow, great minds think alike. Me. too!

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