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GENESIS — 16:3 ten

GEN856 The Rabbis taught: “If one were married to a woman for ten years and she had no children, he should divorce her and provide her with the amount stipulated in her marriage contract,” for perhaps it has not been granted him to have children with her.  And though there is no proof for this, there is an allusion to it: [this verse]. Why emphasize “the land of Canaan”? To teach us that the years spent outside Eretz Yisroel [Canaan] do not enter into the ten years mentioned in this connection” [for one might be granted children through the merit of living in Eretz Yisroel] Yevamot 64a TEMIMAH-GEN 70

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GENESIS — 16:4 despise

GEN857 Ramban [Nachmanides] criticizes Sarah. Despairing of having a child, she asks Abraham to sleep with her handmaid Hagar in the hope that she might bear him a child.   Abraham does so, and Hagar becomes pregnant.  The text then says that Hagar “began to despise her mistress” [this verse].   Sarah complains to Abraham and then “afflict[s] Hagar” Genesis 16:6 who flees from her into the desert. On this, Ramban writes: “Our mother [Sarah] transgressed by this affliction, as did Abraham by allowing her to do so.  God heard her [Hagar’s] affliction and gave her a son who would be a wild ass of a man to afflict the seed of Abraham and Sarah with all kinds of affliction. (Commentary to Genesis 16:6).   SACKS 16

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GENESIS — 16:5 wrong

GEN859 We must speak out in defense of someone who is being disgraced. … Rashi cites the Midrash that interprets the term chomos as stealing.   Sara complained to Abram that he was stealing his words from her, for he had heard Hagar disgrace her and was silent (see Rashi on verse 4) and was silent.  These verses teach us an important principle.   Sara considered Abraham’s failure to speak on her behalf when Hagar spoke against her, as stealing.  The term stealing is used when someone takes away that which is legally and rightfully someone else’s.  If failure to defend another person’s honor is stealing, then we are obliged to speak up when we see someone being disgraced.   Words of defense are due to a person being disgraced, and it is considered stealing to withhold them.  (Nachalas Yosef, vol. 2).  PLYN 51

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GENESIS — 16:8 mistress

GEN861 Ravah said to Rabbah b. Mari: “Whence is derived the saying: ‘If your neighbor calls you an ass, pull the saddle to your back’? [I.e., Do not contest his statement] He answered: “From the verse: ‘And he said: “Hagar, maidservant of Sarai, where are you coming from?” ‘ – to which she responded: ‘I am fleeing from Sarai, my mistress’”  [Though Hagar was no longer the maidservant of Sarai, since the angel referred to her as such, she responded in kind.] [n.b.– Bracketed explanations are from sefaria.org]  Baba Kamma 92b  TEMIMAH-GEN 70

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GENESIS — 16:12 be

GEN862 … the world is judged with goodness. Pirkei Avot III:19   …. Our Sages note that the Almighty foresaw Ishmael’s unworthy future; after all, He had Himself foretold it: “And he shall be a wild mule of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him.” [this verse] Since the Almighty has an infinite knowledge of the future, He surely had in mind the fanatic, impassioned Islamic invasions of the past and the seething Arab hostility and marauding in the present. In His goodness, however, the Almighty considered Ishmael “where he is now”; He regarded the boy’s present condition alone: Never mind his future; judge the lad according to the goodness of the present hour, and now he is pleading and praying for his life. Now he is righteous.  Talmud Yerushalmi, Rosh Hashanah I,3; Genesis Rabbah LIII, 14; Exodus Rabbah III, 2; Midrash Tanhuma, Yayyetze 5; Miedrash T’hillim V,5. And when someone’s past or future bespeaks goodness, that will serve to weigh the scales in his favor.  Jeremiah declares to the people Israel in the name of the Almighty, ‘I remember for you [or about your] the loving devotion of your youth … how you followed Me in the wilderness, in an unsown [desolate] land.” Jeremiah 2:2 True, at the present moment you are not worthy, but I recall your past goodness. By the same token the Torah forbade us to attack the nations of Moab and Ammon Deuteronomy 2:19, 19 because, as the Sages explain, Ruth the princess of Moab Talmud Nazir 23b, Midrash Rabbah, Ruth II was destined to embrace Judaism and become in time the great-grandmother of Kind David, while from Ammon would come Naamah, wife of Solomon and other of Rehoboam. I Kings 14:21, 31; II Chronicles 12:13. Talmud Baba Kamma 38b.  This is perhaps the secret underlying reason that mankind continues to exist despite so much evil in its actions day after day, year after year, century after century. “The world is judge for its good,” be that good in the past, present, or the future.  We can also interpret this phrase to mean that “the world is judged for the sake of the good,” or “for a good purpose.” If the Almighty must sometimes punish or chastise someone, He does so for the person’s own good and benefit.   There was once a great Hassidic rabbi whose gabbai (secretary, attendant) would always find fault with the master’s disciples.   He would constantly complain to the rabbi that this fellow kept his store open too late before the onset of the Sabbath on Friday evening, another was guilt of talebearing, a third was not too careful to eat strictly kosher food. The rabbi could not tolerate the constant criticism, and voiced his displeasure in no uncertain terms.   One hassid (disciple) overhead him. “Why do you object?” he asked the rabbi in perplexity.   “After all, do you not also criticize and find fault with us in your sermons? What does it matter if the gabbai criticizes us too?” The rabbi replied: “The difference between us is the difference between a home owner and a cat. Both the home owner and the cat strongly desire to rid the house of mice.   The difference, however, is that the owner is happy when there are no mice; the cat is happy when she catches mice. Similarly, I am happy when there is no longer any sin.   My gabbai seems to be happy when he catches sinners.”   The Almighty judges the world for the sake of goodness. He is happy when there is no sin.   SINAI1 328-9

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GENESIS — 17:1 blameless

GEN865 Our duty as Jews is clear: to hallow God before all men by doing good. To act otherwise, is to profane the conception of Jewish divinity. Judaism has set its face sternly against any manifestation of extremism, whether religious asceticism or pagan hedonism. Any lip-service to a cause was denounced, and a formal action when divorced from moral content received the lash of condemnation. Our prayers were called by the Rabbis “the service of the heart” (avodah she’ballev). Sotah 31a.  Torah, wrongly translated by the Greeks as nomos (Law), literally means ethical teaching upon all the relations of life. To do one pious act out of love for God was considered more meritorious than to perform many out of fear, declared one Rabbi. Similarly, it is not the number of precepts a Jews fulfills that matters as much as how he performs them. Berachot 5b   The Torah is clear upon the responsibilities that devolve upon the Jewish life. [this verse; Jeremiah 31:33] Man is not born a sinner; he descends to that state of his own volition. He can ascend again to the Godly life by his resolve to break from evil. “Behold, this only have I found that God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.” Ecclesiastes 7:29 LEHRMAN 171-2

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