From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, November 05, 2004 3:18 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Chayei Soroh, 5765




                                             Go East, Young Man

                By Rabbi Joshua (expansively known as The Hoffer) Hoffman


After recording the marriage of Yitzchok, the Torah tells us that Avrohom married again, taking as a wife a woman named Keturah. Who was this woman, and when did this marriage take place? There are different opinions on both of these points in different midrashim, as collected by Rabbi Menachem M. Kasher in his Torah Shleimah, and these different opinions reflect different reasons behind the events recorded at the end of our parsha. One midrash, cited by Rashi, says that Keturah was actually Hagar. Although, as Rashi noted in parshas Vayeira, Hagar had reverted to idol worship after leaving Avrohom's house, she had repented, and Avrohom therefore took her back. Another midrash states that this marriage took place after Yitzchok was married, to teach us that a widower should first marry his son off before remarrying. This idea is expanded upon by Rabbi Boruch Epstein in his Tosefes Beracha. Following these midrashim, Avrohom's marriage to Keturah/Hagar is recorded in chronological order, since he was only able to marry her after she repented.

 The Midrash Yelamdeinu, however, says that Keturah was actually Avrohom's third wife, and not Hagar. When did he marry her? One midrash says that he married her shortly after the birth of Yitzchok, to emphasize the miracle of his virility at such an advanced age. Rabbi Avrohom, son of the Rambam, writes this on his own, without citing the midrash. The nineteenth century traditionalist Bible scholar from Italy, Rabbi Shmuel Dovid Luzzatto (Shadal), writes - also without mention of any midrashim - that Avrohom had already married Keturah earlier, during the lifetime of Sarah, and it is not mentioned until this point because it has no connection with matters pertaining to the Jewish people. It was recorded in the Torah, however, to show that God blessed Avrohom with an abundance of progeny, and that He had thereby fulfilled his promise to Avrohom to make him the father of a multitude of nations (Bereishis 17:5). I would like to suggest a further reason for delaying the mention of Avrohom's marriage to Keturah until after the marriage of Yitzchok, according to the midrashim which say that this marriage occurred earlier.


Avrohom, is known as the 'rosh lema'aminim,' the chief among believers (see this year's Netvort to parshas Lech Lecha). He sought to teach all people of God's existence and unity, and unite mankind in this way. However, at the akeidah, he saw that there was a special mission that he could accomplish only through his own descendants. When he drew near to the mountain where he was to bind his son, he saw a cloud hovering over the mountain. He asked Yitzchok if he saw anything there, and he responded that he did. When he asked Eliezer and Yishmoel this question, however, they responded that they only saw a mountain. Avrohom then told them to stay behind as he and Yitzchok proceeded to the mountain. Rabbi Mordechai Elon, in a talk on parshas Vayeira delivered recently in Yerusholayim, said that Avrohom now understood that despite his efforts to educate Eliezer and Yishmoel in the ways of God, he needed to develop a separate people, through his son Yitzchok and his descendants, who would truly connect with the divine mission. The rabbis say that the name Yerusholayim consists of two words - Yireh, which is the name that Avrohom gave it, and Shalem, which is the name that Malkitzedek gave it. Rabbi Elon pointed out that the combination of these two names seems to be in reverse order, because Malkitzedek named the location before Avrohom did. However, says Rabbi Elon, this order is correct in an idelolgical sense. Avrohom named Yerusholayim '' Hashem Yireh' -  meaning, 'God will see' - after the akeidah, when he realized that in order to effectively reach the entire world in a meaningful, lasting way, he first needed to develop a people that has a special conection to God.

Yerusholayim, as described in Tehillim (122:3), is a city that is 'united together,' meaning that it brings about connections. It connects all people together, as occurred after the war which Avrohom fought, when all nations became united at Emek Shaveh in recognition of the God of Avrohom (Bereishis 14:17, and see Rashi there), and it also connects heaven and earth, as occurred at the akeidah. One of the lessons of the akeidah was that before bringing about the unity of all mankind, Avrohom needed to unite heaven and earth through the creation of his own particular nation, which bears God's name in the world. The name that Malkitzedek gave the city - Shalem - means completion, and thus also refers to the unifying element inherent in it, but he was referring to the more universal aspect, as reflected in the unifying of all nations after Avrohom's military victory. Therefore, in naming Yerusholayim, the city of connections, God first mentioned Avrohom's name for it - 'Yireh' - and only after that did He mention Shem's name for it - 'Shalem.'
                                                                              
The midrash tells us that when Avrohom ran after the ram which he saw after being told not to sacrifice Yitzchok, it led him to the Me'oras Hamachpeilah, where Adam and Chava were buried, and he decided to buy it as a burial plot for Sarah and himself, as well. Perhaps part of the idea here is Avrohom still understood the connection that existed between himself and all of mankind, but he also understood, from the akeidah, that there was a need for a distinction, as well. Therefore, immediately after burying Sarah in the burial plot, the Torah records that Avrohom arranged for the marriage of Yitzchok, in order to carry on his teachings into the next generation. Only after arranging for the specific teachings to be passed on within his family, did Avrohom then proceed to remarry and have more children, who would spread the more general teaching of the existence of God and his unity, and the various precepts that all mankind must keep.

Rabbi Chaim Dov Rabinowitz, in his commentary Da'as Sofrim, writes that this is the reason for Avrohom sending the children of his 'pilagshim' - generally translated as 'concubines' -  to the east (Bereishis 25:6). He did so in order to spread the message of God's existence all over the world. The Torah tells us that Avrohom gave these children presents. According to one midrash, these presents consisted of various types of cures. My teacher, Rav Aharon Soloveichik, once said that these cures consisted of Asian therapeutic practices, such as acupuncture. Rashi cites the Talmud in Sanhedrin (91a), which says that the presents were a 'shem tumah,' or the name of impurity. In his commentary to that Talmudic passage, Rashi explains that this refers to certain types of sorcery. Rabbi Yitzchok of Volozhin, as cited in the compilation of his commentaries, Peh Kadosh, explains that even though there is an opinion in the Talmud that sorcery is forbidden even for non-Jews, not all kinds are forbidden.  When Avrohom gave his children the key to sorcery, he taught them which kinds are permitted and which kinds are not. In this way, then, he prepared them for their mission of instructing mankind, throughout the world, to believe in God and fulfill their obligations as given in the Noachide laws. Avrohom did all of this, says Rabbi Rabinowitz, in fulfillment of his role as the father of an abundance of nations. Following Rabbi Elon's explanation of the way in which Yerusholayim was given the name it has, we can understand why this entire episode is recorded in the Torah only after Yitzchok married Rivkoh and the heritage of Avrohom as the first patriarch of the Jewish nation was carried over into the next generation. Only after the distinctive teaching of the Jewish nation was assured could Avrohom turn to the development of mankind in general, by sending his emissaries throughout the world to spread the knowledge of God to all mankind.

Rav Kook writes, in his work Oros (p.169), that openness of heart, by which a Jew wishes to include all of mankind within the special love that is revealed through the  Jewish nation, needs to be investigated. If that aspiration comes from a recognition of the special status of the Jewish nation as an 'am segulah', a treasured nation of God, and through that recognition one wishes to reach out with love to other nations, then he is following in the path of our patriarch, Avrohom. However, if this aspiration is rooted in a weakened vision of the holiness of the Jewish people and its special status, then it is poisonous and potentially very destructive, and therefore one should distance himself from it as from any other destructive force. Following Rabbi Elon's explanation of the naming of Yerusholayim, this was one of  the lessons that Avrohom learned through the akeidah. As we have further developed this idea, Avrohom carried through on this lesson by first providing for the continuation of his unique, Jewish heritage through the marriage of Yitzchok, and only then reaching out to the rest of the world through his other children.



Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.

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