Timeless Torah

Abraham's brief but stellar career as G-d's chosen could not be wrong. When his wife, Sarah, fell into the clutches of Pharaoh's harem, it resulted in nothing, except as one of the mysterious avenues whereby G-d made Abraham even wealthier. When his nephew Lot was captured along with the other Sodomites, all it did was allow Abraham to battle and defeat four powerful kings and thus add further luster to his already beloved name.

Still with all the accolades and blessings being showered upon the first Jew, he bemoans his situation in life. "G-d, what is it that You can give me, seeing that I am going to be childless...and my servant will inherit me?" And the word of G-d came to him, leimor, saying, "This man shall not be your heir, but one who shall be one of your own issue shall inherit you."

The Hebrew word leimor is usually translated as "saying," but it literally means "to say." It is most often used when the speaker wishes his words to be repeated and conveyed to someone else.

In our story, Abraham who had already reached the age of one hundred, had resigned himself to being childless. The Divine intent, however, as it was now being revealed to the aged Patriarch was that he would indeed father a son.

Only one thing stood in the way. Not Abraham's advanced years, but his attitude. If G-d's blessing was to take hold, Abraham could not give in to despair. This lesson is obviously not only for our ancestor but for all of us. Regardless of how bleak the circumstances may seem, a person should never lose hope. As the Talmud states, even if the sword is already at one's throat, one should not despair of Divine intervention.

The passage cited above now takes on new meaning, if we but read it literally, "The word of G-d came to him to say, ‘This man will not be my heir.’” In other words, Hashem was telling Abraham that he must retract his statement that he is doomed to childlessness; for unless he believed and said to himself, "I can have a child," he wouldn't.

Almost everyone has had an experience in which the situation seemed utterly impossible to rectify. But remember, your hopelessness just might be the cause of your self-fulfilling prophecy. Lose your faith and you might lose more than just hope.

Lech Lecha, Avraham is commanded by Hashem to go to Eretz Yisrael. Avraham arrives there only to see that there is famine everywhere, so he takes Sarah and the rest of his household down to Egypt. As they are about to enter Egypt, Avraham says to Sarah (12:11-13), “Behold, now I know that you are a beautiful woman and when the Egyptians see you, they will say ‘She must be his wife’ and they will kill me and let you live. So please tell them you’re my sister so it will be good for me.”

How can it be that Avraham only realizes that his wife Sarah is beautiful now? Avraham and Sarah had to have been married for a number of years by now. In all those years of being married, did it escape Avraham’s attention that his wife was beautiful? And what is it about their situation now that suddenly makes it so clear to him?

Rashi quotes the Midrash that says that on their way down to Egypt, Avraham and Sarah had to cross a stream. In crossing the stream, Avraham looked down and saw the reflection of Sarah in the water. Upon seeing her reflection, Avraham suddenly realized how beautiful his wife Sarah was. But the question remains, what about seeing Sarah’s reflection in a stream made Avraham realize her beauty, whereas all those years of being married could not accomplish that?

In addition, Avraham does not say, “Now I know;” rather, he says, “Henay nah yadati” — “Now, I knew.” How did this new discovery affect what Avraham knew in the past?

In Judaism, there are two words for beauty: 1) yofi and 2) chayn. Yofi is external, physical beauty. Chayn is internal beauty, which comes from a person’s spiritual attributes. The amazing thing about chayn is that it can actually make a person’s yofi look better than it really is. Has it ever happened to you that when you first meet someone you don’t find them to be so attractive, but then, the more you get to know them (i.e., their sweet disposition and good nature), the more beautiful they seem to become? We explain that phenomena as “his looks grew on me”, but really what is happening is that the chayn in him makes his yofi look better than it did at first.

All throughout their marriage, Avraham saw Sarah’s beauty as being a function of both her yofi and chayn. Avraham never saw Sarah as simply an object of beauty, because he never separated her inner beauty (chayn) from her external beauty. Only when they crossed the stream, for the first time, Avraham saw Sarah simply as a beautiful, physical form, because when you see a person’s reflection in water (or a mirror) you only see yofi, not chayn.

So when Avraham saw that Sarah’s reflection was so beautiful, he exclaimed, “Now I have proof that what I always knew is true. I always saw you as beautiful because you had a beautiful inside, in addition to a beautiful outside. But if I ever wondered whether or not my judgment of your yofi was true, since I also saw your chayn, now I see that what I knew was right. You are as beautiful on the outside as I always knew you were on the inside.”