We read in this week’s sedrah that וַיְהִי רָעָב בָאָרֶץ – there was a famine in Eretz Canaan and Avram went down to Mitzrayim (Bereishis 12:10). Now, we’re not told very much about his stay there except that Pharaoh Melech Mitzrayim heard about a woman of exceptional beauty who came – that was Sarai – and he sent after her to take her to his house. Then it states וַיְנַגַע ה' אֶת פַּרְעֹה נְגָעִים גְדֹלִים וְאֶת בֵיתוֹ – Hashem sent great plagues upon Pharaoh (ibid. 17) and informed him in a dream that it was because of Sarai. So Pharaoh called Avram and he said, “Take Sarai back,” and in order to appease him he gave him rich gifts. And then וְיָעֵל אַבְרָם מִמִּצְרַיִם ... כָבֵד מְאֹד בַמִּקְנֶה בַכֶּסֶף וּבַזָהָב – Avram went up from Egypt ... very heavy with cattle and silver and gold (ibid.13:1-2).
But of all the things that he acquired while in Mitzrayim, the most important one had nothing to do with gold and silver; Avraham’s greatest acquisition was an Egyptian woman named Hagar. We know from what’s written later that he returned to Eretz Canaan with Hagar as a shifchah, a maidservant, for Sarah. And she wasn’t just any Egyptian woman – we have a tradition about Hagar that she was a princess (Bereishis Rabbah 45:1).
The Teaching Couple
Now, how did such a thing happen? How was it that a princess of the royal Egyptian family should join the family of Avraham? So we understand that when Avraham and Sarah came to Mitzrayim they continued to do what they did previously; they were teaching people about Hashem. That’s what this great couple specialized in: וַיִּקְרָא בְּשֵׁם ה', proclaiming the name of Hashem. It was their main occupation, spreading the word about the Creator.
Avraham, you know, was already a famous man, a nesi Elokim known for his exceptional greatness, and like all great couples, Sarah was his partner. And so when they came to Mitzrayim and it was made known that there's an opportunity, two great personalities were visiting from Eretz Canaan, so very many people came to hear them speak. אַבְרָהָם מְגַיֵר אֶת הָאֲנָשִׁים וְשָׂרָה מְגַיֶרֶת אֶת הַנָּשִׁים – Avraham spoke to the men about Hashem and Sarah to the women (Rashi 12:5).
Sarah was a teacher too but her disciples were ladies. In those days you didn’t have ladies who went out and spoke in public to men, who tried to make men into pious Jews. They didn’t confuse the seder in those days – the ladies concentrated on the ladies.
Now among those who came to Sarah, to speak with her and to listen to her drashos, were also women from the highest class of Egyptian society; and among them was a princess named Hagar. She was also among Sarah’s listeners and she fell in love with Sarah and her teachings. And she was so enthralled, so enthusiastic over the lectures she heard from Sarah, that she decided that she could never part with her.
That, by the way, is a sign of a good soul, of good character – someone who is loyal to their teacher. Like one of the chachomim said about Rabbi Akiva: עֲקִיבָא כָל הַפּוֹרֵשׁ מִמְּךָ כְּפוֹרֵשׁ מִן הַחַיִּים – Akiva, anyone who forsakes you is as if he forsook his own life (Kiddushin 66b). Because that is life! To find someone who can lead you to Olam Haba, what’s more living than that? And so when you find the right personality who strikes a responsive chord in your soul and what he says is what you need to hear, so you don't let him go away.
Following a Rebbe
And therefore once Hagar met Sarah, once she realized that Sarah’s words, her guidance, were what she needed most, she made a decision that she would join the household of Avraham and Sarah. “Better that I should be a handmaiden in Sarah’s tent in Canaan,” she said, “rather than a princess in the palace of Egypt”.
Now, that was a tremendous sacrifice Hagar was making, because it wasn’t just a matter of leaving the palace. To leave your homeland, to give up your kin, your family, is not so easy. Especially in those days when everything was conducted according to the rules of families, extended families. You didn't have communities made up of various kinds of migrants, newcomers. There was no such thing as strangers in a town; everyone was related by blood. They were children of some patriarch, grandchildren and great-grandchildren and that's how the town developed. Everybody was a kin, a cousin or a second cousin.
The Danger of Leaving Your Family
That’s why a ger had a very slim chance of surviving. A sojourner in the ancient times didn’t belong; he was a misfit. Among your family you have rights. They’ll take up for you. There was a goel hadam, even among the nations too. Anybody who would harm you, there were relatives who would be up in arms to avenge your blood and everybody was afraid to do anything to any person because of his relatives. It was a good thing in the olden days.
It’s like how it is even today in Williamsburg. When a bum comes in and tries to harm a Jew so they shout “Chaptsem!” and they start pouring out, fifty children from one house. It’s like one big extended family and in a minute the street is black with black hats and black coats; and hands and fists too. They don't wait for ‘justice’; they send the bum to the hospital instead of to the jail.
Of course The New York Times doesn't like that. They say it’s ‘frontier justice’, it’s lynch law. But what else if not that? We'll wait for The New York Times to protect us? We’d rather live.
So in the olden times, if you left your family it was a very big sacrifice. A family meant you had insurance – you had goel hadam insurance; you had poverty insurance, health insurance. Everybody would take you in and help you if you needed it. Family was everything! And Hagar had all of that and she forsook everything because of an ideal. She wanted to be with her rebbi, Sarah. That’s what she said; that she’d prefer to be a shifchah, a handmaiden, by Sarah.
The Back Door Sneak
So you’ll ask why a shifchah? Why couldn't Sarah just take her along as a talmidah? The answer is, in those days it was a monolithic society; it means everything had to be in a certain order. You couldn’t just be a hanger-on, like a loose end hanging behind. You had to join the family; either you were a relative or you had some other form of family membership. And in those days if you wanted to become a member of the family but you weren't related by blood so you became an eved – it was a way of sneaking into a family through the back door.
And so Hagar became a member of the family, a talmidah of Sarah, by becoming a shifchah. Because in those early days a shifchah was more than just a slave. It’s not like by the gentiles, how a slave is treated. Shifchah comes from the word mishpachah; she’s part of the family. Don’t you see that when Sarah couldn't have any children she gave Hagar to Avraham from whom to have a child? So you see the shifchah in those days was actually a relative. And in the family of Avraham it was more than just a relative – it was a talmid, a student.
The Rosh Yeshiva’s Gabbai
And what a student she was! She was eager to learn and she had a good head too and so she quickly became one of Sarah’s star pupils. And over time she became the right-hand woman of Sarah; she became the chozer, the ibberzogger’ke. Now, if you didn’t live in the yeshivos, you may not know what that is: After the rosh yeshivah finishes his lecture, so one of the star pupils, the one who understands the rebbe’s words best, sits down with the other talmidim and says over the shiur.
That was Hagar! When Rebbetzin Sarah completed the lecture it was Hagar who used to repeat it. Sarah left to take some rest and the women gathered around Hagar and she repeated it and explained it to them.
Living Life!
Ahh! Now Hagar began to live! She was exhilarated at such a glorious opportunity. It was a very great zechus for her, and a great happiness too because if you want to make progress in life, there’s nothing like teaching others. You know what it means to be a chozer? You have to train yourself to listen with acumen; you listen keenly and you perceive all the nuances, all the shades of meaning that your rebbi implies. And besides that, you become greater and greater just because of the repetition; by saying over the great ideas they become engraved more deeply in your mind.
That's a great principle, by the way. Like the Gemara (Taanis 7a) says, הַרְבֵּה לָמַדְתִּי מֵרַבּוֹתַי – I learned much from my teachers, וְיוֹתֵר מֵחֲבֵרַי – but still more I learned from my comrades, וּמִתַּלְמִידַי יוֹתֵר מִכּוּלָם – but from my disciples I learned most. So in case you yeshivah men, if you want to become something, organize a blatt shiur someplace and start saying a shiur in Gemara and that's the way to greatness. I'm giving you this advice free of charge. If you'll ever be able to organize a shiur of Gemara, or whatever it is, on your own and teach others, that's the way to become great.
The Promotion
And Hagar was enjoying this privilege of being מַשְׁקָה וְעוֹלָה מִן הַתּוֹרָה of her rebbe for the women – she lowered her bucket into the mind of Sarah and poured out the Torah to her talmidos. Her personality was expanding. It was a career of happiness for Hagar.
And you know what eventually happened? She was doing such great things and finally she became so great that Sarah gave her a promotion. Sarah said to Hagar, “I'm going to give you an inestimable privilege. You're going to bear a child to the great Avraham.” For many years Sarah had waited for a child but it didn’t come and she wanted Avraham to have a child. But who else would be worthy? Who else but another woman who walked in Avraham’s ways?
It was after ten years that Hagar was studying under Sarah and teaching Sarah’s torah – it was Avraham’s torah – to others and she became so great and so close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu that finally Sarah said, “You are fit for this great function of marrying Avraham.”
