Making Light of the Rebbe
Now the Torah tells us what happened at that time. וַתֵּרֶא כִּי הָרָתָה וַתֵּקַל גְּבִרְתָּה בְּעֵינֶיהָ – When Hagar saw that she was pregnant, the status of her mistress Sarah went down a little bit in her eyes (Bereishis 16:4). When Hagar saw that min haShomayim they consented that she should bear a child to this great man, Avraham the nesi Elokim, so it entered her mind like this: “Look,” she was thinking, “Sarah was deemed unworthy by Hashem to have a child from Avraham and I've been chosen.”
Sarah was her rebbe but now Hagar saw that she was the one chosen to have children from Avraham, so in her mind it couldn’t be that Sarah should be the most important. After all, the mother of the Jewish people, that’s most important. And she started thinking that maybe she was like a talmid who was once only a disciple but now became what you say in Yiddish oisgeshtigen. Maybe she's already an equal to her rebbe; maybe even better. And so וַתֵּקַל גְּבִרְתָּה בְּעֵינֶיהָ – Sarah became less important in her eyes.
Hagar’s Chiddushei Torah
How did Hagar show that? So I'm going to tell you what I heard from my great rebbi, the Slabodka Rosh Yeshivah, Rav Isaac Sher zichrono levrachah. He wrote these things in his famous sefer, Avraham Avinu. Everything I've been telling you, all these things up until now are also his, but the following I heard from his mouth.
Hagar had always given all of her energies and abilities to explain Sarah's words to the disciples. That was her pride and joy, to speak over Sarah’s words about Hakadosh Baruch Hu, about niflaos haBorei, and all the ideals Sarah spoke about. But now that she was carrying Avraham’s child she was so elated at the greatness that was accorded to her min haShomayim, so after Sarah got through, when it was Hagar’s turn to repeat Sarah’s words, this time Hagar began adding some of her own additions. I'm sure they were good things but it wasn't Sarah's words. It wasn't Sarah's ideas exactly.
Not in Sarah’s Presence
Now you can be sure that if Hagar had been, let's say, in Egypt saying these words she would have been a hit. Her own ideas, her own chiddushim, no question they were important and effective. But when Sarah is around so it's like מוֹרֶה הֲלָכָה בִּפְנֵי רַבּוֹ; you have to stick to what your rebbi says. You can explain it. You can dilate on it. You can plumb the depths of the words. But you cannot inject your own ideas!
Because then you're going away from your rebbe and you're competing with your rebbe. And that's considered a serious thing among Jews. תַלְמִיד בִּמְקוֹם רַבּוֹ אָסוּר לְהוֹרוֹת – A student in the place of his rebbe, he can’t say his own opinions (Eiruvin 62b). When the rebbe is around it’s the rebbe and nothing else.
But Hagar made that mistake. Her good fortune went to her head a little bit and she began to speak her own ideas too. After all, it seemed like she was chosen by Shomayim. And so she disregarded, to a certain extent, the words of her teacher. And therefore that's וַתֵּקַל גְּבִרְתָּה בְּעֵינֶיהָ; that’s what it means that her mistress became unimportant in her eyes.
The Affliction
Now, Sarah, you have to understand, wasn’t satisfied when she heard Hagar injecting her own ideas. Because great people when they teach, everything is said with a calculation. That's how chachomim speak; they have intentions, they have purposes, why it has to be so. All the words of the chachomim are extremely calculated. Sharp and deep. Sharp and deep! And they’re not a plaything that anyone can massage this way or that way according to the will of the listener.
And so when Sarah saw what was doing, she understood already that she wasn’t that important anymore in the eyes of her disciple, and so she consulted with Avraham. Avraham, after all, was the rosh yeshivah. Sarah was one of the magidei shiur but Avraham was the rosh yeshivah. So she consulted with him what to do.
So Avraham said, “Look, she's your disciple. עֲשִׂי הַטּוֹב בְּעֵינָיִךְ – I’ll leave it to you. Do whatever you think is necessary.” וַתְּעַנֶּהָ שָׂרַי – And Sarai afflicted her, וַתִּבְרַח מִפָּנֶיהָ – and she fled from her teacher (ibid. 6).
The Demotion
Now people who didn't learn the pshat think that Sarah hauled off and gave Hagar a smack and she ran away. But that's not the case. Actually, it was much worse – she afflicted Hagar with the worst possible punishment. Sarah said to Hagar, “The next time I speak, take it easy. You don't have to bother repeating. I’m retiring you from your job.
“Up till now you had the privilege of saying it over to the other ladies but now I see you’re becoming too proud, too much ga’avah, so I’m taking that away from you.” That’s what it means וַתְּעַנֶּהָ שָׂרַי, that Sarah inflicted her. She took away her job as being ibberzogger’ke. She didn’t give her a smack, no. She took away the zechus of being the chief talmid.
Now, when Hagar heard that, her world collapsed. She lived only to make progress in daas Hashem, and to be removed from her privilege as the one most close to the rebbe, that was too much for her and in her great distress she fled. When she lost her privilege of being the ibberzogger’ke of Sara’s shmuessen, she lost her head and ran away.
The Angel on the Road
And now we come to one of the remarkable stories of the Torah. וַיִּמְצָאָהּ מַלְאַךְ ה' – An angel of Hashem found her in the wilderness (ibid. 7). A malach Hashem stopped Hagar as she was on the road and spoke to her.
Now if you would run away because your rebbe afflicted you and let's say now you’re wandering somewhere on 13th Avenue, don't expect a malach to come and speak to you. And even someone bigger than you – let’s say there’s a certain maggid shiur and the menahel of the yeshivah took away his class or gave him boys that weren't so good instead of his previous good class and he fled in anguish. And now he's wandering someplace in Boro Park; even he shouldn't expect a malach Hashem should come to him like it came to Hagar. And don’t think it’s because in the ancient days malachim were floating around in such abundance. Even in those days a malach would appear only to very great personalities.
Now, as great as Hagar was, it wasn’t because of Hagar. Because what did the malach say to Hagar, the first thing? וַיֹּאמֶר הָגָר שִׁפְחַת שָׂרַי – “Hagar, maidservant of Sarah ...” That’s how the angel addressed her and when an angel talks it pays to be medayek in his words. It means, “Now you know why I appeared to you. Hagar, you're very great. You're so great that Sarah Schenirer couldn't come to your ankles. Even greater than Sarah Schenirer couldn’t come to your ankles. But as great as you are you should know that you’re הָגָר שִׁפְחַת שָׂרַי – you’re great because you’re shifchas Sarai. That's where all of your greatness comes from; everything you became was because of her.” That’s an important lesson from a malach Hashem: ‘Remember what it was, who it was, that made you what you are today’.
The First Question
Now, what did the malach tell Hagar? Pay attention carefully to his words; two questions he asked her. Number one: אֵי מִזֶּה בָאת – “Where are you coming from?” And then a second question: וְאָנָה תֵּלֵכִי – “And where are you going to?”
Two important questions. First; do you know what you're throwing away? Do you know what you're forsaking, where you’re going from? You're going away from Sarah? You're going away from Avraham's house? Do you understand what you're leaving?! That's number one.
The Second Question
And the second question אָנָה תֵּלֵכִי – Where are you going to? Where are you going to go now? You’ll go back home to Mitzrayim, to Pharaoh? To the land of toeivah? You’ll go back to the morass, to the swamp from which you crept out and saved yourself?! You have to know where you're running to.
Now, you can be certain that Hagar was not going back to Mitzrayim. She was too smart for that. Only an imbecile would go back to nothing but wherever she was going to, it was a big question: אָנָה תֵּלֵכִי – Where are you going to? Wherever you’re going it’s nothing compared to the tent of Sarah.”
Going Nowhere
Now what did Hagar answer? There were two questions and Hagar answered only one. She said בֹרַחַת אָנֹכִי מִפְּנֵי שָׂרַי גְּבִרְתִּי – “I am fleeing from Sarai, my mistress.” She couldn't say where she's going because she didn't know where to go. She knew that anyplace else was a dead end compared to Sarah’s tent. But she told the malach at least why she was running away: “I’m escaping my mistress, Sarah.”
Now she said שָׂרַי גְּבִרְתִּי. It means Sarai, my rebbe. She didn't say Sarai, that bad woman, that mean person. No! שָׂרַי גְּבִרְתִּי – Sarai, my governess.
So the malach saw that she wasn't opposed to Sarah as her teacher. Only she didn't want to suffer the indignity that she should have to come next time to Sarah's lecture and sit and look on when somebody else takes her place. She couldn't tolerate the idea of losing that opportunity to make especial progress as the chief student of her rebbe.
Going Back
“Oh,” said the malach, “if you understand the greatness of your teacher then I won't let you go away. If that's the case, you want your teacher and you want to be close to your teacher. And the great rule is בְּדֶרֶךְ שֶׁאָדָם רוֹצֶה מוֹלִיכִין אוֹתוֹ – in the way a man wants to go he is led from heaven; and since that's in your heart, you're not looking to go someplace for some ulterior motive. Your sole desire is to shteig and make progress and become greater and closer to Hashem. And therefore I’m commanding you, שׁוּבִי אֶל גְּבִרְתֵּךְ וְהִתְעַנִּי תַּחַת יָדֶיהָ – “Go back to your teacher, and let yourself be afflicted under her hand” (ibid. 9). If your rebbe is going to afflict you, nothing bad with that. Go back and be afflicted by your rebbe. Don't forsake your rebbe.”
And therefore Hagar was saved. She went back to her rebbe and she continued to make progress for many years. All those years that she continued with Sarah made her so great that even after she had to leave with her son Yishmael, she’s not forgotten from our history. When the time comes – don't be in a hurry but the time will come when you'll go to Gan Eden and you'll see that Hagar is established there on a throne not too far away from our mother Sarah. Believe me, a lot of tzaddikim would like to sit in Hagar’s place.
