Dear TBZ Community:
This week’s Torah portion, parshat Chayei Sarah, begins with Sarah’s death, tells us the story of the search for a wife for Isaac, and ends surprisingly and unexpectedly with a wedding announcement:
וַיֹּסֶף אַבְרָהָם וַיִּקַּח אִשָּׁה וּשְׁמָהּ קְטוּרָה
Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah
At 140 years of age, Abraham remarries and fathers six more sons! Interestingly, we don’t know much about Keturah, besides the listing of her children. But who is Keturah?
Perhaps because it’s bold and radical, or perhaps because a third character entering Abraham’s life is hard to conceive, the rabbinic imagination identifies Abraham’s new wife as Hagar, his former concubine. If you recall, the last time Abraham and Hagar were together, he agreed to have her and their son, Ishmael, banished to the desert. A story that brings pain and hurt to Abrham and that sends Hagar and Ishmael to their almost certain death.
This rabbinic interpretation of Hagar as Abraham’s wife imagines reconciliation and the possibility of coming together after brokenness. How could anyone imagine that they would reconcile? The medieval commentator Rashi makes his case based on wordplay from the midrash (biblical interpretation) in Genesis Rabbah 61. Rashi says:
קטורה: זוֹ הָגָר. וְנִקְרֵאת קְטוּרָה עַל שֶׁנָּאִים מַעֲשֶׁיהָ כִּקְטֹרֶת
Keturah: This is Hagar. She was named Keturah because her deeds were as beautiful (sweet) as incense (ketoret).
Rashi adds that Hagar stayed loyal to Abraham all those years, not marrying anyone else nor bearing children for anyone else.
The name Hagar means “the stranger.” In her first appearance, Hagar’s function is that of the oppressed outsider in Sarah and Abraham’s triangle of love and fertility. The person who is named “stranger” at the start of the story comes back with the new identity of “sweet incense.” Hagar-as-Keturah offers the possibility of healing past wrongs.
Of course, this is not so simple and raises many questions about reconciliation, about Abraham and Sarah’s relationship, and much more. We don’t know that Hagar is Keturah, the Torah does not tell us that explicitly, but rabbinic interpretation invites us to imagine that they are. But this connection between Keturah and Hagar offers a model for imagining that the end of a story can be very different from what we could ever have perceived. And in this way, the rabbis encourage us to imagine a world that can bring reconciliation even to the places that seem the most impossible.
But perhaps the appearance of Hagar should not be a surprise. Earlier in the parasha, the Torah tells us that Isaac came back from Be’er-Lachai-Roi, the last place we encountered Hagar and Ishmael earlier in the story.
In Genesis 24:62, we read:
וְיִצְחָק בָּא מִבּוֹא בְּאֵר לַחַי רֹאִי וְהוּא יוֹשֵׁב בְּאֶרֶץ הַנֶּגֶב
Isaac had just come back from the vicinity of Beer-lahai-roi,
for he was settled in the region of the Negeb.
And Rashi explains:
מבוא באר לחי רואי.
שֶׁהָלַךְ לְהָבִיא הָגָר לְאַבְרָהָם אָבִיו שֶׁיִּשָּׂאֶנָּה (בראשית רבה)
He had just come from Beer-lahai-roi.
For he had gone there to bring Hagar back to Abraham
that he might take her again as his wife (Genesis Rabbah 60:14).
Perhaps in the same way that Abraham takes it upon himself to bring Isaac a wife, Isaac takes it upon himself to bring Hagar back.
At the end of the parasha we encounter Ishamel and Issac together, coming to bury their father:
וַיִּקְבְּרוּ אֹתוֹ יִצְחָק וְיִשְׁמָעֵאל בָּנָיו אֶל־מְעָרַת הַמַּכְפֵּלָה
אֶל־שְׂדֵה עֶפְרֹן בֶּן־צֹחַר הַחִתִּי אֲשֶׁר עַל־פְּנֵי מַמְרֵא
His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah,
in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, facing Mamre (Gen. 25:9)
It seems that there is an ongoing motif here of encounters with those who we hurt, or who hurt us. Hagar coming back to Abraham assumes a kind of healing and reconciliation. Isaac having a role in bringing Hagar back to his father, and perhaps even in the journey visiting his brother, also assumes a kind of healing, connection, and possibility. And both of them, Isaac and Ishmael, coming together at the end of their father’s life might also assume some healing and a possibility of connection.
The rabbis’ imagination and hopeful vision of Hagar-as-Keturah encourages me to see beyond darkness to new possibilities, and gives me renewed strength to create and to fight for reconciliation and redemption. The brothers who come together – even when their mothers couldn’t – also gives a sense of looking to the future with optimism.
My hope is that we can all access the creative courage of the rabbis who chose to imagine that oppression could be transformed into sweet incense and do our part in creating that better world.
May God bring blessing and comfort to all of us and our loved ones. May we find strength, courage, and patience, and open our hearts with generosity. May all those who are ill find healing.
May the hostages soon be returned to their families and friends; may peace prevail and may the leaders of the world know to prioritize life. May those who are working for peace be granted strength and courage to continue their sacred work, and may we soon see peace and dignity for all.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rav Claudia