Lëkh Lᵊkhâ 6th Eve
Descendants? Sâr•aiꞋ Was Barren!
 panoramio dot com Google Maps 0350x263.jpg "Ayn al Khadirat, Al Qusaymah") |
 panoramio dot com Google Maps 1024x768.jpg "Click to enlarge"){kind=small} The spring on way to Mi•dᵊbârꞋ Shur: Ayn al Khadirat, Al Qusaymah, in the Sinai (panoramio.com, Google Maps) |
In ancient times and some places today, men may have more than one wife – especially wealthy men, like AvᵊrâmꞋ.
While AvᵊrâmꞋ and Sâr•aiꞋ were residing in Egypt, she acquired a live-in maid named Hâ•gârꞋ. When they returned to Kᵊna•anꞋ, she brought Hâ•gârꞋ back with her.
So Sâr•aiꞋ suggested to AvᵊrâmꞋ, "Look, ä' has prevented me from having a child. Marry my maid. Perhaps I will build our legacy from her.1 So AvᵊrâmꞋ hearkened to the voice of Sâr•aiꞋ and married Hâ•gârꞋ, Sâr•aiꞋ's Egyptian maid, as a secondary wife.
When Hâ•gârꞋ became pregnant by AvᵊrâmꞋ while Sâr•aiꞋ still could not, Hâ•gârꞋ disrespected, and began to disparage, Sâr•aiꞋ.
So Sâr•aiꞋ told AvᵊrâmꞋ how Hâ•gârꞋ was bullying her2 and AvᵊrâmꞋ authorized her to deal with Hâ•gârꞋ as she saw fit.
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 The Spring on the way to Shur (red button). |
Sâr•aiꞋ disciplined Hâ•gârꞋ and Hâ•gârꞋ, seeing that her bullying had backfired and AvᵊrâmꞋ backed Sâr•aiꞋ completely, realized that she created an impossible situation for herself and ran away back toward Egypt.
But slaves can't just run away, especially in an arid wilderness. AvᵊrâmꞋ, being concerned for the pregnant maid, acted as a ma•lâkhꞋ ä' and went out to find her.
AvᵊrâmꞋ caught up to her at a spring in the mi•dᵊbârꞋ, on her way to Shur, in the Sinai, headed back to Egypt.
"How did you get in this pickle?" AvᵊrâmꞋ asked her. "And where do you think you're going?"
"I'm running away from Sâr•aiꞋ, my mistress," she answered.
"Go back to your mistress and take your punishment!" demanded the ma•lâkhꞋ ä'. Then the ma•lâkhꞋ ä' added, "I will increase your descendants too, beyond counting. When you give birth to a son you shall call him Yi•shᵊm•â•eilꞋ, for ä' has heard your prayer. He shall be a frontiersman, and he shall neighbor above all of his brothers."
Then, by Name, she called ä' of AvᵊrâmꞋ who spoke with her, saying: "You are the Eil râ•iyꞋ."
So the bᵊeir was called "Bᵊeir la-Khai Rō•iyꞋ."
AvᵊrâmꞋ was 86 years old when Hâ•gârꞋ gave birth to her son, and AvᵊrâmꞋ named him Yi•shᵊm•â•eilꞋ.
Optional parental preparation:
- Note 1 – Because of the economics of poverty, kidnapping, war, and the like, some people become wealthy while others end up hopelessly mired in a lifetime of enslavement; slaves whose only future is working solely for room and board for a boss who owns everything. In ancient times, the boss even determined, arbitrarily, when and whom they married; and the children, while nurtured and raised by the slave parents, were a possession of the boss. In this case, AvᵊrâmꞋ was the boss. If Hâ•gârꞋ conceived a child (whether by a fellow slave or by AvᵊrâmꞋ), the child would belong to their boss – AvᵊrâmꞋ; and, one might say, the deputy boss, Sâr•aiꞋ, thus "building" her legacy.
- Show, on the globe, the locations and route of Hâ•gârꞋ from Khë•vᵊr•onꞋ, the spring on the way, the Sinai, Egypt and the Nile Delta.
Questions you might anticipate that your child might raise and be prepared to discuss:
- Note 2 – How could Hâ•gârꞋ, a maid slave, bully the boss's wife? It's a fact of life that, usually, women outlive men. That portended a situation after the death of AvᵊrâmꞋ when Hâ•gârꞋ's son would be the boss – and Hâ•gârꞋ deputy boss instead of Sâr•aiꞋ, giving Hâ•gârꞋ leverage to make demands of Sâr•aiꞋ until it became unbearable for Sâr•aiꞋ.
- What is an angel? (a ma•lâkhꞋ)
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