Kommentar zu Bereschit 12:17

'וינגע ה' וגו AND THE LORD PLAGUED PHARAOH etc. — He was smitten with the disease of Raathon for which marital relations are harmful.

BECAUSE OF SARAI ABRAM’s WIFE. This means that because of the wrong done to Sarah, as well as to Abraham, and the merit of both of them, these great plagues came upon Pharaoh and his house.

וינגע ה' את פרעה נגעים גדולים, only Pharaoh was struck with “great” afflictions,

וינגע ה׳ את פרעה. G'd brought plagues on Pharaoh. The word וינגע is related to נגע, touched. When Pharaoh was about to touch Sarah, G'd revealed to him that she was married to Abraham.

'וינגע ה, immediately, in the night following Sarai’s abduction. G’d’s objective was to prevent Pharaoh from defiling Sarai through sexual contact with her.

וינגע ה' את פרעה, “The Lord smote Pharaoh with plagues, etc.” It is difficult to understand why G’d punished Pharaoh for a crime committed inadvertently. He had not been warned not to take Sarai as a wife, as had been the case with Avimelech. Some commentators are of the opinion that Pharaoh did indeed sin intentionally as G’d had informed him that Sarai was Avram’s wife. The fact that Pharaoh reacted by saying to Avraham: “here is your wife, take her and leave,” is proof that someone had informed him. Clearly, this had been G’d, although He may not have spelled it out in these words. According to Nachmanides when these plagues struck Pharaoh and his household suddenly, he wondered what G’d had done to him and why; he asked Sarai if she could account for this and she told him the reason. Thereupon Pharaoh called in Avraham and accused him without being specific, as he was not sure that the plagues were indeed related to this matter. Alternatively, as our sages explained this, the plague consisted of Pharaoh suddenly becoming impotent so that it dawned on him that this could be related to the fact that the woman in question was someone’s wife. He accused Avraham only tentatively, questioning him, afraid to accuse him explicitly. Had Avraham said: “she is my sister,” he would not have said to him: take your wife and go.” Avraham remained silent throughout, as he was far too afraid. Pharaoh interpreted his silence as an admission, this is why he added: “take tour wife and depart!”

וינגע ה' את פרעה, “G’d smote Pharaoh with plagues, etc.” Most commentators believe that this statement is to be interpreted literally, i.e. that Pharaoh was personally smitten with afflictions. They interpret Genesis 20,18 as meaning that the vaginal openings of the women and the penises of the men in Avimelech’s household were blocked by divine action (Baba Kama 92). This is also based on Chronicles I 16,21 לא הניח לאיש לעשקם ויוכח עליהם מלכים, “He allowed no one to oppress them; He reproved kings on their account.”
On the other hand, Rabbi Saadyah Gaon understands our verse as a threat by G’d to afflict Pharaoh. His reasoning is that if G’d had afflicted Pharaoh prematurely this would not have been fair justice as Sarai had been brought to Pharaoh’s palace by others (without his having ordered this) and he personally had not yet laid a hand on Sarai. Seeing that he had not yet committed a sin why would G’d punish him as a preventive measure? Rabbi Saadyah Gaon applies the same reasoning to what happened later at the court of Avimelech (chapter 20). As to Genesis 20,17 where the Torah expressly reports that G’d healed Avimelech and his household in response to Avraham’s prayer, Rabbi Saadyah understands this verse not so much as a healing after an affliction but as a preventive medicine G’d provided against Avimelech and his household suffering such afflictions in the future. This would be a demonstration of the verse in Exodus 15,26 כי אני ה' רופאך, “for I the Lord am your Healer.” In that passage the Torah had also spoken about afflictions which were not going to be visited upon the Jewish people, and G’d describes this as a result of His acting as Israel’s Healer. As to the verse we quoted from Chronicles, Rabbi Saadyah understands this as referring to verbal warnings not to actual occurrences.
Our sages clearly did not understand matters in this way and believed that seeing that these two kings both had evil intentions G’d countered their evil intentions by forestalling the harm they were about to do and effectively smiting them by disabling the respective organs with which they were going to commit their sin. The sages of the Talmud understand our verses literally.

With a kind of skin disease ... There are twenty-four types of rashes, none of which is more harmful for marital relations than this kind (ראתן). And [it must be that] Pharaoh was afflicted with it, for otherwise how did Pharaoh know she was his wife, so that he immediately called for Avraham [and said, “She is your wife”]?

וינגע ה' את פרעה, “Hashem afflicted Pharaoh with a painful plague;” the reason why the Torah offers no further details about the nature of this plague, as opposed to when Avimelech was struck with impotence and the women in his country were afflicted in their birth canals, is because shortly after the episode with Avimelech the Torah reported that Sarah conceived and became pregnant (Genesis 21,1). Had the Torah not spelled out that Avimelech had become totally impotent, people might have attributed Sarah’s pregnancy to her having stayed in Avimelech’s Palace. The episode with Pharaoh had occurred perhaps a s long as 20 years earlier, so that no one could have fabricated such a story. To the question why Pharaoh was punished, seeing that Avram had deceived him by saying that she was his sister, as we know from the Torah quoting him, Sarai had described herself as Avram’s wife even if he had not said so. This is the meaning of the words: על דבר שרי אשת ברם “on account of what Sarai, Avram’s wife had said.” Pharaoh had ignored her. Gentiles do not have to be warned not to violate the commandments they have accepted to observe, as we pointed out in connection with Genesis 20,5. (The second Avimelech and Rivkah)

Sarai, Avram’s wife. She cried out that she was Avram’s wife but Pharaoh refused to listen.

ואת ביתו AND HIS HOUSE — Take it as the Targum has it: “and the people of his house”. A Midrashic explanation is: the word את is used here to imply that included in the curse were also its walls, pillars and its utensils (Midrash Tanchuma, Lech Lecha 5). The whole of this explanation of ואת ביתו is given in an old text of Rashi.

whereas his household suffered lesser afflictions. This was arranged by G’d so that the Egyptians, when they saw that only Sarai had remained completely immune to these afflictions, would conclude that the afflictions were on account of her and her fate.

ואת ביתו, the men of his household, the very men who had praised Sarai’s beauty to their king and had abducted her. Alternatively, the meaning of these words could be that all members of the palace household, whether male or female, were afflicted with this plague in order for them to recognise the finger of G’d’s retribution for violating Sarai’s rights as an individual.

According to her words. Rashi is answering the question: Why is it not written אודות שרי [instead of דבר שרי]?

וינגע ה׳ את פרעה, “Hashem afflicted Pharaoh.” According to Rashi, He afflicted him with a kind of gonorrhea, thus making the punishment fit the crime. The same occurred with Sarai and Avimelech. G-d interfered with all the women in the land of the Philistines being unable to give birth to fetuses that were ready to be born. (B’reshit Rabbah end of chapter 52.) According to a dissenting view, Pharaoh had become afflicted with tzoraat, a skin eczema resulting in the afflicted persons being ostracized.

על דבר שרי BECAUSE OF SARAI (literally, by the word of Sarai) — at her orders: she said to the angel “Smite” and he smote (Midrash Tanchuma, Lech Lecha 5).

על דבר שרי, so that they could not claim that the plague was a coincidence, not related to Sarai’s abduction. An allegorical approach (related to a Midrash quoted by Rashi) the words על דבר שרי אשת אברם were spoken by the angel who inflicted this plague on Pharaoh and his household. The plain meaning is that after suffering this affliction, Pharaoh searched in his mind why this should have happened to him, and it eventually occurred to him that Sarai might have been a married woman. He then asked Sarai to tell her the truth. She replied that she was indeed Avram’s wife, and that seeing they had been afraid for Avram’s life, she had agreed to this semi-deception. As a result of this revelation, Pharaoh called Avram and confronted him personally.