Musar zu Bereschit 16:18

We read in the Sefer Habahir, that the reason the Torah commands circumcision to be performed on the eighth day of the infant's life is that man possesses eight extremities, i.e. his right and left hand, the right and left foot, the head, the body, the male member and its mate, since the Torah describes man as "ודבק אשתו והיו לבשר אחד, "he cleaves to his wife so that they become one flesh” (Genesis 2,24). When G–d said to Abraham: אני הנני בריתי אתך, "I, here My covenant is with you," this is a reference to the fact that the שכינה is known as Ani, and that the heavenly covenant is symbolized on the body by a ציון, a mark. Once the male glans is uncovered, this enables the שכינה to return to ציון, Zion, and man on earth remains whole, retains the image of G–d. When that condition exists, all his 248 limbs are whole, and this is what the name 248=אברהם represents. When in that condition, Abraham is able to enter the Zion on this earth. We can then be a nation on our own land for the imprint of G–d is on our bodies. This seal signifies that we are permanently different and distinct from the other nations and are indeed part of the holiness of G–d.

If the repentance is not total G–d withdraws His right hand, מאחור, away from the face of the enemy. The "enemy" is Samael, our perennial accuser and his armies who face us in this world; we know this from the Tikkuney Hazohar who comments on Genesis 16,12 where Hagar is told about the forthcoming birth of Ishmael: על פני כל הארץ ישכון, "He will be at home all over the earth." The significance of the parable describing G–d as withdrawing His right hand backwards is that the left hand normally is employed in adiministering דין, justice, whereas the right hand symbolises חסד, love extended to the חצונים, the קליפות which are known as אחוריים, "the ones behind". Psalm 77,1.1 refers to this idea when the Psalmist says: "I have said that it is my fault that the right hand of the Most High has changed."

And, also, in most cases this will also cause him bodily harm; for he will be trained from his youth to fulfill his lusts, and when he cannot adequately satisfy them, he will injure men in all the ways that he can — through theft, robbery, and violence. "His hand will be against all, and the hand of all, against him" (Bereshith 16:12).

G–d called upon Rahav, the guardian angel of Ishmael, asking whether he wanted to accept the Torah. Rahav also wanted to know what is written in the Torah; G–d told him that the Torah prohibits adultery. This proved unacceptable to the representative of Ishmael who considered his whole kingdom on earth as based on the blessing of water, i.e. the blessing given to the fish in Genesis 1,22 to multiply indiscriminately without regard to exclusive sexual pairings. When the angel told Hagar that she would give birth to Ishmael (Genesis 16,11), he told her that Ishmael would be פרא אדם, "an unbridled human being." [the word פרא here seems related to פרו in the way the Zohar uses it. Ed.] Rahav began to plead with G–d: "Abraham had two sons.; You have the choice of giving the Torah to one of Isaac's two sons. The Torah is far more suitable for either of them than for Ishmael." G–d responded that this would not be fair because Ishmael was Abraham's first-born." The guardian angel of Ishmael then offered to waive his claim to the birthright of Ishmael in favour of Isaac. He offered to also cede to Isaac and his descendants the "light" Ishmael had inherited by dint of being Abraham's first-born son. G–d accepted this offer, and this is why the Torah says: הופיע מהר פארן.

While I am on this subject I shall also deal with the unusual fact that in 24,50, Laban pre-empts his father by speaking up before his father. Rashi comments that it was because of Laban's wickedness that he tried to forestall his father Bethuel. Assuming that Rashi is correct, what advantage did the clever Laban hope to gain by answering first? I have already written that the patriarchs and matriarchs represented the whole of mankind, and that they repaired the spiritual and physical damage inflicted on the universe by Adam (Adam and Eve combined). G–d's whole purpose in the creation of the universe had of course been none other than Adam. We have learned in Avot 4:28 that "jealousy, greed and thirst for honor drive man out of this world," i.e. cause his death. Adam's sin involved elements of all these three negative traits. The serpent was jealous of Adam as Eve's husband and wanted to "marry" Eve himself; hence he tried to seduce Adam. It had thought that Adam would be the first to eat, Eve offering him the first bite, and that thus Adam would become the victim of G–d's warning not to eat from the tree on penalty of death. The serpent would then have been free to mate with Eve. The reward that the serpent held out to Eve (Genesis 3,5-6) was gratification of her greed, "the tree was lovely to look at and good as food." The promise of becoming G–d-like was the additional honour that would result from eating of that tree. Regarding the lives of Abraham and Sarah we find that they practised the very opposite traits. It is natural for a woman to be jealous of another woman's ability to have children when she herself is unable to do so, but Sarah offered Hagar to her husband in order that Abraham should be able to have a child with her instead (Genesis 16,2); she was free of that kind of jealousy. Abraham, who was offered material wealth by the King of Sodom, exclaimed that he would not even accept a shoelace from the booty he himself had captured when he defeated Kedor-Leomer and freed Lot (14,23). Not only did Abraham not display traits of greed, his entire life was filled with acts of generosity towards others. He practiבed humility to the point where he – who had been the recipient of several revelations by G–d – even described himself as being merely "dust and ashes " (18,27).

Rabbi Eliyah Mizrachi explains Hagar's experience and her comments in 16, 13/14 in a similar way. The Torah says: ותקרא שם ה' הדובר אליה אתה א-ל ראי כי אמרה הגם הלום ראיתי אחרי רואי. "She called the Lord who spoke to her 'You are El-ro ee,’ by which she meant: 'have I not gone on seeing after He saw me'!" Hagar had entertained doubts about what she saw in her vision. She was not sure whether it had been an angel of G–d, i.e. a spiritual light, or whether what she had seen was merely physical light. She became convinced that it had to be spiritual light, since one cannot see two successive bursts of physical light, for one is so blinded by a burst of strong physical light that one becomes unable to perceive further visions of light. [Our editions of the commentary of Rabbi Eliyahu Mizrachi do not have this comment, at least not in connection with 16, 13. Ed.] The altar Abraham built alludes to the square altar that I have described earlier and to the fact that Abraham moved from "his birthplace and his father's house," both of which are hyperboles for the philosophies that he had acquired in his original environment as described by the Zohar as the meaning of ויוצא אותו החוצה, "He took him outside” (15,5).