Comentario sobre Génesis 12:13

למען ייטב לי בעבורך THAT IT MAY BE WELL WITH ME FOR THY SAKE — they may give me presents.

למען ייטב לי, so that when you will say that you are my sister, each one will entertain the hope that I will agree to your marrying them. Therefore, none of them will have any reason to kill me. Rather, he will seek my approval by offering me a dowry for you. It was the custom in those days that the father of the bride would be bribed with money or its equivalent to agree to let his daughter marry someone. This also explains why the Torah speaks of מהר ימהרנה in Exodus 22,15-16, i.e. “he (the seducer) shall pay a heavy dowry,” and why the option to refuse such a marriage is not so much the girl’s but her father’s, as we see from the verse following.

למען ייטב לי בעבורך. In order that I will receive benefit on your account. Abraham explained why he asked Sarah to describe him as her brother and not as some more distant relative or a total stranger. If Abraham's status were anything less than Sarah's brother the Egyptians would not have any interest in securing his goodwill. Abraham may have had yet another motivation for insisting that Sarah describe their relationship to each other instead of he himself. His own words would not convince the Egyptians as they might construe them as a stratagem to be wooed with gifts. The plain reason is no doubt that he was afraid that if he were to say he was her brother and she would say nothing, sooner or later Sarah might make a comment which would reveal that there was a husband-wife relationship between her and Abraham. When Abraham added that וחיתה נפשי, that his soul would remain alive due to the stratagem of Sarah describing him as her brother, he did not have in mind his mere physical survival. If that had been his intention he would have said ואחיה, "so that I will survive." The word וחיתה נפשי is an allusion to Sarah's remaining spiritually uncontaminated. We have a tradition (Proverbs 13,25) that צדיק אוכל לשובע נפשו, that the reason a righteous person consumes physical food is not to indulge his senses but to satisfy the needs of his soul to carry on his task in life. Abraham was motivated by similar considerations.

אמרי נא, tell those who ask you.

אמרי נא אחותי את, “Please say that you are my sister.” The word נא is an expression of an entreaty. Avraham justified the use of the white lie as he saw himself in immediate danger of being murdered. He realized that by lying he would become the beneficiary of that lie also financially.

אמרי נא אחותי את, “please say that you are my sister, etc.” This was an inadvertent sin committed by Avram; it caused the eventual exile in Egypt of his descendants. It was certainly a grave sin to cause his wife to sin on account of his own fear of being killed. He should have demonstrated faith in G-d that He would save him as well as his wife. He committed another sin when he left the land of Canaan on account of the famine. He should have demonstrated faith in G-d that He would make sure he would not die from hunger. On account of this sin his descendants were enslaved by Pharaoh. This, at least, is the view of Nachmanides.
Our sages (Nedarim 32) claim that the exile in Egypt was due to Avram asking G-d in 15,8 “how will I be sure that I (my descendants) will inherit the land?” This is also what we find in Pirke d'Rabbi Eliezer 48 where G-d is quoted as having told Avram of this exile in reply to his question. [I suppose the version in Pirke d'Rabbi Eliezer is older than the version in Nedarim. Ed.] At any rate, it is clear that Avram’s query in that chapter was considered sinful. The common denominator of the views expressed by our sages is that the sin consisted of thoughts which Avram articulated The result was 430 years of exile of varying degrees of severity. Seeing that the exile was due to a sin it was divided into three stages. The sin consisted of three parts. 1) sinful thought; 2) sinful speech; 3) sinful action. This is why the intelligent reader ought to reflect that the present exile is likely to last three times as if the exile in Egypt lasted 430 years and it was due merely to Avram’s inadvertently sinful utterance, it stands to reason that the present exile will last three times as long. After all, the sin which led to the 430 years of exile in Egypt was confined to an utterance by Avram which G-d considered sinful. The sin which led to the destruction of the first Temple, idolatry, (Yuma 9) was certainly much worse and not committed inadvertently and only by an ancestor to whom the Torah had not yet been given. At the time when the First Temple was destroyed most of the people had been guilty of sinning in thought, in speech, as well as in deed. G-d had therefore decreed three times 430 years of exile on the Jewish people. This must have been the basis of Daniel’s calculation. When you examine the final verses in Daniel 12,11 in which he mentions 1290 years, and 12,12 אשרי המחכה ויגיע לימים אלף שלש מאות שלשים וחמשה in which he speaks about the redemption at the end of 1335 years (years), this number is made up of three times the number 430.
[Our author misquotes the two verses in Daniel by referring only to the number 1290, ignoring the next number in the verse following. Many attempts have been made to reconcile these numbers. Seeing the commentators who labored over these verses lived before the time alluded to had elapsed, their efforts at the time were very relevant. Now that many hundreds of years have elapsed since the expiry of these 1290 or 1335 years respectively, this editor sees little point in referring to such efforts. Ed.] This may also have been what the prophet Micah 7,20 alluded to when he said: תתן אמת ליעקב חסד לאברהם,”You will keep faith with Yaakov, and maintain your love for Avraham.” (The word אמת is understood as an acrostic of אלף מתים תשעים) This was a prayer for G-d to hasten the redemption. He appealed to G-d who had sworn that He would invoke the attribute of חסד when it comes to the redemption of Israel as we know from Deut. 32,40 where G-d swore an oath to avenge Israel from its enemies. The words there כי אשא אל שמים ידי, “I raise My hand to heaven (in an oath)” are paraphrased by Daniel 12,7 וישבע בחי העולם, “He swore an oath in the name of the Eternal.”

Please say that you are my sister. That is, resolve in your heart that we are no longer married. Before the Torah was given this was sufficient to effect a divorce, hence he was not asking her to lie. Although Avraham observed the entire Torah, in this case he conducted himself according to Noachide law to save his life.

So that they give me gifts. Rashi is answering the question: Why does it say ייטב? Avoidance of death is called הצלה, not הטבה. Thus Rashi explains, “So that they give me gifts.” You might ask: This implies that Avraham wanted gifts. Why did he later reject gifts from the king of Sedom? There he said (14:23), “Neither a thread nor a shoelace! I will not take anything of yours,” although the wealth was rightfully due to him, since he took it from the four kings. If so, he surely would not want outright gifts, for it is written (Mishlei 15:27): “He who hates gifts will live.” An answer is: Avraham wanted only a small gift, for it says in Berachos 10b, “One who wishes to benefit from others may do so, as did the Prophet Elisha.” This means one may take food, drink and lodging. And the proof [that Avraham objected only to substantial gifts] is that it is written (14:21): “The king of Sedom said, ‘Take take the possessions for yourself,’” to which Avraham answered, “I have lifted my hand to Adonoy ... Neither a thread nor a shoelace! ...so you will not be able to say, ‘I have made Avram wealthy.’” A further answer is: Women desire money. So in order to appease her, he told her: “Please say ... my sister, so that it will go well with me.” But Avraham never intended to take gifts from Pharaoh. A further answer is: Avraham had not yet acquired wealth, so he took gifts. [We see he was poor when he went down to Egypt] because the verse later says (13:3), “He continued on his travels,” on which Rashi says: “On his return trip he paid the debts he incurred.” But when speaking to the king of Sedom he had acquired wealth, thus he refused even what was rightfully due to him, because of “He who hates gifts will live.” Some ask: Why would Avraham want to cause the Egyptians to sin and take a married woman, by telling them Sarah was his sister? The answer is: He told them she was his sister, who was married and whose husband was overseas. This also explains why he said, “And my life will be spared because of you.” Avraham said to Sarah, “I will tell them that you are my sister, and that you are married, but your husband left you. I am searching for him — perhaps I will find him and he will give you a get, or perhaps he has died, and then you can remarry. Thus they will spare my life, [since I am helping] to avoid the sin of taking you as a married woman.” This also explains why Sarah agreed: since he told them that she might be married, they surely will not take her. (see Chizkuni)

אמרי נא אחותי את, “please say that you are my sister.” Avraham reasoned that if the Egyptians were to ask him if Sarai was a married woman, he would respond by claiming that her husband had abandoned her. The Egyptians would therefore have no reason to kill him on account of her absent husband, and they would leave her alone.

למען ייטב לי, so that on account of your describing yourself as my sister they will treat me well. The “good treatment” Avram referred to was not financial reward but simply that they would let him live. It is quite inconceivable that Avram wanted to use his wife as a pimp uses a prostitute. Even though we read in verse 15 that Avram, in the event, experienced many financial favours as the man whose consent was sought to have his sister as someone’s wife, this is something he had not counted on at all. In fact, we know how unwilling Avram was to accept people’s favours when he turned down the spoils of war which were not a gift to him but his due as he had fought that war. (Genesis 14,23.) Had he not been in Pharaoh’s country and been afraid to reject these gifts, he would most certainly not have accepted them. Avram was not interested in acquiring more wealth than G’d had seen fit to grant him.

למען ייטב לי בעבורך, “in order that I will benefit on your account (and survive).” Seeing that you have to say that you are not my wife, do it in a way that will confer benefits upon me as a direct result of your situation. By saying that you are my sister they will heap gifts upon me to secure my acquiescence.

The reason Abraham appears to repeat himself when he said 1) בעבורך, and 2) בגללך, is that he hoped he would exprience physical wellbeing as well as spiritual wellbeing due to Sarah's describing herself as his sister. Our sages (Berachot 31) explain Samuel I 1,11 אם ראה תראה בעני אמתך, to mean that if ראה, G'd would see Channah (pay attention to her prayer) and would grant her a child, all well and good; if not תראה, she would place herself in a compromising situation which would force her husband to treat her as a סוטה, a woman suspected of marital infidelity. Once she would drink the waters prescribed for such a woman (Numbers 5,24) her innocence would be established and G'd would have to grant her a child as per verse 28 in that chapter. Abraham hoped that as a result of Sarah's chastity under circumstances resembling the compromising situation a סוטה finds herself in, he and she would have a child thus assuring Abraham of his future, וחיתה נפשי, "my soul will live on." There are numerous instances where our sages have explained the word בגלל as having metaphysical significance, such as in Deuteronomy 15,10 where G'd promises that blessings will devolve upon people already if they merely promise to do charity, דבר (Tossephta Peah 4). The letter ו in וחיתה also has a special significance. Abraham did not mean that the fact that his soul would remain alive would be part of the benefit he would experience through Sarah's lie. Whereas the survival of his body would be an extension of ייטב לי, the direct benefit he would derive from Sarah's lie, the spiritual dimension, i.e. the survival of his soul would be an independent benefit, something that he would achieve later on when Sarah would be alone in the palace of Avimelech, the king of the Philistines. On that occasion he did not face expulsion from the land of the Philistines on account of having been found out as a liar (20,15). It is even possible that the fact that Sarah twice found herself in the position of a סוטה, a woman unjustly suspected of marital infidelity, once in the palace of Pharaoh, and then again in the palace of Avimelech, resulted in her ability to conceive and bear a child. Rabbi Yitzchok, (a teacher of Rashi?) suggests that when the Torah appears to repeat itself in Numbers 5,28, i.e. "if the woman has not become defiled and has remained pure," this refers to her neither having been unfaithful with the man with whom she is suspected to have been unfaithful now, nor with any other man. In such a case she will be unharmed by the waters she has drunk and able to retain seed. Accordingly, Sarah became pregnant and bore Isaac to prove that she had been faithful to her husband each time she found herself in the situation of a סוטה. The expression חיתה נפשי would refer to Abraham having children due to the chaste conduct of Sarah.