Comentario sobre Génesis 17:15

לא תקרא את שמה שרי THOU SHALT NOT CALL HER NAME SARAI which means “my princess”— a princess to me and not to others — BUT SARAH, in a more general sense, SHALL BE HER NAME: she shall be princess over all (Berakhot 13a).

ויאמר ... לא תקרא, a man calls his wife by her name, not vice versa. She addresses him deferentially as her superior. It is not good manners to address someone of a higher station in life as if he were one's equal. This is also why it is forbidden to address one's father by his name but he must be addressed in a fashion which reflects his superior stats vis-à-vis his son. One may preface speaking to one's father by saying first: "my father," "my master," "my teacher," etc. Jerobam was accused of re belling against King Solomon because he spoke of him by name instead of first mentioning his title. (Kings I 11,27) [The author quotes from his own commentary on the Book of Kings. The words שלמה בנה את המלוא are understood as a quotation of something Jerobam said, when he should have said "King Solomon built, etc." Ed.] In the same vein our sages (Sanhedrin 100) have said that if someone were to address or refer to his father by his name, he would cause the Divine presence to depart from the Jewish people. When Sarah spoke to the angel about her husband, (Genesis 18,12) she referred to him as ואדוני זקן, "my master is old." Also in Genesis 3,15 G'd had already made this point to Chavah, saying that her husband Adam would have authority over her. In Judges 19,16 the text in merely telling us a story, the parties involved in which had long been dead when the book was written, refers to פתח בית האיש אשר אדוניה שם, "at the entrance of the house in which her master was at the time,: instead of writing "at the entrance of the house of her husband." The prophet writing the book was careful to accord to people the title or stature that they possessed when alive. This is therefore the reason why on the one hand G'd told Avraham not to call his wife Sarai but Sarah, whereas there is no parallel line for Sarah not to call Avraham Avram, seeing she had never been allowed to call him merely "Avram." When speaking about Avram's name change G'd speaks only about how other people are going to refer to him or not refer to him, saying ולא יקרא "it will not be called," as He spoke about Avraham's equals referring to him by name instead of by some title. Only Avraham needed to be warned not to call Sarai by her former name, seeing that no one else had ever been permitted to address her in such familiar terms. If someone were to call Sarah Sarai, he would not be violating a negative commandment and a positive commandment (Berachot 13) seeing G'd had only commanded Avraham not to call her Sarai anymore.