פירוש על בראשית 20:6

'ידעתי כי בתם לבבך וגו I KNOW THAT IN THE INTEGRITY OF THY HEART etc. — It is true that at first you had no intention of sinning, but you cannot claim innocency of hands (Genesis Rabbah 52:6) —

ויאמר אליו האלוקים. G'd said to him (Avimelech). He agreed that Avimelech had not yet become guilty of death considering he had been convinced that Sarah was not married. As to his integrity, however, this was another matter. Whereas he might not have literally "robbed" Sarah [i.e. she did not belong to Abraham. Ed.], nonetheless he had employed the authority of being the king which is a kind of violence. At the very least "his hands were not clean in the matter."

ויאמר...בתם לבבךsignificantly, G’d did not add the words ובנקיון כפיך when acknowledging part of Avimelech’s complaint. The fact that Avimelech had not touched Sarah was evident, could be proved, whereas Avimelech’s intentions were private, could not be proved. Only G’d Himself would know if he spoke the truth.

It is true that at first you had no intention of sinning... Rashi is answering the question: Why is it not written, “I also know that you did this with an innocent heart and clean hands,” as Avimelech said about himself?

חשך, verwandt mit אזק, עזק, חזק, festhalten, umzäunen, fesseln, ebenso חשק, eigentlich umreifen. מחטו לי nicht mit א. Wir finden einigemal den Begriff חטא in der ל"ה-Form. So Koheleth 8, 12. 9, 18. Jesaias 65, 20: אחוטֶא. Ebenso 1. B. M. 31, 39 אְַחַטֶנָה. Wir haben einige Wurzeln, bei denen ל"א und ל"ה in einander spielen, und zwar erscheint da ל"ה in stärkerer Bedeutung. 3. B. מצא finden, מצה ganz in sich aufnehmen. קרא zu sich rufen, קרה etwas durch Balken mit einander verbinden. Möglich daher, dass hier das א zur Verstärkung des Ausdrucks ausgelassen ist, gerade weil Abimelech die Sache so leicht genommen. Du hast es mir zu verdanken, dass es beim bloßen Leichtsinn geblieben und nicht zu einem ernsten Verbrechen geworden, denn es wäre mir, לי, eine schwere Sünde gewesen. Du nennst dich und dein Volk גוי צדיק, so lange solche Vorgänge bei euch durch Sitte geheiligk sind, seid ihr weit entfernt צדיקים zu sein. — לנגע אליה, nicht nur nicht לנגע בה, sondern nicht einmal אליה.

גם אנכי ידעתי כי בתם לבבך וגו׳, “also I am aware that you have acted innocently, etc;” G-d , by saying: גם, includes that not only does He know that Avimelech had not raped Sarah in his heart but that his hands had remained clean also.

because לא נתתיך I PERMITTED THEE NOT — It was not of your own will that you did not touch her, but it was “I” who withheld you from sinning, and “I” did not permit you the possibility to touch her (Genesis Rabbah 52:7). Similar examples of נתן in sense of permitting are, (31:7) “God permitted him not (לא נתנו)” and (Judges 15:1) “But her father did not permit him (ולא נתנו) to go in”.

מחטו לי, the sin would have been directed against G’d only if he had transgressed the laws not to sleep with someone else’s wife, a command issued to all the descendants of Noach. Even if G’d had not issued a specific command in this regard, common sense would dictate such a law in a civilised society. The One Who had provided man with intelligence certainly expects that we use our intelligence to legislate such basic laws without which life on earth would become intolerable, anarchic. We must view our common sense as a messenger from G’d, an instrument that acts as a protection against man experiencing all kinds of harm and problems in his life on earth. When man commits violence against his fellow man this reflects an absence of common sense, i.e. a failure to use one’s common sense, seeing that the end result will be the termination of life on earth. If this is the result of violence perpetrated in order to secure land or chattels, how much more so would such a process of civilisation’s disintegration be accelerated if everyone would go assaulting people physically and raping his neighbour’s wife?

But, do not claim clean hands. You might ask: After all, was Avimelech in fact not free of sin, since he did not transgress? The answer is: Hashem was saying, “Not due to yourself are you free of sin, as you say. Rather, it is due to Me. You would have lain with her even though she told you she was his wife!”

ואחשוך גם אנכי אותך, "I too saved you from sinning." G'd made it plain that when He said that Avimelech was going to die, He meant that if he did not restore Sarah to Abraham but would sleep with her. He had told him of Sarah's status now and thus given him a chance to save himself from sinning.

על כן, this is why it was I Who prevented you from “getting your hands dirty;” I prevented you from touching her immodestly.

מחטו, the letter ו instead of the letter א in this word substitutes for the letter ל in the requisite mode of the verb.

מחטוא לי, from committing a sin against Me. Although Avimelech would not have been guilty of death had he slept with Sarah before becoming aware of her status as a married woman, nonetheless he would have sinned against G'd inasmuch as G'd was especially fond of both Abraham and Sarah and any offence against them would have been an offence against G'd Himself. This is why G'd added the word לי, "against Me."

על כן לא נתתיך, as we explained already, this is a reference to G’d having made Avimelech impotent. By doing this, G’d had done Avimelech a great favour. The reason why G’d extended Himself on his behalf was because He knew that Avimelech had indeed believed that Sarah was unattached. G’d did not want that Avimelech would become a sinner in regard to the wife of the prophet Avraham. Even though, granted that in the final analysis G’d intervened due to Avraham and Sarah being the potential victims, He could have saved Sarah from Avimelech’s clutches by a variety of other means. Seeing that Pharaoh’s thoughts at the time when Sarah was under his control were quite different from those of Avimelech, G’d had subjected Pharaoh and his household to a number of painful physical afflictions instead of appearing to him in a dream. The inhibitions G’d imposed on the entourage of Avimelech were temporary and left no permanent negative effect.

על כן לא נתתיך, "this is why I did not give you a chance, etc." Because of the special circumstances involved, I prevented you from sleeping with her; had you known she was married you would by now have been guilty of death. G'd judges the Gentiles even for a sin that has been planned but not yet carried out merely due to circumstances beyond the control of the sinner. According to Bereshit Rabbah 52,13 that an angel pushed Avimelech away when he tried to sleep with Sarah, the words: "I did not allow you to sin against me" make perfect sense.

לנגע אליה, even touching her without engaging in sexual intercourse. G’d had removed any desire from Avimelech to have physical contact with Sarah.