Commento su Genesi 25:1

קטורה KETURAH — This is Hagar. She was named Keturah because her deeds were as beautiful (sweet) as incense (Ketoreth) (Genesis Rabbah 61). And since she closed her 'opening,' as she did not mate with anyone from the time she separated from Avraham (Genesis Rabbah 61:4).

קטורה, according to the plain meaning of the text this woman was not identical with Hagar.

Avraham again took. The word vayosef — “again” — has connotations of continuing a previous relationship, hinting that this was the second time he married her. Keturah. See Rashi. Avraham named her in honor of the holy incense to make it known that she had repented fully after having lapsed into idolatry, so that now even her former deeds ascended to Heaven like the incense.

ויסף אברהם, he took another wife although he already had had two wives. He meant to continue siring children in his old age in order to comply with the blessing/command to increase the world’s population. Seeing that the continuity of his own seed [the Jewish people having originated in seed from both a Jewish father and a Jewish other, Ed.] had been assured, he was not concerned with the antecedents of Keturah. We can be certain, however, that he selected a woman who personally possessed all the good qualities he would have desired also for a wife for his son. The only thing he did not insist on was such a woman’s national background. He was certainly not looking for experiencing disappointments with any children from Keturah, having experienced enough disappointment with Ishmael. We may safely assume that Keturah was not of Canaanitic descent, seeing that even Hagar the Egyptian had not been of such descent. (compare 17,3) Keturah was not a concubine, This is why the Torah writes ויקח אשה, as apposed to the mention of פלגשים, concubines, (verse 5). The sons of the concubines are not mentioned by name whereas the sons of Keturah are all mentioned by their names. This fact alone clearly shows that their status was superior to the sons of Avraham’s concubines. The essential difference between a wife and a concubine is that though both are exclusive partners of the men with whom they live, the former, when becoming wives, underwent the ceremony known as chuppah, and the union was celebrated with a wedding party, whereas a concubine was not accorded all this pomp and ceremony. [after the Torah was given, the essential; difference in status was that no financial settlement, ketuvah, was made when a concubine was taken by a man as his companion.

ושמה קטורה, “whose name was Keturah.” Rashi claims that Keturah was identical with Hagar, who appears in a new guise. Her new name reflected her new and improved attitudes, comparable to the incense offered on the altar, the most beloved of Israel’s sacrificial offerings. In order to reconcile this comment with what Rashi had written on Genesis 21,14 where Hagar is described as ותלך ותתע, as returning to the idolatrous practices she had absorbed in her home as a child, we would have to postulate that in the interval she had become a penitent. Although she was of Egyptian origin [and therefore no better than a Canaanite from the point of view of Avraham’s criteria for intermarriage Ed.] she was not only of perfectly good character, but seeing that the first time Avraham had married he had done so with Divine approval, she was now also permissible to him as a wife. I have seen a comment in Bereshit Rabbah 61,4 that even at this stage Avraham married her at G’d’s instructions This is why the Torah wrote ויוסף אברהם ויקח, “he again married, etc.” The word ויוסף is to tell us that just as it had been with G’d’s approval that he had married Hagar the first time, he still enjoyed G’d’s approval when he took her back. The Midrash describes an argument between two scholars of the Talmud who debated this subject.

Because her deeds were as beautiful as קטורת. But [the first explanation] raises a question: Why was she not named Ketores? Thus Rashi offers the [second] explanation: “Because she ‘tied her womb.’” And the second explanation raises a question: Why was she not named Keshurah, which means “tied” in Hebrew, instead of Keturah, which means “tied” in Aramaic? Therefore, Rashi offers the first explanation. (Maharshal)

Dass Abraham sich wieder verheiratete, ist schon deshalb nicht auffallend, weil er ja noch fünfunddreißig Jahre nach Saras Tode lebte, mehr als die jetzt durchschnittliche Dauer einer Ehe. Außerdem ist ja, nach dem Worte der Weisen, der Mann nicht "ganz" wenn ohne Frau, die Aufgabe eines Menschen ist jederzeit zu groß, als dass sie von einem allein voll gelöst werden könnte. Unter Ketura wäre nach R. Jehuda (ב"ר) Hagar zu verstehen, also dasselbe Weib, das ihm Sara zugeführt. Dabei ist nicht zu übersehen, wie rein und menschlich die Weisen ein Verhältnis auffassen, das später so trüb und betrübend erscheint. Jizchak, sagen sie, sei nach dem Brunnen an der Wüste hingegangen, um seinem Vater von dort selbst Hagar, seine, wie wir es nennen, seine "Stiefmutter", zuzuführen! Und er hatte doch seine Mutter so lieb gehabt! Und er war doch, als er dort hinging, noch untröstlich über den Heimgang seiner Mutter! Mag man dies nun als historische Tatsache, oder als Lehrandeutung fassen, so bekundet es ja, in letzterem Falle sogar noch mehr, die Anschauung, die der Zeit unserer Weisen eigen war. Wie tief sinkt dagegen selbst unsere Gegenwart herab, in welcher eine zweite Frau das Verhältnis von erwachsenen Kindern zum Vater gespannt, wenn nicht gar feindlich zu gestalten pflegt! Nach R. Jehuda hieße das ויוסף ויקה, er nahm wieder, und zwar על פי דבור in Folge eines Geheißes desselben göttlichen Wortes, das früher ihm Sara Folge zu leisten geboten, die ihre Entlassung von ihm gefordert. Hagar habe seitdem als קטר) קטורה chaldäisch Knoten) verschlossen und einsam, ohne weitere Verbindung mit einem Manne, gelebt, woher ihr Name (auch Hagar, verwandt mit חגר ,אגר, bedeutet ähnliches), sonst hätte sie wohl auch Abraham nicht wieder nehmen dürfen.

ויקח אשה ושמה קטורה, “he married a wife whose name was Keturah.” Although in years to come, Israelites were not permitted to marry Egyptians, seeing that the Torah decreed in Deuteronomy that only commencing with the third generation after conversion were Egyptians acceptable as potential marriage partners, even if it was Hagar who had been converted, the fact that her father was Pharaoh that made her only a second generation even if we consider him as a first generation convert. According to B’reshit Rabbah 61,4, Avraham married her at the express command by G–d.

ויוסף אברהם ויקח אשה, “Avraham continued life as usual by taking a wife;” this is a reference to Hagar who now had a another name, Keturah. We find a similar formulation to the above in Isaiah 8,5: ויוסף ה' דבר אלי עוד, “the Lord continued by speaking to me again;” the Torah wished to teach us civilised norms by reporting this, i.e. that when widower’s sons have grown up but have not married yet, he should wait with remarrying until his children are married. (According to matnot kehunah in Breshit Rabbah the apparently superfluous word ויוסף, “he continued,” is to teach us that it was the same woman to whom he had been married once before, i.e. Hagar.) In order to make the point that a widower under the right conditions is to marry again is why the above line has been written immediately after the Torah had reported the marriage of Yitzchok to Rivkah.

Did not mate with any man from... she separated from Avraham. [You might ask: Why were her deeds so beautiful?] Rashi explained above (21:14), “She returned to her family’s idolatry”! The answer is: She had in mind to return to idolatry because she thought, “Since I was rejected from the House of Avraham, his God has also left me.” But when she saw the miracle of the well for her son, and the angel revealing himself to her, she did not abandon Hashem. (Kitzur Mizrachi)

ושמה קטורה, “whose name was Keturah; Rashi comments on this that her name now was קטורה as her good deeds were comparable to the incense, קטורת later on offered twice daily in the Holy Temple. To your question that this appears to contradict what we have read in Rashi’s own commentary on Genesis 21,14 ותלך ותתע, that Hagar had returned to the idolatrous practices she had learned in her father’s house, you will have to say that in the many years since then (over 40 years) she had become a penitent, and on account of that her name had been changed by the Torah. According to the plain meaning of the text, Keturah is not identical with Hagar. (Rash’bam).