창세기 16:3의 주석

ותקח שרי AND (SARAI TOOK [HAGAR] — She took (won her over) by kindly speech saying, “Happy are you in that you will be privileged to consort with so holy a person as this” (Genesis Rabbah 45:3).

AT THE END OF TEN YEARS. This is the established period for a woman who has lived with her husband for ten years without having given birth to children, after which he is bound to take another.

ותקח ... מקץ עשר שנים, ten years had elapsed since Avram and Sarai had moved to the land of Canaan. She had waited all these years thinking that G'd would give Avram a son from her in that land. After all, the instruction to Avram to go forth from his birthplace, etc. had been followed by the promise that there G'd would make him into a great nation. (Genesis 12,2). Our sages in Yevamot 64 state that if someone was married to a woman for 10 years during which she was unable to bear a child for him he is not allowed to simply forego the chance of having children, but should pay her out her marriage settlement (Ketuvah) and divorce her as it is possible that G'd only decreed that he should not have children from that particular woman. The Talmud, while admitting that there is no proof for the above, claims that Avram's example can serve as a guide for such conduct, seeing that he waited ten years after settling in the land of Israel, having discounted the earlier years during which Sarai had not conceived.

מקץ עשר שנים לשבת אברם בארץ כנען, “at the end of 10 years since Avraham had taken up residence in the land of Canaan.” Rashi writes that this teaches us that the years that Avraham and Sarai lived outside the land of Canaan are not relevant to the rule that when a woman fails to conceive after 10 years of marriage, her husband may or should divorce her and marry someone else. The reason that those years did not count was that while in Charan, G’d had not yet promised Avraham that He would make him into a great nation. Nachmanides writes that only in the case of Avraham did those years that he was in Charan or even before not count. For ordinary individuals the rule to divorce a wife after 10 years of marriage without children does apply in the Diaspora also. He continues that the commentators have made additional errors in writing on this subject when they said that the whole halachah requiring a husband to divorce a wife who fails to bear children for ten years does not apply outside the Holy Land. The correct interpretation of what is written on the subject is that if a childless married couple have moved to Israel they are given another ten years before the rule that the husband in order to fulfill the commandment to be fruitful has to either divorce his barren wife or marry another wife in addition. It is hoped that the merit of living in the Holy Land will result in the couple being blessed with children.

She took her with words ... [Rashi knows this] because the mind is the main part of a person, and one can “take” a person’s mind only with good words that draw his mind to what one wants.

Nach zehnjährigem Harren, also nicht leichtsinnig und ohne genügenden Grund. לאברם אישה, die Beziehungen zwischen Abraham und Sara wurden dadurch nicht im geringsten getrübt. Sara durfte fühlen, dass sie durch dieses Opfer Abraham noch mehr Weib wurde. לאשה zum Weib gab sie sie ihm, also zu einem reinen Verhältnisse, לו לאשה ihm zum Weibe. Ihr freilich mußte Hagar Sklavin bleiben, damit sie, Sara, allein über die Erziehung des Kindes disponieren könne. Dieses letztere war die Grundbedingung, an welche die Verwirklichung des von Sara mit dem Ganzen beabsichtigten Zweckes geknüpft war.

מקץ עשר שנים AFTER [ABRAM HAD DWELT] TEN YEARS — the period appointed for a woman who has lived with her husband for ten years without having borne children to him when he is bound to take another.

The time allotted to a woman ... Otherwise why does it say, “At the end of ten years”?

AFTER ABRAM DWELLED IN THE LAND OF CANAAN. This tells us that the period he dwelled outside of the Land is not to be included in the count of those ten years since he was not told And I will make of thee a great nation³⁵³Above, 12:2. until after he had come to the land of Israel. Thus the language of Rashi.
This reason is not proper since it is a clear-cut halachic decision that the time spent living outside the Land is not to be included in the ten year period for any person in the world.³⁵⁴Why then did Rashi add, “since the promise, And I will make of thee a great nation, was made to Abraham after he had come to the Land of Israel?” This language would make it appear that only in Abraham’s case was the time spent living outside the Land excluded from the ten year period, when it really applies to everyone. The Mishnah³⁵⁵Yebamoth 64a. The Mishnah is the collection of teachings by the Tannaim, compiled by Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi. containing this principle applies to all men. And if it were as Rashi stated it, i.e., on account of this promise made to Abram, then for other people [the years they dwelled outside the land of Israel] should be included in the ten years period!³⁵⁶But the law is not so. The years that husband and wife have lived together outside the Land of Israel are not included in the ten years total for anyone, and they begin to count the years after they arrive in the Land. Some Talmudic commentators³⁵⁷The forthcoming opinion which Ramban refutes is mentioned in Rabbeinu Asher, Yebamoth, Chapter 6, par. 12, in the name of “some scholars who wish to say.” Rabbeinu Asher also refutes their opinion. have already made another mistake concerning this rule, stating that the law does not require a person who dwells outside the Land to divorce a woman with whom he has lived for ten years without her giving birth, nor does the law require him to marry another woman.³⁵⁸Their reasoning being that childlessness may be a form of punishment for living outside the Land. Therefore he need not divorce her. This opinion, however, is refuted, for the law applies everywhere. Only in a case where, after having lived together outside the Land of Israel, husband and wife then move to the Land, the years they lived outside the Land are not included in the ten year period. But the matter is not so. Rather, the intent [of the law which excludes the period one dwells outside the land of Israel from the ten year total] is that if a man lived with his wife for five or ten years outside the Land and then they came to the land of Israel, we give them a period of ten years from the time they came to the Land, for perhaps due to the merit of the Land they will build up a family. And thus did Abraham and Sarah our mother do from the time they came there.

'לשבת אברם וגו [TEN YEARS] AFTER ABRAHAM HAD DWELT IN THE LAND OF CANAAN — As Abraham had been married to Sarah before he entered Canaan this statement virtually informs us that the period he dwelt outside the land was not to be included in the number of these ten years (Yevamot 64a), for the promise, “And I will make of thee a great nation” was made to him with the intention of being fulfilled only after he had come into the land of Israel.