Comentários de Citação sobre Gênesis 16:15

ותהר ותלד שרה לאברהם בן. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son for Abraham. The Torah needed to mention the pregnancy because we had learned that Sarah did not have a womb. This shows that G'd performed an additional miracle for her (Bereshit Rabbah 53,5). The reason the Torah underlines לאברהם is to make it clear that only this son is to be viewed as an extension of Abraham, not Ishmael, as we read later in 21,12. Even though the Torah described Hagar as bearing a son "for Abraham" (16,15), the fact is that at that time Abraham was still called Abram. Once his name was changed, Abraham was no longer to be referred to by his original name. This means inter alia that Ishmael was not a son of Abraham. Perhaps the statement in Berachot 13 that someone who calls Abraham Abram is guilty of violating a positive commandment is precisely for that reason. Our sages do not want Ishmael characterised as a son of Abraham. Such considerations did not apply to Jacob whose name was changed to Israel as he could comfortably identify with all his sons. I have written some more about this subject on 35,10.

לאברהם, as G’d had said “אשר תלד לך שרה,” “whom Sarah will bear for you.” This is a customary form of syntax, as for instance in 16,15 ותלד הגר לאברהם בן, or Exodus 21,4 וילדה לו בנים ובנות, and many similar examples. A woman is considered similar to the earth in this respect, i.e. just as the earth yields fruit for its owners, so a woman produces children for her husband after he had planted his seed in her. The child was named after its father.

Who was born to him: The lengthier expression than what is written (Genesis 16:15) regarding Yishmael - "the name of his son whom Hagar bore" - is coming to teach through this that at the time of the naming, Avraham publicized that [Yitzchak] was his son, to remove [any doubt] from people's minds.