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ויאמרו אליו AND THEY SAID UNTO HIM — The letters 'א' י' ו of the word אליו have dots over them (thus distinguishing these letters which form the word meaning “where is he”?). R. Simeon the son of Eleazar said: wherever you find in a particular word or phrase that the letters in ordinary writing are more numerous than those dotted, you should give a special interpretation to those in ordinary writing. Here the dotted letters are more than those in ordinary writing and you, therefore, give an explanation of the dotted letters — that of Sarah also, they asked, איו “where is he (Abraham)”? So we may learn that in his inn a man should enquire of the man (the host) as to his wife’s welfare and of the woman (the hostess) about her husband’s. In Treatise Bava Metzia (87a) it is stated: The ministering angels knew, indeed, where our mother Sarah was but they asked this question in order to call attention to her modesty (retiring disposition) and so to endear her all the more to her husband.) R. José the son of Haninah stated that they enquired where she was in order to send her the wine-cup of blessing (the glass of wine held by him who recites the Grace after meals)

?איה שרה אשתך, even though the angels knew Sarah’s whereabouts they asked, just as G’d did in Genesis 3,9 when He asked Adam about his whereabouts although He knew full well where Adam was. A similar situation is found in Numbers 22,9 when G’d asked Bileam who the men were who had come to spends the night with him. G’d knew perfectly well who they were.

Where is Sarah. Avraham already knew of Yitzchok’s impending conception (see 17:19). Thus the angels were sent specifically to inform Sarah. This was in order that her rejoicing would have a positive influence on the fetus.

ויאמרו אליו איה שדה אשתך, They said: "Where is your wife Sarah?" The angels wanted that Abraham should realise that the message they had to deliver was primarily for Sarah; this is why they enquired about her whereabouts. Abraham indicated that she was within the tent ready to listen to what they had to say to her.

ויאמרו אליו, there are dots on the letters יו. Such dots can only be explained by our resorting to allegorical interpretations. For instance, our sages quote Rabbi Shimon ben Eleazar as saying that whenever the dot appears to include someone or something not mentioned in the text as written, we pay heed primarily to these dots. When the dots seem to exclude part of the text as written, we stick to the text in our interpretation of the verse. In our case, the dots mean that the angels also enquired from Sarah where to find Avraham. This teaches that a guest is to enquire from the host about the hostess and from the hostess about the host. The sages say further that the angels knew very well where Sarah was at that time, but the question is reported only to draw attention to the modesty of Sarah who was not in evidence, did not allow her curiosity about the nature of the guests to cause her to peek out of her tent. Knowing that she was so modest would endear her even further to her husband. Rabbi Yossi bar Chaninah says that the purpose of the enquiry was to be able to hand her a cup of blessing. [not literally, but a reference to the good news they brought. Ed.]

ויאמרו אליו איה שרה אשתך?, They said to him: “where is your wife Sarah?” Although it is not considered proper manners to enquire after the welfare of someone else’s wife even from her own husband, this was an exceptional situation as they did not really enquire after her well being but they only asked where she was at that time. The letters aleph, yud and vav in the wordאליו have a dot above them, whereas the letter lamed does not have such a dot. According to Rabbi Shimon ben Eleazar (Bereshit Rabbah 48,15) whenever you encounter more undotted letters in a word than dotted ones, you interpret the word according to the normal spelling. When there are more dotted than undotted letters in the word, we are guided by the dotted letters. In this instance, more letters are dotted than undotted.. According to Rabbi Azaryah, just as the angels asked Avraham where his wife was, they asked Sarah where Avraham was, i.e. איו ”where is he?” The reason is that it would have sufficed to write: “they said ויאמרו איה שרה אשתך, “where is your wife Sarah,” and the reader would have known that they were speaking to Avraham. The extra word אליו alerts us to the fact that they also spoke to someone else. The question raised against this interpretation is that if so it would have sufficed to put a dot only on the letter lamed in the word אליו, as we would then have concentrated on the undotted letters איו and we would have arrived at precisely the same result, saving the dots on two letters. The answer given to this objection is that seeing the letter lamed needed a dot in any case on account of the tone sign, the meaning of the dot would not have been clear.

You must explain the dotted... You might object: Let Scripture dot only the ל, thus the undotted letters will be more, and we will expound the undotted letters — [thereby producing the same meaning, but more simply. An answer is:] It seems that we always expound the undotted before explaining the dotted. Thus if the ל alone was dotted, the verse would not indicate whom the angels asked first. They might first have asked Sarah about Avraham, or vice versa, for it is like it was written איו איה (“Where is he? Where is she?”). On the contrary, the verse would imply that they first asked Sarah about Avraham! For [we would say that] the reason only the ל is dotted is [to teach that] we should explain איו first, [before איה]. But now that איו is dotted, we first explain the undotted איה that is written in the verse. Therefore, they first asked Avraham: “Where is Sarah, your wife?” and then they asked Sarah, “Where is Avraham?” You might object: What difference does it make [whom they asked first]? The answer is: It teaches us proper conduct. First one should ask the man about his wife, and then, the woman about her husband. R. Shmuel El Mashonino wrote: The correct answer [to “Let it dot only the ל”] is: The Torah itself is composed of undotted letters. When the undotted letters [of a dotted word] are more, and thus are explained, then the meaning of those undotted letters must fit in with the other words in the verse, since everything is undotted. And this would not be true here, [if only the ל was dotted]. This is because איו is masculine form, and does not fit in with “Sarah your wife.” (He proved this from Bamidbar 9:10: או בדרך רחוקה, where the ה is dotted; see his explanation there.) But when איו is dotted, and thus explained [since it is more than the ל], we need not worry about [it fitting in with] the rest of the verse. For in this case, איו is extracted [and explained] on its own. This is because the dotted letters, and [the verse’s] undotted letters, are both interchangeable. Furthermore, איו is dotted because the dots always come to remove letters. Only ל remains, so we add it to [the following word] איה, producing אליה, “to her”. This teaches that the angels also asked to her, about Avraham. Otherwise, where do we find that the angels asked Sarah about Avraham? Perhaps they asked someone else who was home where he was. That is why איו is dotted, [rather than the ל]. So I found written in the manuscript of my father and teacher ז''ל. This also answers a question I have heard people ask: How did Rashi know that they asked Sarah about Avraham? Perhaps they asked someone else! The Re’m writes: Although a man should not inquire about a woman’s welfare, the Gemara already answered that this applies only when speaking directly to the woman. But a man may ask a woman’s husband about her. See explanation there. The Gur Aryeh writes: One might ask: When did the angels ask Sarah, “Where is Avraham?” They saw Avraham first, and he brought them into his home! The answer is: It was when Avraham ran to the cattle and was busy preparing the meal.

א֗לי֗וֹ, die Punkte über א֗י֗וֹ sollen nach B. M. 87 a. erinnern, wie es wohl anständiger Sitte gemäß ist, dass Gäste sich nach der Frau des Hauses, welcher sie ja für die Bewirtung vielleicht den größten Dank schulden, durch den Mann erkundigen, nicht aber direkt die Wirtin des Hauses aufsuchen. Es ist daher wohl das "ל" unpunktiert geblieben, da es wohl dem Anstande gemäß ist, לְשרה, "nach" Sara, aber nicht אֵלֶיהָ an sie die Frage zu richten , vielmehr die Frage לשרה nur אליו zu richten wäre.

ויאמרו אליו, according to Rashi, when the dots above the three letters איו, as well as elsewhere in the Torah when the complete word is longer than the number of letters having dots, we are to look for an interpretation for the letters that have no such dot. If you were to ask why the letter ל in this word does not have a dot? This fact prompts us to assume that the angels had first asked Sarah where Avraham was before they asked him where Sarah was. This cannot be correct, as clearly they had not even seen Sarah until after they had eaten. Now that the word has only three dots, it is clear beyond argument that they had first seen Avraham. Subsequently, they asked Sarah where Avraham was. This would also conform to Rashi’s commentary in Deuteronomy 29,28 where he says that the dots teach us that this verse was not written in its proper place, i.e. that the law promulgated there did not become effective until after the Israelites had stood at Mount Gerizim and Mount Eyvol. [It appears that Rashi’s point here is that it is good manners for a guest to enquire after the wellbeing of both one’s host and one’s hostess. This sentence has been omitted in our author’s quotation of Rashi’s commentary on this verse. [Seeing that I do not have the author’s Italian original, I prefer to assume that the Hebrew translator omitted it. Rashi’s commentary is based on the first opinion offered in B’reshit Rabbah 48,15 Ed.]

הנה באהל BEHOLD, IN THE TENT — She is a modest woman.

איה שרה אשתך, they asked about her, seeing she was not present when they were being served the meal out of a sense of modesty. We learn from this that it is immodest for women to appear in front of male guests. Seeing that in this instance the angels had a message for her, they had to ask after her whereabouts.

In order to send to her the cup of blessing. After they ate they recited birkas hamazon over a cup of wine. Sarah was not with them, and Avraham did not wish to send the cup to her, because she began to menstruate and would impart impurity to the cup with the wine. He did not want to reveal that she had begun to menstruate, so he did not pour the wine into a different cup to send to her. Alternatively, [he did not use a different cup because] the primary mitzvah is to drink from the same cup that was blessed over. Accordingly, when Avraham answered, “Here, in the tent,” he was hinting to the angels that she had begun to menstruate and thus was dwelling alone, as menstruating women do.

הנה באהל, she is in the tent as befits a modest woman.

She is modest. This relates back to what Rashi explained above: “They inquired to make known her modesty.” In other words, they asked Avraham where Sarah was so that he would answer, “Here, in the tent” — and he would see that she was modest. Rashi means: to make her modesty known to Avraham.