Shabbat Chaye Sarah - 5787

Shabbat Chaye Sarah - 5787

Rabbi Hal Miller

  Avraham added and took a wife whose name was Keturah. [Bereishit 25:1]

Who was Keturah, why did Avraham 'add' and take another wife?

The Torah in the next few verses lists the descendants of Avraham and Keturah. If she was a full wife, this would be understandable, but many commentators classify Keturah as a concubine. As Radak notes, the Torah does not list names of any other children of concubines that Avraham may have had, it only lists Yitzchak, Yishmael and the sons of Keturah. In fact Radak holds that Avraham had no concubines himself, and the references are to concubines of members of his household. Since the Torah lists Yishmael, this is an argument that Hagar was also a full wife, not a concubine. In addition this explains the statement that Avraham gave gifts to those other "sons" by concubines and sent them away, yet Yishmael and Yitzchak stayed on. Sforno understands those sons to be from Keturah but not fathered by Avraham, rather adopted by him.

Rashi holds that Keturah is Hagar, and that the word 'concubines' in verse 25:6, although in the plural, is written missing a yod to indicate that there was in fact only one concubine, Hagar/Keturah, but he does not explain the odd way of creating a singular word. He explains the name change based on the elevated qualities of the woman involved. Ramban holds that the only wife to Avraham was Sarah, and any other women, including Hagar/Keturah, Avraham considered concubines since through Yitzchak would his descendants be known. He notes that Sarah gave Hagar the maidservant to Avraham, thus Hagar was a concubine. If, as Bereishit Rabbah [61:4] and Rashi, Keturah was Hagar, then Keturah would also be called a concubine. Rav Yehudah in the above Bereishit Rabbah says in our verse, 'vayosef vayikach', "added and took", means that Avraham took Hagar for a second time, this time with the name Keturah. Rav Hirsch concurs, stating that "added and took" means that Avraham performed the same earlier commandment again, taking Hagar/Keturah to produce more children.

Rashbam, ibn Ezra and Radak disagree and say that Hagar and Keturah were two different women according to the plain meaning of our verse. Rashbam calls them both concubines. Radak says that Sarah and Hagar were full wives, and our verse adds yet a third full wife, Keturah. Abarbanel explains the plural 'concubines' in verse 25:6 to mean both Hagar and Keturah, that they were two separate women, but not full wives.

Hagar and Keturah may have been one woman or two. They may have been full wives or concubines. What the verse is teaching is that Avraham was performing fully the mitzvah of p'ru u'r'vu, to be fruitful and multiply, and that his choice of Keturah was because of her high qualities, whether she was also Hagar or not.