Shabbat Parashat Chayei Sarah - 5783

Shabbat Parashat Chayei Sarah - 5783

Rabbi Hal Miller

But to Avraham's children from the concubines, Avraham gave gifts, then he sent

them away from Yitzchak his son, while he was still alive, eastward to the land of

the east. [Bereishit 25:6]

Our verse mentions concubines, plural. Who are they? The verses preceding this

one list the names of the sons of Avraham born to Keturah, and we know of Yitzchak

and Yishmael. We do not know of any other sons of Avraham. If these are his only

children, and we know to which mother each was born, who are the concubines?

Rashi starts us off by saying that Keturah is another name for Hagar. If so, that is

one woman involved. We know Sarah was Avraham's wife. Could Hagar be counted

then as two or more concubines? Rashi says that the word, ha'pilagshim, is written

deficient, missing a yod, and so is not in fact plural. But Rashbam, Ibn Ezra and

Radak disagree.

Many say that Hagar and Keturah were two different women. Ramban notes that

the Torah tells us Hagar was Egyptian, but does not tell us where Keturah was from,

thus she must have been a Canaanite, and therefore separate from Hagar. We know

Hagar was Sarah's maidservant and thus Avraham's concubine, but the Torah says

that Avraham took Keturah as a wife. Ramban then references Divrei HaYamim I

[1:32] where it tells us "And the sons of Keturah, the concubine of Avraham" and he

says that the word concubine refers to a wife whose children do not inherit. If so,

there were two concubines. Abarbanel concurs.

But we are not done. Radak understands that the concubines were not specifically

Avraham's, but the concubines of the male servants in Avraham's household. Since

those sons had served him and adopted his lifestyle, Avraham granted them gifts.

Onkelos does not agree, rather sticks with the idea that the sons involved here were

Avraham's by concubines.

Abarbanel says that Yishmael was more honored than the sons of Keturah, as only

he and Yitzchak merited to bury Avraham. This questions whether Yishmael was the

son of a concubine, Hagar, or whether she was considered a full wife. Radak takes

it a bit further, noting that the sons of the concubines are not mentioned by name, but

the sons of Keturah are mentioned, thus their status must be superior to those of the

concubines. This leaves us asking again, who are the concubines?

Rav Hirsch takes another approach. Instead of reading "and to the sons of the

concubines", he reads it "and to the concubine-sons" with the plural referring to sons,

not to concubine. He says that this concubine is Keturah, whose sons we know of and

no others beyond Yitzchak and Yishmael. Since sons of a concubine do not inherit,

Avraham gave gifts to all but Yitzchak, and the inheritance only to Yitzchak. This

reading explains the verse.