Shabbat Parashat Lech Lecha - 5787

Shabbat Parashat Lech Lecha - 5787

Rabbi Hal Miller

  Pharaoh summoned Avram and said, what is this you have done to me? Why did you

  not tell me that she is your wife? [Bereishit 12:18]

If nobody told Pharaoh that Sarah was Avraham's wife, why would he be punished?

This is the first of two times that Avraham tells the king of the place he happens to be that Sarah is his sister, but events proceed differently in the two situations. In our case, Avraham warns Sarah beforehand that he will be doing it, but in the second case (Bereishit 20:2) the Torah gives us no indication that he warned her, yet in the first one, Avraham states that Sarah is his sister, and in the second one, both Avraham and Sarah state this to the king. In the first, Pharaoh challenged, asking why Avraham said this, charging that Avraham was setting Pharaoh up for trouble. Then when Pharaoh ordered the couple out of Egypt, Avraham made no reply. In the second case, Avimelech challenged, asking why Avraham did this, then without making charges offered him an opportunity to explain, and Avraham gave him the answer that "there is no fear of God in this place". Avimelech then not only returned Sarah, along with gifts, but invited the couple to dwell anywhere in his land. We can draw a conclusion from this comparison that Avimelech was a better person than Pharaoh and took action to make things better, so he was not punished, where Pharaoh acted only in his own interests rather than try to fix the problem.

Rav Moshe Feinstein supports this conclusion that both kings knew the moral status of their people, yet they dealt with them differently. Avimelech was basically a decent king, hoping to improve his people and trusting that his word to them would protect Avraham and Sarah. Pharaoh turned the problem around to blame Avraham for not trusting the king and kicked them out knowing the couple would not be safe in Egypt. As Sforno put it, Pharaoh was angry that Avraham did not trust his justice even though he feared the people.

Ramban tells us that Pharaoh knew that Sarah was Avraham's wife because the plague hit him as soon as he took her into his house. His reaction was to blame Avraham and kick them out. Avimelech merited a visit from God to tell him that Sarah was not available to him, and his reaction was to free her and put his country at the service of the couple. Pharaoh did not deserve a response from Avraham, but Avimelech did.

Whether because Pharaoh knew that Sarah was Avraham's wife, or because he did not act to improve the morality of his people, or because he pushed the blame upon Avraham, Pharaoh deserved punishment.