Shabbat Parashat Vayeira - 5783

Shabbat Parashat Vayeira - 5783

Rabbi Hal Miller

They said to him, "Where is Sarah your wife?" And he said, "Behold, in the tent."

[Bereishit 18:9]

This section of our parsha seems to mix up who is speaking, and also to say some

things that sound odd for the circumstances. In 18:1, God appears to Avraham, but in

our verse "they" speak. In 18:10 "he" says "I will surely return" but no angel does.

And in 18:13, God speaks. Then, in our verse, why would angels need to ask Avraham

where Sarah was, wouldn't they already know? In 18:13 to 14, God speaks to Avraham,

but in 15, Sarah responds, then someone says, "No, but you laughed." Then the angels

get up and leave, as though in response to Sarah. Who spoke to Sarah? Last we

heard, she was in the tent, so where was she now?

Beginning with the last questions we can create a picture of the scene to help unravel

the confusion. In our verse, Avraham tells the angels that Sarah is in the tent. Avraham

and God had been outside visiting when the angels arrived. Sarah, in the tent close to

them, was able to overhear their conversation, including what Avraham replied to the

angels here. One of the angels then went over to the tent, presumably to inform Sarah

of her upcoming pregnancy, and it was to this angel that Sarah was speaking, and thus

it was this angel who responded about her laughing. God thus did not speak directly to

Sarah, only to Avraham. But an angel did converse with Sarah, reflecting her elevated

spiritual status since angels do not make a habit of speaking to people of low stature.

Next we deal with why the angels asked Avraham about Sarah's whereabouts. Our

verse begins with the words, vayomru eilav, which means "they spoke to him". The

word eilav is spelled aleph-lamed-yod-vov and there are dots above the aleph, yod and

vov. Chazal have explained that the dots are an indication we are to expound something.

Where few letters are dotted, we expound the remaining ones, and where, as here, more

are dotted, we expound the dotted ones. Removing the undotted lamed, we have eiyo,

which is expounded as meaning that the angels also asked Sarah about Avraham.

From this we learn that, for the sake of shalom bayit we ask the host about his wife's

well-being, and the wife about her husband's well-being.

Some say that the reason for asking is to endear Sarah to her husband. Others say that

proper etiquette is to ask the husband of his wife's well-being, but not to ask to see her.

Rashbam points to similar events in other places. God knew where Balak's men were when

He asked Bilaam, and God knew the answer to each question he asked Adam. The reason

is to allow the one being questioned to gain merit by an honest answer. Sforno has a more

practical explanation: "The purpose of their mission was to inform Sarah so she might

rejoice and thank God for her pregnancy to be more perfect. Avraham had already been

told by God" (in 17:16). Thus the question was direct, we have something to tell her.

And finally, we deal with who will be returning in a year. Back to our picture of the scene,

Avraham and God are "sitting on the porch" in conversation, the angels walk up and ask

where Sarah is. Verse 18:10 is pretty clearly a continuation of one of the angels speaking,

the one whose mission was to inform Sarah. The other two are along for the ride because

they have upcoming missions with Sdom and Lot, per Radak (Rashi differs about the

second). So "I will surely return to you" is the angel. Verse 18:14 is a continuation of 13,

and is clearly God speaking to Avraham where He says, "I will return to you". Will both

God and His angel return?

Per Rashi, this is a lesson about agency, specifically heavenly agency. When God creates

an angel, He gives it a specific purpose, which includes speaking in God's name as needed.

The angel speaking in verse 10 is announcing what God will do next year. God's additional

comment in verse 14 does not conflict, merely bolsters what the angel said, in context of

telling Avraham to keep in mind that God is all-powerful.

Ramban, though, differs. Noting that neither the angel nor God "returned" to Avraham at

that appointed time, he explains that the Torah means that God will return, meaning give

back again, the season, which is often called an appointed time. When He returns that

season to Avraham, Sarah will have a son, thus both verses are not speaking about who

will show up again at the door, rather about the time in the future when Yitzchak will be

born.