Harvey Weinstein and the Pharaoh / Sarah Incident
Adapted from Rabbi Braun’s sermon in 5778
As I read through the parsha this week all I could think about was Harvey Weinstein. Those are words I did not ever think would come out of my mouth but the truth is that the issues that the Harvey Weinstein affair raises for us are unfortunately not new. Taking women (and men) against their will for sexual purposes, abuse of power, and not standing up for the victim run throughout our parsha.
Pharaoh the King take Sarai against her will. According to the Ramban, Avraham Avinu sins in not standing up for his wife and putting his interests ahead of hers. For the Ramban, this sin has terrible consequences.
We read of Lot choosing to settle in Sedom, which links us to the episode in next week’s parsha where the people want to sexually abuse the male guests, according to the Midrash, and while trying to protect them Lot offers his virgin daughters in their place.
The Torah is teaching us a clear message – abuse of power and sexual coercion is the realm of Sedom and Pharaoh, not of the Jewish people.
More subtly, I also found hints of this discussion in a verse that until this week I did not fully appreciate.
After Sarai is taken by Pharaoh to the palace we read:
בראשית פרק יב
יז) וַיְנַגַּ֨ע יְקֹוָ֧ק׀ אֶת־פַּרְעֹ֛ה נְגָעִ֥ים גְּדֹלִ֖ים וְאֶת־בֵּית֑וֹ עַל־דְּבַ֥ר שָׂרַ֖י אֵ֥שֶׁת אַבְרָֽם
17. And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram’s wife.
That is not an exact or precise translation – rather it should read “because of the words or Sarai, the wife of Abraham.”
There are two questions that the commentators grapple with.
- What is “dvar sarai” mean? What words are we referring to? The Maharal in his Gur Aryeh notes that if the plague comes simply because he took Sarai it should say “al odot” because of what he did to Sarai. Instead we find “al dvar” and that demands an explanation.
- It does not simply say “al dvar Sarai” because of Sarai. She is referred to as Sarai- the wife of Avraham. As the Netziv notes, the words “eshet Avraham” are extra. He rhetorically asks – Sarah wasn’t righteous enough to deserve the miracles?
What is Dvar Sarai?
While Onkelos translates dvar as iskei which means the events related to, he is the only one to read it that way. Everyone else gives one of two explanations:
- Rashi quotes the following Midrash Tanchuma: an angel descended from heaven with staff in hand. Pharaoh tried to take off Sarai’s shoe and the angel hit him. He approached her clothing and the angel hit him, etc etc. Before each beating the angel turned to Sarai and she instructed the angel to hit. How do we know? Because it says that the plague came at the words of Sarai! I will try and explain what that means in a moment.
- The words of Sarai refer to her telling Pharaoh that she is indeed Avraham’s wife and not his sister. Radak, Chizkuni, Kli Yakar and others all adopt that approach. The latter two are trying to explain why Pharaoh is punished if he really believed that Sarai was Avraham’s single sister. (As they say- it is good to be the king). They conclude that Sarai must have told Pharaoh the truth and those are the words of Sarai that he is punished for.
The common denominator to these explanations is that Dvar Sarai is giving Sarai back her voice and control. According to the second answer she has the gravitas to confront her attacker, if you will, and that helps prevent the abuse. I think the Midrash is making the same point – she has the power to take control over the situation and instructs the angel to punish Pharaoh – she has reasserted her control.
What is she called Sarai the wife of Avraham?
It could be connected to our previous question – the words of Sarai are that she is indeed the wife of Abraham.
The Netziv suggests that while Sarai is certainly worthy of being saved without mention of her husband that manner of affliction – the plagues, was for some reason tied to Avraham.
The best answer is given by the Ramban- The chamas that Pharaoh is attempting to perpetrate onto Sarai will affect not only Sarai but her spouse as well and therefore in both of their merits she is saved.
According to the Ramban, the Torah adds extra words to teach us that a sexual attack on one half of a couple affects everyone involved.
Sadly and tragically we have not progressed on this front as much as we should have as a society.
We have to recommit to:
- Acknowledging that abuse of power in the sexual arena is a grave and terrible sin.
- Understanding that standing by and letting it happen is similarly evil and has terrible consequences.
- Find way to empower the victims, female or male, to find their voices and reassert control.
- Understand that the abuse affects not only the victim but all of their relationships as well.
Hopefully we can use this moment to progress as a society because we have a long way to go.
