This afternoon I went to a Jewish Education Teach-In at Beth El synagogue. …
The second hour I heard a woman named Ruth Fagan who teaches Talmud at the Jewish Theological Seminary. She looked no more than 40, had a build like Roseanne Barr, a mop of dark brown curly hair, and was dressed in a billowy skirt, overblouse and tunic/vest — every piece a colorful, different print. But she was brilliant! Her subject: the women in Genesis — our foremothers. The room was jammed with about 50 women (and 3 men!). She held her Hebrew Tanach, rattled off in Hebrew the passages she wanted to cite, giving her own running translation, and her own commentary delivered with dramatic intonation. As much as as often as I’ve read the patriarchal stories, I am constantly delighted and amazed to get new insights with every reading. Ruth Fagan is one of those moderns who reads the Bible like the rabbis of old — closely, paying attenion to every word. She said she was led to study the mothers because, when she blessed her daughter on shabbat — “may God make you like Sarah, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel” she started to wonder: What am I wishing her to be?
What she found and showed us, from the Biblical language, was why Hadar was sent away and why Sarah prevailed. Hagar didn’t know where she was going, couldn’t see that God was offering her admittance to the Covenant. Abraham had doubts and also lacked the vision. But Sarah saw from the beginning and understood how and to whom the Covenant was to continue and her acts enabled and empowered Abraham. (In Genesis, hearing is secondary to seeing: Ishmael — God hears). Thus your davar torah on next week’s parsha.