The Ba’al Ha-turim finds fault in Sara for sending away her maidservant and her son, going so far as to attribute the Egyptian bondage to this offense.
But how could we criticize Sara for her decision if God instructed Avraham to grant the request and send away Hagar and Yishmael?
The Ba’al Ha-turim, following the Ramban’s view, held Sara at least partially responsible for the resentment and anger that brewed within Hagar and her son, which resulted in the situation whereby they could not live in the same household as Yitzchak.
We read in Parashat Vayera of the banishment of Hagar and Yishmael, after Sara noticed Yishmael’s mistreatment of Yitzchak. Avraham did not favor the idea of sending away his son, until God spoke to him and instructed him to honor his wife’s request (21:12).
The Ba’al Ha-turim (21:10) notes the use of the word “garesh” (“send away”) in the context of the banishment of Hagar and Yishmael, and also in the context of the Exodus from Egypt, when Pharaoh “sent away” the Israelite slaves (“garesh yegareish etkhem mi-zeh” – Shemot 11:1). To explain the connection between the two events, the Ba’al Ha-turim writes, surprisingly, “Because Sara sent Hagar away from her home, she was punished, and her descendants were subjugated and had to be sent away from there.” The Ba’al Ha-turim finds fault in Sara for sending away her maidservant and her son, going so far as to attribute the Egyptian bondage to this offense. As a number of later writers noted, however, this viewpoint seems very difficult in light of God’s explicit sanction of Sara’s demand. How could we criticize Sara for her decision if God instructed Avraham to grant the request and send away Hagar and Yishmael?
One possible direction to take in defending the Ba’al Ha-turim’s comments is to associate them with the more famous comments of the Ramban, in Parashat Lekh-Lekha (16:6), claiming that Sara and Avraham were punished for the mistreatment of Hagar before Yishmael’s birth. When Hagar conceived, she began acting disrespectfully toward Sara, in response to which Sara treated her harshly, prompting her to escape. Hagar would eventually return and submit to Sara’s harsh treatment, as she was instructed by an angel. The Ramban claims that Sara acted wrongly in this regard, as did Avraham by allowing Sara to mistreat her maidservant, and this sin is what resulted in the suffering inflicted by the descendants of Yishmael upon Benei Yisrael. It would seem that the Ba’al Ha-turim, in his comments, refers not specifically to the banishment of Hagar, but more generally to the tensions surrounding Hagar and Yishmael that ultimately necessitated their expulsion from the home. The Ba’al Ha-turim, following the Ramban’s view, held Sara at least partially responsible for the resentment and anger that brewed within Hagar and her son, which resulted in the situation whereby they could not live in the same household as Yitzchak.
Indeed, this understanding of the Ba’al Ha-turim’s comment makes his analogy to the Egyptian bondage more compelling. The Egyptians oppressed Benei Yisrael, and as a result of this mistreatment they were severely punished to the point where they had no choice but to drive the slaves from the country. Similarly, in the case of Sara and Hagar, Sara oppressed Hagar (“va-te’aneha” – 16:6), which may have led Yishmael to act resentfully toward Yitzchak, to the extent that Sara was forced to drive them away from the household.
Thus, the Ba’al Ha-turim perhaps found fault not in the decision to banish Hagar and Yishmael per se, but rather with the general situation which Sara created, or in which she played a role in creating, by mistreating Hagar and thereby breeding resentment within Yishmael.