At first glance, the angel’s opening question to Hagar – “Where are you coming from, and where are you going” – is simply an introduction to begin the conversation for the purpose of ultimately instructing her to return to Sara. Abarbanel, however, detects a deeper message within the angel’s question. The story of Hagar perhaps teaches us not to be so quick to “escape” generally beneficial situations even if they entail a degree of difficulty.
The Torah in Parashat Lekh-Lekha (chapter 16) tells the story of Hagar, Sara’s maidservant. Sara, who had been unable to conceive, asks Avraham to marry Hagar so she would beget children which Sara could then raise. Hagar conceives immediately after marrying Avraham, and her quick pregnancy – contrasted with Sara’s ongoing infertility – causes her to look disparagingly upon her mistress. Sara responded by “tormenting” Hagar, and Hagar flees to the desert, where she meets an angel who asks her where she is coming from. After Hagar explains to the angel that she has fled from Sara, the angel urges her to return to Sara and accept the harsh treatment, and assures her that she would beget a son.
At first glance, the angel’s opening question to Hagar – “Where are you coming from, and where are you going” – is simply an introduction to begin the conversation for the purpose of ultimately instructing her to return to Sara. Abarbanel, however, detects a deeper message within the angel’s question. The angel was actually admonishing Hagar, “Why would you leave the house of Avraham and Sara?” This was not simply the question of where she was coming from, but rather an exhortation to reexamine her decision to leave her post. Hagar lived and worked for two wealthy, kind and righteous individuals, in an environment of nobility and Godliness. If she had the good fortune to serve in the home of Avraham and Sara, why would she leave? Hagar therefore answered, “I am fleeing from my mistress, Sarai.” She explained that she recognized the greatness of Avraham’s home, but she was fleeing from Sarai, who mistreated her.
The story of Hagar perhaps teaches us not to be so quick to “escape” generally beneficial situations even if they entail a degree of difficulty. According to some commentators, Sara did not actually “torment” Hagar. Ha-ketav Ve-ha’kabbala, for example, explains that Sara slightly increased her demands, intensifying Hagar’s workload, as a necessary measure to counteract Hagar’s feelings of superiority over Sara and attempts at asserting her independence. In a similar vein, Rav Hirsch interprets the verses to mean that Sara “humbled” Hagar by repeatedly reminding her of her status of servitude. (By contrast, the Ramban famously claims that Sara indeed mistreated Hagar, a crime for which her descendants were, and are, punished.) If so, then the angel’s admonition to Hagar is one to which many of us can relate.
We oftentimes feel an instinctive desire to “escape” situations that we find have become difficult, without considering the long-term benefits of remaining. Hagar had much to gain by enduring the slightly harsher conditions to remain with Avraham and Sara. The angel urged her to take a step back and consider the broader picture, rather than making far-reaching decisions based on relatively minor difficulties. Not every turn for the worse undermines the benefit of the whole enterprise. Sometimes it is worth going through a bit of additional “torment” for the sake of reaping the rewards that the situation offers us.