'Where Do You Come From, And Where Are You Going?55: Hagar and Sarah Encounter God BY TOBA SPITZER omen's encounters with broader issue of biblical representation the divine in the Bible are of women's encounters with God. By few and far between. In comparing her experience with that of wcontrast to the wide variety of male Sarah (whose one encounter with the encounters—Abraham's conversa- divine is narratively sandwiched be- tions with God, Jacob dreaming and tween those of Hagar), we can begin wrestling with the angel, Moses at the to uncover what the biblical text sug- bush and at Sinai, the many accounts gests about both the limitations on of prophetic call—we are told of few women's experience and the possibili- women who directly experience or ties that lie beyond those limitations. speak with God. Given the paucity of material overall, the fact that there is a In the Wilderness: Hagar female character who has more than one extended encounter with the di- Many meetings with God in the vine marks her as significant. That Bible take place in liminal "in-be- woman is Hagar, the Egyptian hand- tween" places, and this is also true maid of Sarah and second wife of for Hagar. Her first meeting takes Abraham.1 Hagar's experiences pro- place in the wilderness, where she has vide us with an important lens on the fled Sarai's mistreatment. In an echo Toba Spitzer is a 1997 graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and the rabbi of JRF Congregation Dorshei Tzedek in Newton, Massachusetts. 8 · Fall 1998 The Reconstructionist of Jacob's famous encounter by the Between Subordination Jabbok river, Hagar is met by a divine and Autonomy messenger {malakh YHWH) at a place "on the way," by a body of water in Certainly a messenger of God the wilderness: knows the literal answer to his in- quiry. As a narrative device both the And a malakh YHWH found question and the reply point to some- her by a spring of water in the thing deeper, to a tension which is key wilderness, by the spring on to this encounter. On the one hand, the way to Shur. And he said, both question and reply emphasize "Hagar, Sarai's handmaid, from Hagar's subordinate position in her where have you come, and particular social framework. She is a where are you going?" And she shiflpah, Sarai is her mistress—on this said, "I am fleeing from Sarai both she and the messenger agree. If my mistress." (Gen. 16:7-8) the first part of the malakh's question, "from where have you come?" sug- Hagar is the first person in the Torah gests Hagar's proper place, then the to meet such a divine messenger. But second half—"where are you go- in contrast to Jacob, Hagar is greeted ing?"—implies that Hagar is now out by a question, not an attack. This is to of place. Like a director who has lost be a friendly encounter, not a night- control of one of his characters, the time terror. divine messenger seems to be saying: While the reader is immediately in- "You and I know your proper place— formed that the one meeting Hagar is so what are you doing out here in the of divine origin, Hagar is also given a wilderness?" It is in this context that clue, for this stranger knows her name Hagar answers. Her words—"mipney and station in life: he addresses her as Sarai gevirti anokhi borahat" "I am "Hagar, handmaid (shiflpah) of Sarai." fleeing from Sarai my mistress" (v. It is precisely this emphasis on Hagar's 8)—go beyond a simple, factual re- status that signals the significance of sponse. "Mipney" means "from the what is to come. Through an appar- presence of," but can also mean "be- ently unnecessary repetition—the cause of, for fear of." Hagar acknowl- malaktfs calling her "shiflpah" and edges that her proper place is as a ser- Hagar's mention of "Sarai my mis- vant, yet she justifies the situation by tress" in her response—our attention asserting that it is on her mistress's is focused on Hagar's station in life. account that she is out of place. While Why this repeated identification? And not entirely defiant, Hagar's response what is the meaning of the malakh's suggests a willingness to stand up for question: "From where have you herself, a sense of boldness and deter- come, and where are you going"? If mination. we as readers know of Hagar's plight, There is another aspect to the mes- is it possible that the All-knowing senger's question "where are you go- One does not? ing?" While it does imply that Hagar The Reconstructionist Fall 1998 · 9 is out of place, it is not a reprimand. identifies with the oppressor Rather, in its open-endedness the and orders a servant to return question points beyond Hagar's ser- not only to bondage but also to vant status towards her agency and au- affliction.3 tonomy. The question suggests that In her desire to emphasize Hagar's op- her fate is in her hands, and that we— pression at the hands of both her mas- reader and malakh—do not really ters and a patriarchal text, Trible know where she is headed. Hagar's misses the subtlety in the narrative. answer, though simple, recapitulates The messenger is telling Hagar that the two aspects of the malakh's ques- she is out of place; in order for the tion. In the first part—"mipney Sarai story to continue she must go back. gevirti"—Hagar has left the place But in the use of the hitpa'el form of which properly defines her role; and the verb "to submit"—that is, in tell- in the second—"anokhi borahat"— ing Hagar to "hitani" to cause herself Hagar is the actor, pro-actively mak- to submit to Sarai's mistreatment—the ing the choice to leave a difficult situ- mahkh implicitly continues to recog- ation. It is in fact through the nize Hagar's agency and personhood. malakh's initial address that Hagar As J. Gerald Janzen notes, Hagar will truly becomes subject in this story.2 In be able to "become subject to Sarai the beginning of chapter 16, while without losing her own subjectivity," Hagar is still in Abram and Sarai's by acting as agent of her own act of home, she is never addressed directly submission. The mahkh seems to ac- by name. The mahkh YHWH is the cept Hagar's version of events, that it first to say "Hagar," and it is in re- is Sarai's fault that she has had to flee, sponse to his question that Hagar first and in asking her to "submit herself" speaks, and names her own situation: he is giving an insistent but not un- "I am fleeing." compassionate command. Yet the tension between servitude and autonomy returns, as the mahkh The Promise of "Seed" now gives Hagar a troubling directive: return, and submit "beneath her As an immediate counter-balance hand"—that is, to Sarai's mistreat- to the order to return to mistreat- ment (v. 9). Feminist Bible scholar ment, the messenger goes on to prom- Phyllis Trible argues that the messen- ise Hagar countless offspring (v. 10), ger's words in a formulation that is reminiscent of the divine promise to Abram in Gen- bring a divine word of terror to esis 15:5. There, Abram is promised an abused, yet courageous, "seed" as impossible to count as the woman . Inexplicably, the stars; here, Hagar's "seed" will be God who later, seeing the suf- multiplied to an uncountable degree. fering of a slave people, comes And just as Abram's descendants will down to deliver them out of the have to undergo slavery before God's hand of the Egyptians, here promise can be fulfilled (Gen. 15:13- 10 · Fall 1998 The Reconstructionist 16), verses 9-10 of chapter 16 suggest ers: her flight is turned into his defi- that the divine promise of "seed" to ance.5 The implicit message of this Hagar is similarly contingent upon a verse is that the independence and de- period of enslavement and suffering. fiance Hagar has shown will find full The mahkh's words are remark- expression in the rebellious freedom able, for Hagar is the only woman in of Yishmael's tribe. the Bible to receive the divine promise of "seed." She is thus designated the Seeing and Naming matriarch of a tribe, after the model of But this encounter does not end Abraham. The messenger's promise with God's promise to Hagar. In verse expands upon Hagar's agency and au- 13 the focus shifts back from son to tonomy, and marks her as having a mother, from the mahkh's words to special relationship to the divine. Hagar's. Having just been told that These themes are further developed she will name her son after the God in the announcement of the name of who hears her, Hagar turns and tells her son-to-be in Genesis 16:11. Hagar the messenger his name, after her own is told that she will be the one to experience of seeing/being seen: "And name her son, and that the name— she called the name [YHWH] of the Yishma'el—indicates that God has one who spoke to her 'atah el ro'i' " heard her oni, her affliction. YHWH/ In an act unique to her, Hagar is nam- El is aware of Hagar and has taken her ing God! But what exactly is she say- into his care, if she will play her role ing? El ro'i can be translated "the God and return, fulfilling her destiny by who sees me," "the God of seeing," giving birth to this child.