If Zion begins in the heart, it culminates in the union of righteous hearts, the first step of which for Abraham was his marriage to the lovely Sarai. All the sources attest that she was a close relative-perhaps a half-sister (the daughter of his father through another wife) (Gen. 20:12), 1 or perhaps a niece 2 or a cousin. 3 The close kinship with Abraham and the quality of her character suggest the possibility of mutual sympathy and support long before their marriage. Had Sarah been in the crowd that day when Abraham had been miraculously rescued? Had her prayers and faith helped sustain him during his trials and tribulations? Had her strength already been part of his success? Had she long prayed for this eternal union? Such questions remain as yet unanswered, although we do have Philo’s observation that she was “the darling of his heart,” and their love for each other was profound. 4
The name Sarai, which God would later alter to Sarah, means “princess” or possibly “queen,” 5 suggesting royal blood. Was this perhaps a reflection that her bloodline ran through the royal patriarchal line to which Abraham himself was heir? Or was her father, as an Islamic tradition tells, called Haran and did he rule as the King of Haran 6 (perhaps Abraham’s uncle)? Or, as another Islamic tradition relates, was Sarah closely related to Nimrod 7 or one of his highest officials? 8 (Given Terah’s high place at court, some sort of blood relationship with the Nimrod dynasty does not seem impossible.)
Any or several of these are possible. But whatever the biological relationship with royalty, her name was a fitting title for a woman who possessed singular loveliness of both body and soul. Her unequaled physical beauty 9 would turn the heads of the most powerful kings, while she was also “gifted with every excellence” 10 and “great wisdom.” 11 It is said that her spiritual attainments matched and in some cases exceeded those of her remarkable husband, 12 she being gifted with profound “intuitive perception” of spiritual realities.13 A number of sources assert yet another name for her-Iscah, meaning “prophetess” or “seer.” 14 And with all her talents, she had a deep “love and compassion … for the needy.” 15 She was indeed “a Princess in name and in nature.” 16
Abraham had been alone in the world, alone against the world, but now everything had changed. It might be said of Abraham and Sarah what was said of another couple: “These two were alone in the world, and yet they might scarcely be said to feel their loneliness; for they were all the world to each other.” 17 Jewish tradition insists that they were perfectly suited for each other. 18
Genesis gives no direct description of Sarah as a wife, but Jewish tradition insists that she is the one described in the famous Proverbs passage extolling the “virtuous woman” (31:10) 19 (or the woman “of valor,” 20 or the “capable” or “accomplished” woman 21). Her worth is far above rubies, and her husband safely trusts in her; she is an industrious homemaker, a tireless worker, and generous to the poor; she speaks wisdom and kindness (hesed 22), is cheerful and hopeful about the future, and is clothed with strength and splendor; she is, in short, the ideal wife, deserving of her husband’s highest praise. Sarah’s example was held up through the generations among her Jewish descendants, in whose homes the Proverbs passage was traditionally recited on the Sabbath eve. 23
Sarah had her work, and Abraham had his, but it was all part of the same cause. From this point on in Abraham’s life, to speak of his mission and accomplishments is necessarily to include Sarah also; for as a modern rabbi has observed, she was not merely a strong personality in her own right, but, as Abraham’s spouse, was “an important balancing factor in his life. Abraham and Sarah were not just a married couple’ but a team, two people working in harmony,” as seen in the Genesis portrayal “of the two as one unit” and “as equals”-“as partners, working together for the same goals, walking together along the same path, united in thought, word, and deed.”24
Or, as told by Philo, “Everywhere and always she was at his side, … his true partner in life and life’s events, resolved to share alike the good and the ill.” 25 Theirs was that priceless unity of heart and mind that is ever the hallmark of Zion. Having established Zion in their own hearts, they now began to establish it in their marriage and home, an enduring example for all couples aspiring to build Zion. “When the father of a family wishes to make a Zion in his own house,” declared Brigham Young, “he must take the lead in this good work, which . . . is impossible for him to do unless he himself possesses the Spirit of Zion. Before he can produce the work of sanctification in his family, he must sanctify himself, and by this means God can help him to sanctify his family.” 26
Abraham and Sarah were a part of something larger than either of them. They were a family, they were Zion, and they are to be remembered together, according to Isaiah: the righteous are to look not only to their father Abraham but also to their mother Sarah (Isa. 51:1-2).
Notes
1. Similarly, when Jubilees speaks of the relationship between Abraham and Sarah, she is said to be “the daughter of his father.” Jubilees 12:9, in VanderKam, Book of Jubilees, 70.
2. A rabbinic tradition espoused by Rashi equates Sarah with “Iscah,” mentioned in Genesis 11:29 as the daughter of Haran, apparently the same Haran mentioned two verses previously as Abraham’s brother. See Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, 1:203; 5:215; and Tuchman and Rapoport, Passions of the Matriarchs, 3.
3. According to Islamic scholars al-Tabari (Brinner, History of al-Tabari, 61) and al-Thalabi (Brinner , Lives of the Prophets, 135), Sarai was the daughter of Abraham’s paternal uncle, Haran the Elder.
4. On Abraham 42, in Philo VI, 121.
5. Sarna, Genesis, 87; Wenham, Genesis 1-15, 273. See also Westermann, Genesis 12-36, 138.
6. See al-Kisa’i, Tales of the Prophets, 150.
7. See Knappert , Islamic Legends, 1:75.
8. Al-Rabghuzi, Stories of the Prophets, 2:106.
9. See Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, 1:222; and the description of her in 1QapGen 20.1-8, in Martinez and Tigchelaar, Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, 1:41.
10. On Abraham 42, in Philo VI, 121.
11. 1QapGen 20.7, in Martinez and Tigchelaar, Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, 1:41.
12. See Encyclopaedia Judaica, 14:868; and Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, 1:203.
13. Tuchman and Rapoport, Passions of the Matriarchs, 73.
14. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, 5:214-15, nn. 38, 44, citing Talmudic passages, Josephus, and Christian writers.
15. Levner, Legends of Israel, 82.
16. Strachan, Hebrew Ideals, 1:111; and see Tuchman and Rapoport, Passions of the Matriarchs, 4.
17. Strickland, Tales from English History , 201.
18. See Kasher, Encyclopedia of Biblical Interpretation, 3:104.
19. See Munk, Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet, 34.
20. Proverbs 31:10, in Cohen, Proverbs , 211.
21. Proverbs 31:10, in Cohen, Proverbs, 211; NRSV and JPST; and Munk, Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet, 34, respectively.
22. Glueck, Hesed in the Bible, 65: “She opens her mouth with wisdom and the teaching of kindness [ torot hesed ] is on her tongue” (translation of Proverbs 31:26).
24. Steinsaltz, Biblical Images, 21, 24.
