According to this Midrash, it was not God who told Abraham to sacrifice his son Yitzhak but rather Satan, who wanted to test him. This Midrash solves one of the great dilemmas of the story, analyzed by different commentators: how is it possible that God would ask Abraham to sacrifice his son? According to the Midrash, it was not God but Satan who did it.

Turning again to this week’s parashah, it would seem that Sarah knew nothing about Abraham’s real intentions. She only knew they were going together to study Torah. When Satan tells her the truth, her pain is so great that she dies a couple of minutes later.

I believe this Midrash can teach us a lot about our relationships as a couple and about other relationships as well. Abraham alone decided something that concerned his son, without even considering what his wife thought about it. Perhaps he thought Sarah would accept his decision and there was no need to tell her, or maybe he thought Sarah would not accept it, so it was better to keep it quiet and thus avoid her preventing it. Anyway, Abraham couldn’t care less for Sarah’s opinion, and he left her out of his decision. It is as if he had considered her invisible, acting as if she didn’t exist at all. How many times do we make decisions without caring the least about our closest relatives’ opinion, not thinking about the troubles and suffering that our decision could cause them.

Sarah trusted Abraham until Satan came and surprised her with the news that Abraham was going to sacrifice his son. How could she not know! It was, nonetheless, her own child, born of her womb! Why did she have to know about it from a “neighbor” and not from her own husband? We often hide certain things, perhaps wishing to not hurt or anger someone, but we forget that it is possible that they will learn of it some other way, and that is so much harder and painful. Maybe Sarah would have complied with Abraham’s decision, but when she knew about it from someone else, something died in her and in the relationship. Relationships cannot be the same when we feel or realize that we are not listened to, that we are not included in certain decisions.

Perhaps it is not by chance that in the previous chapter, God said to Abraham: “… in all that Sarah saith unto thee, hearken unto her voice…” (Bereishit 21:12). God gave importance to Sarah’s words, to her advice and opinion.

The Midrash quoted above teaches us, among other things, about the importance of having fluent dialogues, honest conversations, and being able to share decisions concerning the matters we share with our fellow men. A harmonic, honest, and committed relationship cannot exist when certain things are hidden, when there is no constant dialogue and a lack of interest in our fellow man’s opinion. When this happens, relationships deteriorate and start to die. We do not know what happened to Sarah, but she probably lived through something like this and it was too hard for her to bear it.

May that mystery concerning what Sarah felt and the silence of her voice lead us to an awareness of the importance of creating sincere bonds of love and friendship, on which we may be able to hear each other, respect each other, and resolve together the situations we confront.