Connecting the Dots - Parshat Vayeira

The hidden things are for the Eternal our God, and the revealed things are for us and our children forever, to perform all the words of this Torah.

(5) Ten words in the Torah are marked with dots. They are as follows:

1. “The Eternal will judge between me and you” (Genesis 16:5). There is a dot above the letter yod in the term, “and you.” This teaches that Sarah did not say this to Abraham, but to Hagar. Some say that it means she was speaking about those who caused the fighting “between me and you.”

2. “They said to him, Where is Sarah?” (Genesis 18:9). There are dots above the letters aleph, yod, and vav in the term, “to him,” to indicate that they already knew where she was, but they nevertheless inquired about her.

3. “When she lay down and when she arose” (Genesis 19:33). There is a dot above the letter vav in the term, “When she arose” the first time it is used [with regard to Lot’s older daughter]. This teaches that he was not aware of what happened until she arose.

4. “And Esau ran to greet him, and he hugged him, fell on his neck, and kissed him” (Genesis 33:4). The term for, “and kissed him,” has dots above every letter, to teach that he did not kiss him sincerely. Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar would say: It means that this kiss was sincere, but every other one he gave Jacob was not.

5. “His brothers went to shepherd their father’s flocks in Shechem” (Genesis 37:12). There are dots on the word just before “flocks.” This teaches that they did not actually go to shepherd the flocks, but to eat and drink (and indulge their temptations).

6. “All the Levites who were recorded, whom Moses and Aaron recorded” (Numbers 3:39). There are dots above Aaron’s name. Why? To teach that Aaron himself was not counted in this record.

7. “On a long journey” (Numbers 9:10). There is a dot above the letter hei in the word “long.” This teaches that this does not really mean a long journey, but any exiting the boundaries of the outer court of the Temple.

8. “We caused destruction all the way up to Nophach, which reaches into Medeba” (Numbers 21:30). There is a dot above the letter reish in the word “which.” Why? To teach that they destroyed the idolaters but not the countries themselves (whereas the practice of idolaters was to destroy entire countries).

9. “A tenth, a tenth for each” (Numbers 29:15). [This verse delineates the meal offering that accompanies the burnt offering] on the first day of the Sukkot festival. There is a dot above the letter vav in the [first occurrence of the] word “tenth.” Why? To teach that there is only one-tenth [measure] for each.

10. “The hidden things are for the Eternal our God, and the revealed things are for us and our children forever” (Deuteronomy 29:28). There are dots above the words “for us and our children,” and above the letter ayin in the word “forever.” Why? For this is what Ezra said: If Elijah comes and says to me: Why did you write it this way? I will say to him: I have already put dots above these words [to indicate I was not certain it was correct]. But if he says to me: You wrote it correctly, then I will remove the dots.

(9) They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he replied, “There, in the tent.”

THEY SAID TO HIM — The letters 'א' י' ו of the word אליו have dots over them.

Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar said: wherever there are more plain letters than dotted ones, you interpet the plain letters. Here the dotted letters are more than the plain ones, so you interpret the dotted letters —

They were asking Sarah also, איו “where is he”? So we learn that when you stay at an inn, you should enquire of the man as to his wife’s welfare and of the woman about her husband’s.

They said to him - this has the same numerical value as: "they said to her, 'Where is he?'"

Certainly [the rabbis did not mean the question] “Where is he?” literally, because Abraham was standing right there. Therefore, my heart tells me that the questions “Where is she?” and “Where is he?” were not spatial questions, meant to determine where she or he actually was. Rather they were questions about their “levels.” Not where he or she were, but what levels and heights they had reached, in terms of the good deeds through which they would merit to have a child together.

(33) That night they made their father drink wine, and the older one went in and lay with her father; he did not know when she lay down or when she rose.

when she arose — This word where it occurs with reference to the elder sister (Genesis 19:33) has dots above it, to tell you that when she arose, he was aware of it, and yet he did not take care on the second night to abstain from drinking. (Horayot 10b.)

There is a dot over the vav in "when she arose" to tell you that she slept with him in the first 6 hours of the night, before midnight, when he was still sleeping soundly. That is why he did not know when she arose.

But Ruth did not sleep with Boaz until after 6 hours, as it is written, "And she arose at the hour before a man can recognize his fellow," with an extra vav, because she did not get up well until after the sixth hour. So he knew when she arose.