והיה כי יראו אתך המצרים, בני מצרים אינם יפים כמו בני ארץ כנען, אבל הם כעורים כי הם דרומים והם שטופים בזמה לפיכך כשהיה קרוב למצרים והיה בגבולה וראה אנשיה כעורים היה ירא כשיראו אשתו שהיא יפת תאר שיחמדו אותה, כי אם היה יודע זה מתחלה לא הלך למצרים אלא היה סובל הרעב ולא שיפקיר את אשתו; ולא ירא שיאנסו אותה ממנה וישכבו עמה כי אם יעשו זה פעם אחת לא יעשו פעמים רבות שישכבו אותה לעיניו כי זה יהיה חמס רב וחמס תמידי לא יסבלו אנשי העולם, אבל להרוג אותו אינו אלא פעם אחת ואחר כך תהיה מופקרת להם בלא חמס, כי לא יהיה לה בעל ומזה פחד אברהם, ולא סמך על הבטחת האל שהבטיחו, כי אמר שמא יגרום החטא וכן פחד יעקב אבינו אחר הבטחת האל וכן ראוי לכל צדיק שלא יסמוך במקום סכנה על הנס וישמור עצמו בכל תחבולה אשר יוכל, ועל זה אמר שלמה אשרי אדם מפחד תמיד (משלי כ״ח:י״ד) וכן אחז"ל (תענית ט') מניין שאין סומכים על הנס שנאמר לא תנסו את ה' אלהיכם (דברים ו') וכן ראינו שמואל הנביא כשהלך בשליחות האל ופחד משאול, ואמר "ושמע שאול והרגוני" (שמואל א' ט"ז) וגם האל שבח פחדו ולא אמר לו אל תפחד כי לא יהרגך, אבל אמר לו "עגלת בקר תקח בידך" והודה לו כי טובה היתה מחשבתו שהיה מפחד, וכן ראוי לכל צדיק שיעשה כן ולא יבטח על הנס. והיה כי יראו אותך המצרים, the Egyptians themselves are physically not as attractive as the Canaanites, their relative ugliness being due to their living in a southerly extremely hot climate. Moreover, they are steeped in sexual licentiousness that makes them disregard moral mores and causes them to ignore obstacles to satisfying their lust. Avram therefore was concerned that when such ugly people see as beautiful a creature as Sarai, and they find out that she is married, they will simply dispose of the husband to remove him as an obstacle to satisfy their lust. Had Avram been aware of this situation, he would never have set out on his journey towards Egypt, but would have been content to endure the famine just as did most of the other inhabitants of the land of Canaan. He most certainly would not have put his wife at risk. Even now, Avram was not concerned that Sarai might be exposed to many rapes, something which would have been considered as ongoing violence and not have been tolerated even in Egypt. He was afraid that the Egyptians would commit only a single act of violence, namely to murder him, which would make Sarai a widow, and anyone sleeping with her would not violate the local laws of the sanctity of marriage. As to why he did not trust G’d, Who had promised to make him into a great nation, a promise that had not yet begun to be fulfilled, and preferred to resort to subterfuge, this is not surprising. We find that Yaakov also took extreme precautions in spite of having been given many assurances by G’d. The promises by G’d are based on man having taken every reasonable precaution not to require a miracle to save him from danger. When one is aware that one finds oneself in a situation where danger to one’s life is likely, one must first take every precaution at one’s disposal to counter such danger. Our sages (Pessachim 64) have told us that it is inadmissible to sit with one’s hands in one’s hands, waiting for G’d to perform a miracle to save one’s life. They base this advice on the verse in Deut. 6,16 לא תנסו את ה' אלוקיכם, “do not put the Lord your G’d in a position of having to perform a miracle for you.” When the prophet Samuel went to anoint a son of Yishai (David as it turned out) as replacement for King Sha-ul (Samuel I 16,2) he told G’d that he was afraid to do this as King Sha-ul would kill him if he heard about this, G’d did not criticise him for being afraid, but instructed him to use subterfuge so as to avoid suspicion of traitorous conduct. We learn from these examples how a righteous person must behave when he faces danger in carrying out what he knows to be G’d’s will. One must not leave matters to miracles.
ואתך יחיו, יעמידוך בחיים שלא יהרגוך להנאתם שאת יפת תואר, וכן החייתם כל נקבה (במדבד ט"ו ל"א) ואותה החייתה (שם כ"ב ל"ג): ואותך יחיו, they will only let you live in order to use you as a sex object for their gratification. We encounter a similar situation when certain girls who were saved in the punitive campaign by the Israelites against Midian, were permitted to remain alive (Numbers 31,15) [all of the girls who had been too young to lose their virginity. Ed.] (compare also what the angel said to Bileam in Numbers 22,33)