“Avimelekh took flocks and cattle and slaves and maidservants and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him” (Genesis 20:14). “To Sarah he said: Behold, I have given your brother one thousand pieces of silver; behold, it is for you a covering of the eyes for all who are with you, and for all, it is proven” (Genesis 20:16). “Avimelekh took flocks and cattle…to Sarah he said: Behold, I have given your brother one thousand pieces of silver” – Rabbi Yehuda bar Rabbi Ilai said: [Avimelekh said:] ‘You went to Egypt and gained financially from her [Sarah] there.35When Pharaoh took her for himself (Genesis 12:16).
You came here and gained financially from her. If it is money that you seek, here is money for you, and [now,] conceal people’s eyes from her.’36Do not let any more people see her and desire her. “It is for you a covering of the eyes” – Rabbi Yoḥanan said: [Avimelekh said to him:] ‘Make a covering for her,37With the money I have given you, buy her nice clothing, so as to distract people from her own beauty. so everyone would look at it and not at her beauty.’
“A covering of the eyes” – a covering made of many colors. Rabbi Berekhya said: He made her a noblewoman; [it was] a covering that rendered her [as if] obscured from sight.38Wearing the garb of nobility, no one would dare express a desire to take her. It would be as if people would not see her at all. Reish Lakish said: He sought to cause strife with her husband. [He was saying:] ‘All these years she has been with him, and he never did anything for her.
But this one [myself], after one night, treated her accorded her such honor.’39He sought to have her cover her eyes from her husband. Another interpretation, he said to them: ‘You obscured my eyes from seeing,40By lying to me about Sarah. [therefore] the son that you will produce will have his eyes covered.’41Isaac was blind (Genesis 27:1). This is what he meant by: “It is for you a covering of the eyes” – the covering of eyes will happen to you.
“And for all, it is proven [venokhaḥat]” – he said to her: ‘The rebuke [tokhaḥa] of this man [myself],42The rebuke due to me for having deprived you of your husband for one night. is already in his possession,’ as it is taught: If a woman rebels against her husband,43By refusing to fulfill her marital duties. one deducts from her marriage contract seven dinars per week.44Ketubot 63a. Why seven dinars?
It corresponds to the seven duties that a woman performs for her husband: She grinds, bakes, cooks, launders, nurses her child, makes his bed, and works wool [into thread]. That is why it is seven. One who rebels against his wife, one adds to her marriage contract three dinars per week.45Ketubot 63a. Why? It corresponds to the three matters that he is obligated to do for her: [Provide] food, clothing, and conjugal rights.
That is why it is three. Say that she brought [into the marriage] servants and maidservants [to do all the work], so that she has no obligations toward him. Say that he declined to provide her food, clothing, and conjugal rights,46He made this stipulation, and she consented. so that he has no obligations toward her.47Since in this case neither spouse has any obligations toward the other, why is the women penalized more than the man for refusing to fulfill her marital (conjugal) duty?
Rabbi Yoḥanan said: The suffering of the man48When deprived of conjugal relations. is greater than the suffering of the woman. That is what is written: “It was as she tormented him daily with her words and pressured him” (Judges 16:16) – [this means] that she would slip herself away from beneath him. “He became irritated to death” (Judges 16:16) – but she did not become irritated, as she would see to her needs elsewhere.