Toldot, 2nd Aliyah

Bereshiyt 26:8

וַיְהִ֗י כִּ֣י אָֽרְכוּ־ל֥וֹ שָׁם֙ הַיָּמִ֔ים וַיַּשְׁקֵ֗ף אֲבִימֶ֙לֶךְ֙ מֶ֣לֶךְ פְּלִשְׁתִּ֔ים בְּעַ֖ד הַֽחַלּ֑וֹן וַיַּ֗רְא וְהִנֵּ֤ה יִצְחָק֙ מְצַחֵ֔ק אֵ֖ת רִבְקָ֥ה אִשְׁתּֽוֹ׃

When some time had passed, Abimelech king of the Philistines, looking out of the window, saw Isaac fondling his wife Rebekah.

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וַיַּשְׁקֵ֗ף - When I saw this word (describing Abimelech looking at/down/through the window at Isaac & Rebecca), I thought to myself: Isn't this the same word used in Genesis 18 to describe the way the angels looked towards Sodom prior to them destroying it?

And when I checked, it was the same word! 

I remember when I checked the meaning last year that it had a connotation of looking through something, as in X-ray vision. Even though the angels were still at a distance from Sodom, they looked towards it - שׁקף - as though with X-ray vision, since they were supernatural beings.

So the same word is used for Abimelekh "looking through a window" at Isaac & Rebecca. 

I have always wondered how close to the king's quarters they would've had to be for him to see them being intimate. But looking at the use of this Hebrew word, I'm now wondering if Abimelech did not perhaps receive some kind of a vision showing him the truth of Isaac & Rebecca's relationship.

Strengthening this idea is the Hebrew word for window - חַלוֺן - it is exactly the same word in Hebrew for "dream" - חַלוֹם, only the last letter changes. In my mind, this lends credence to the possibility that Abimelekh saw the couple being intimate "through a window - a vision/dream". It would not be the first time an Abimelekh received a dream to warn them not to touch a Patriach's wife!

Have a blessed day!