Thank you Mariner. You are correct, and Devorah misunderstood what I posted, because she did not really read what I wrote. She read what she THOUGHT I wrote, and it is for this reason many Jews have machlokess with each other. Right away she called me out for my “chutzpah” without first ascertaining if she understood me correctly. There are shivim panim LaTorah, and each word, each letter, can teach us something important. Ramban OFTEN totally contradicts what we understand Rashi to be saying. Would Devora say he is full of chutzpah, too? I LOVE learning Chumash with Rashi. He was a brilliant, insightful tzaddik,without whose sage peirushim, we would never have the comprehension of Torah that we enjoy today.However, there are different ways of understanding not only a pasuk in the Torah, but also the meforshim on that pasuk. I stand by my first statement – I think that Avraham Avinu was really being forced to confront the fact that not only did he find his wife beautiful (something that was taken for granted by him because his love for her was based on way more than physical appearance), but the danger was that his enemies might take notice of her, as well, something he had never before had to consider. The potential danger opened his eyes to something that he took as a given.
To take this idea away from the Avos and Emahos, how many of us really notice the beauty of nature around us? We take beautiful sunsets for granted, the spring flowers, or autumn leaves, and maybe we only really notice it when someone razes the forest and the fields in order to make room for the building of condominiums and malls. Ok, the analogy is not 100% complete, because the real estate developer is not caring about the beauty he is about to destroy, but it often takes the actions of another, to make us aware of things that we take for granted.
Devora, I assure you I meant no disrespect to Rashi whatsoever. I do not agree with the interpretation of that particular Rashi, that would have us believe that Avraham did not notice his wife was a beautiful woman. Ha-Shem created us to recognize beauty and appreciate it.