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Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Vayera Genesis 18:1-22:24
By Shlomo Riskin
Efrat, Israel - “And (Sarah) said to Abraham, ‘Banish this handmaiden (Hagar) and her son (Yishmael), for the son of that handmaiden will not inherit together with my son, with Yitzhak” (Genesis 21:10).
The Bible clearly delineates the fierce sibling rivalry and schism between Yaakov and Esau, the twin sons of Yitzhak and Rivkah; Midrashically identified as Judaism and Christianity (Edom-Rome). However, in studying between the lines of the Bible, there appears no less of a jealous struggle between Yitzhak and Yishmael, Jew and Moslem - with a great ramification for the Middle East today.
Despite the fact that Sarah has Abraham banish Yishmael and remove him from any inheritance with Yitzhak, Yitzhak seems to be haunted by the spectre of Yishmael throughout his life. The first time Rivkah meets Yitzhak, she falls from her camel when she sees the spiritual Yitzhak “coming out from speaking to G-d in the fields.” But that very Biblical verse begins, “And Yitzhak was coming from having come from Be’er LeHai Ro’i” (Genesis 24:62). Apparently Yitzhak was enamored with, fixated upon, Be’er LeHai Ro’i - because the Bible just told us that he was constantly traveling back and forth from there (ba Meboh in Hebrew).
You will remember that Be’er LeHai Ro’i was the place where the Lord appeared to Hagar, who had escaped to there from the affliction she suffered at the hand of Sarah when she became pregnant with Yishmael. It was then and there that the angel of heaven told her to return to the home of Abraham and Sarah, and instructed her to name the child in her womb Yishmael, “because the Lord has heard your affliction.” And it was then and there that Yishmael is described as “a wild ass of a man, whose hand will be against everything (yad bakol, in Hebrew), the hand of everyone will be against him, and in the face of all of his brothers shall he dwell” (Genesis 16:11).
Now we can hardly blame Yitzhak for being jealous and fearful of Yishmael. After all, he must have heard that the first time G-d announced to the aged centenarian Abraham that he would father a son with Sarah, he laughs and makes the request: “Would that Yishmael walk before You,” let Yishmael be my first-born heir (Genesis 17:19). It was also at that time that G-d promises Abraham that twelve princes (corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel) will emerge from the loins of Yishmael and He will make of him a great nation (Genesis 17:20,21). Yitzhak also must be aware of the fact that the only two individuals in the family of Abraham named by G-d (or G-d’s angel) is himself and Yishmael - which certainly gives his older brother special status and only adds to Yitzhak’s sibling jealously.
The parallels between these two brothers are very striking, and go even deeper, if Yitzhak undergoes an akedah, the test of a binding which almost costs his life, Yishmael had experienced even earlier a similar test of near death from thirst in the desert which almost costs his life - and each is saved by an angel deus ex machina at the very last moment. Moreover, just as G-d promises Abraham - after Yitzhak’s akedah - that “I will greatly multiply your seed (Harbeh arbeh et zarekha) as the stars of the heavens and the sand at the edge of the sea” (Genesis 22:17), so does G-d promise Hagar - when He saves her life in the desert - that “I will greatly multiply your seed (Harbeh arbeh et zarekh), whose great number will not be able to be counted” (Genesis 16:10). And if G-d guaranteed to Abraham that from the Mountain of the akedah (Mount Moriah) G-d will be seen (by future generations - Genesis 22:14), so is Be’er LeHai Ro’i named for the fact that “G-d saw me,” in the words of Hagar, and so saved the handmaiden and the unborn child in her womb.
Given these parallels, and the brute power with which Yishmael is endowed (“his hand will be against every thing,” yad bakol), it is no wonder that Yitzhak is obsessed with Yishmael, and constantly returns to Be’er LeHai Ro’i, the place of G-d’s revelation to Hagar.
Indeed, the Bible recounts that at the end of Abraham’s life, he gives “everything that he has (Kol asher lo) to Yitzhak, and to the children of his concubines (including Yishmael the son of Hagar-Keturah, the concubine) he gives gifts.” Yishmael apparently repents upon Abraham’s death, since the Biblical text records, “And Yitzhak and Yishmael his sons buried (Abraham) at the Ma’arat Ha Mechpelah; but the incident concludes, “And it happened after the death of Abraham that G-d blessed Yitzhak his son; and Yitzhak dwelt with Be’er LeHai Ro’i.” Yitzhak is apparently constantly haunted by the spectre of the power and prophecy surrounding Yishmael.
Now why must Yitzhak worry or be concerned? After all, Yishmael was banished by Sarah and disinherited - an act agreed upon by Abraham after he receives the divine directive, “Everything which Sarah says to you, you must hearken to her voice” (Genesis 21:12). Yishmael has been forced out of the picture!
The source of Yitzhak’s concern is that Yishmael the metzahek (the one who laughs now, he seeks immediate gratification) never really leaves the scene. Despite the fact that Abraham gives everything (Kol) he has to Yitzhak, the verse concludes that gifts are still given to Yishmael, a son of a concubine (cf. B.T. Sanhedrin 91a). Abraham always loved Yishmael, Yishmael’s progeny and twelve princes for descendants are repeated even after Abraham’s death, and the Bible again reiterates, “in the face of all his brothers shall fall out his portion” (Genesis 25:12, usage based on Judges 7:12). As the great Torah teacher of Jerusalem, Rav Mordechai Allen, explains it, Sarah has him banished not because he isn’t entitled to any part of the land of Israel, but rather because he would never be satisfied with only a share of the land, not even with half of the land. “The son of that handmaiden is incapable of sharing an inheritance with my son, with Yitzhak” (Genesis 21:10). He demands it all, “his hand is against everything,” (yado bakol, Genesis 16:11) - and the “everything Kol”with which G-d blesses Abraham and which Abraham bequeathes to Yitzhak is the land of Israel (Genesis 28:4). Yishmael gets other gifts, but these do not satisfy him. He is always around, in the face of his brothers, scheming and struggling to get it all, the whole land of Israel. This is what worries, consumes and obsesses Yitzhak!
(And this is the attitude of the descendants of Yishmael to this very day, when they rejected the United Nations partition of the West Bank on November 29, 1947, when they started the Six Day War in June 5, 1967, when they rejected former Prime Minister Barak’s all to generous offer of 96% of Judea, Samaria and Gaza initiated this Oslo War three and one half years ago, and when they refuse to recognize that we have any rights whatsoever to the Temple Mount. “Their hand is against everything” because they demand everything!)
At least according to one Midrash, the matter will only be resolved in the pre-Messianic age, where “a star will come forth from Jacob “and destroy our enemies. Balaam cries out, “oh woe, who will live after the positioning of (the two enemy nations) with El at the end of their names, YishmaEl and YisraEl ... Even the enemy will be utterly destroyed” (Numbers 24:23).
Shabbat Shalom.
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