Worried About Yishmael
I want everyone reading this to pretend that they have never read or heard the story of the Torah past Bereshit Perek 17. Try to have an open mind and pretend like you don't know what is going to happen. Now let's look at a few things.Ever since the beginning, Hashem has been promising Avraham 2 central things: Zera and Aretz. They are two separate things but also connected because the zera is to inherit the aretz.
After the whole Lot situation, Hashem made it clear to Avraham that Avraham's zera- and the person who would inherit the aretz, wasn't Lot- it was going to be a direct decedent of Avraham. This was probably shocking to Avraham because he was already so old and his wife couldn't get pregnant...
But then Sarah told Avraham that he should go to Hagar to have a child. And behold! Hagar had a child! Awesome. There's Avraham's zera, right? He is 86 years old and he's got a kid, it seems like this is it. Sure, it wasn't from Sarah, but it was from Sarah's maid-person-Sarah suggested it (even though she later got mad about it)- it seems all legitimate.
Could you imagine how excited he must have been? Avraham has his first (and presumably only) child whom he gets to teach to live according to the right path. He gets to teach him about the zera and aretz- that one day he (Yishmael) will inherit the land that was promised to Avraham's descendants.
Then all of a sudden we get news that Sarah is going to have a kid. She has a kid. Then they kick out Yishmael. How does Yishmael feel about this? I would not be happy. One second he and Avraham are best friends the next second, he's being exiled. How is he supposed to understand that? "Oh, sorry kid. Your mom wasn't good enough"? What's the deal?
Look at this:
Bereshit 17:25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
So here Yishmael is considered Avraham's son.. Avraham gave him a bris just like Hashem commanded. Yishmael is a wonderful tzadik probably (it doesn't say he was a bad kid anywhere, does it?)...
Bereshit 22: 2 And He said: 'Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.'
Yes... Yitzchak is Avraham's only son. Because a few chapters ago, there wasn't somebody else in Avraham's life that would be considered his son...
What do you guys think of all this?
You know, the very same question popped into my head as I was writing my Chumash assessment. I was quoting the pasuk that told Avraham to go sacrifice Yitzchak, and so when I read that it said "your only son", I put "only son" in quotation marks. This makes me wonder too... How did Yishmael feel about being dumped? I'm sure he had a lot of negative feelings, as he very well should. I'm afraid I have no good way of resolving the problem for you. But here are some thoughts from an article http://www.moshereiss.org/articles/05_ismael.htm
ReplyDelete-The only other mention of Yishmael in the Torah, after Avraham makes him leave and G-d saves him from dying in the desert, is to say that he and Yitzchak buried Avraham.
-Midrashim suggest Avraham continued to have a relationship with Yishmael.
-Now, about your question when it says "Take your son, your only son..." Midrashim tell us that Avraham responded to this saying that he had two sons, and so G-d specified Yitzchak because Avraham still loved Yishmael.
"When Abraham takes Isaac to the akeda whom does he bring with him - two young men; in Jewish tradition they are the servant Eliezer and the brother Ishmael. 1 It would seem that Abraham told Eliezer to go to Ishmael’s home and ask him to meet them on the road"
I have no idea if that Rabbi is a reliable source, but there's some answer if you want one
I love blogging because you always have such insightful answers! Even if I don't accept this, at least there is some answer. :D
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