November 20, 2008
Throughout the three biblical portions dealing with Abraham’s life, Lech Lecha, Vayera, and Hayei Sara, we read of the tensions between Abraham and Sara concerning the treatment of Hagar, Abraham’s “mistress,” and Yishmael, the son born of that union. Given that the Ramban established that one of the central principles driving Genesis is that “the stories of the ancestors presage and foreshadow the history of their descendants,” the interplay between these personalities not only are fascinating familial accounts of moral conduct but also shed crucial light on Yitzhak-Yishmael relationships in the Middle East today.
Abraham and Sara have a good but childless marriage, which leads Sara to suggest that her husband consort with her Egyptian handmaiden Hagar. But as soon as Hagar becomes pregnant, the familial tensions begin: Hagar “makes light” of Sara, Sara blames Abraham and “afflicts” Hagar, which causes the maid-servant to flee into the desert. (Genesis 16:1-16)
An angel of God exhorts Hagar to return to the house of Abraham and Sara and allow herself to be afflicted; he also promises her a son, Yishmael, who will have innumerable progeny but will be a “wild ass of a man, whose hand will be over everything and everyone….” (Ibid, 12).
The classical commentaries are critical of Sara’s actions: “Our matriarch sinned with this affliction [of Hagar], and also Abraham [sinned] in his allowing her to do it,” says the Ramban, adding that — in measure-for-measure fashion — the descendants of Yishmael will afflict those of Abraham and Sara. Rabbi David Kimhi warns us to learn how not to act from our ancestors’ affliction of Hagar.
However, Rav Elhanan Samet recently pointed out that Sara and Abraham can hardly be faulted. If we study the Code of Hammurabi (144, 146, 147), the accepted legal practice at the time of our forefathers, we learn that it stipulated that if a handmaiden brought into a childless marriage to provide an heir then conceives and acts haughtily toward her mistress, the mistress may demote her to her prior status. Apparently Sara was therefore justified in restoring Hagar to her handmaiden status (the “affliction” of the Bible).
But then, after the birth of Yitzhak and after the two boys grow up together, “Sara sees the son of the Egyptian Hagar mocking” — so translates Targum Onkelos — “and she said to Abraham, ‘Banish this handmaiden and her son, because the son of this handmaiden will not inherit together with my son, with Yitzhak.’ And the matter was very evil in the eyes of Abraham concerning his son.” (Genesis 21:9-11)
Abraham loves Yishmael; when God first promised him a son with Sara, and yet Sara remained barren, Abraham cries out to God, “…would that Yishmael live before you.” (Genesis 17:18) In such a situation, when the family constellation includes children from both the maidservant and the original wife, the Code of Hammurabi prescribes that both share the patrimony. However, the handmaiden’s son is deemed an inappropriate heir, and the other son receives the full inheritance. (Hammurabi 170)
On this basis, I would suggest that Sara is completely justified in her actions. She argues for banishing Yishmael, not because she is against Yishmael’s sharing of the inheritance with Yitzhak. She is rather responding to the reality of a mocking Yishmael who insists on owning it all. Yishmael must be banished and disinherited because he cannot — constitutionally — inherit together with someone else! And God endorses Sara’s assessment, telling Abraham not to feel grieved about Yishmael and Hagar, but rather to heed Sara’s request. (Genesis 21:12)
Nevertheless, the Midrash (Pirkei D’Rabbi Eliezer 30, Yalkut Shimoni 95) poignantly describes Abraham’s conscience gnawing at him for having banished Yishmael. After three years he sets out to visit him. Only Yishmael’s wife is at home, and she refuses to give water or bread to Abraham. Departing, the patriarch asks her to report to Yishmael of his father’s visit, and to change the entrance at the front of the tent. Three years later Abraham returns to Yishmael and is pleased to find that Yishmael understood his father’s message and has changed wives; this wife, Fatima, offers Abraham bread and water. Abraham thereupon prays for his son, whose home became filled with blessings.
I would suggest that one of the implicit purposes of this midrash is to teach us why and how Yishmael repented at the end of Abraham’s life. A father must never give up on his child, even a mocking, heretical, and grasping son. Yishmael the penitent returns to his father’s house, and our biblical portion concludes with the 12 sons of Yishmael, 12 princes of their nations, paralleling the 12 tribes of Israel, “…whose portion falls out in the presence of all of his brothers.” (25:18) The circle — for the ancient family of Abraham — is complete.
I believe that once Yishmael again repents — and is ready to truly share this land with us — we will indeed be able to dwell together in the Middle East and fill our homes with blessings, and the historical circle will truly be complete.
Shlomo Riskin is the chief rabbi of the city of Efrat and dean of Ohr Torah Institutes in Israel.
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