by Jonah Fisher, delivered at Minyan M'at on the occasion of becoming a Bar Mitzvah

My torah portion, Parshat Lech Lecha, is the story of how God entered into a special relationship with Abraham and with Abraham’s children. While learning torah this past year, I became especially interested in how Isaac, the second born son, was chosen over Yishmael the first born son.

Let me begin by admitting that I really liked the idea that the torah always seemed to favor the second born son. After all, as a second born son I always wish to be favored. In fact, this theme is repeated over and over again in Berasheit - the Book of Genesis: Hevel was favored over Cain, Yitzhak was favored over Yishmael, Yakov was favored over his older brother Esav, and Efraim was favored over his older brother Menashe.

I set out to demonstrate-why in Parshat Lech Lecha, Isaac,“Yitzhak”, deserved to be favored over Yishmael, because after all, Yishmael was the bad guy and Yitzhak was the good guy.
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However, when I started to really look at the parsha, I began to think that my theory did not exactly hold up.

It all started when I noticed that Avraham seemed to like Ylshmael. I thought if Avraham, the great Patriarch, really loved Ylshmael, then perhaps Yishmael was not such a bad guy after all.

To more fully understand Avraham’s feelings towards Yishmael, his first born son, I went back to the beginning of Lech Lecha when we first meet Avraham. Although we do not know much about Avraham, we are struck by a huge contradiction; God told Avraham that he would be a father of a great nation and that he would have a land of his own but at the same time Avraham was childless and country-less. Sarah was very old and couldn’t seem to get pregnant and Avraham desperately wanted someone who could inherit from him.

When Avraham was in this difficult situation, Sara gave Avraham her Egyptian slave, Hagar, so that he could have a child. After Hagar became pregnant, Sara became jealous and began to treat her harshly at which point, Hagar ran away to the desert. When Hagar was in the desert, an angel of God came and instructed her to return to Avraham’s house. He told her that she would give birth to a son and that he would be named Yishmael which means “God will hear’.
Yishmael was therefore one of the very few people in the entire torah who was named directly by God. The name Yishmael is a very powerful name — especially if it is contrasted with Yitchak’s name — which means “He will laugh”.

When Yishmael was born it said that Hagar bore Yishmael to Avraham. Avraham most probably thought that finally, he had a son to whom he could pass along God’s promise. Although we are not told very much about the relationship between father and son, we can assume, from several episodes, that Avraham loved Yishmael very much. For example, later on in the parsha, when God informed Avraham that Sarah is going to give birth to a son, Avraham immediately protested and said; “Loo Yishmael Yichye Lephanechal” - “But what is going to happen to Yishmael?’ This is not exactly the reaction one would expect from a man who finds out that his childless~9O year old wife will have a baby! This response is even more surprising, when contrasted with Avraham ‘s total lack of response when he was told to sacrifice Yitzchak at the Akedah.

I also noticed that not only did Avraham care about Yishmael but God also seemed to care an awful lot about Yishmael. After Sarah banished Hagar and Yishamael to the desert, we are told that “God heard the lad’s voice”. This is, in essence, the fulfillment of Yishmael’s name “God will hear”.

The story of the banishment of Hagar and Yismael to the desert also gives us a real insight into what kind of person Yishmael is. The torah described how when their water was depleted how Hagar left Yishmael to die and immediately after, the torah said that God heard Yishmael’s cry. However, nowhere did it say that Yishmael cried out. I believe that the story shows how Yishmael is a man of
action. Although he might not have said anything, he was probably doing something at the time.

Even though none of the commentaries provide any specifics about what Yishmael was doing at the time, since Yishmael, according to Rashi, was about 15 years, old and I am 13 years old, I think I could picture what he might have been doing. I think Yishmael was searching for water, possibly digging in the ground or looking for a well and that he was crying out for help - if not verbally, then physically. I believe that Yishmael’s desperate search for water was seen by God as very meaningful and that is the reason God heard Yishmael’s cry.

Although in the torah, there is no evidence that Yishmael did anything really bad, most of the commentaries seem to favor Isaac and to dump on Yishmael. However, I found the m’pharshim that have a positive take on Yishmael more convincing then those which say that Yishmael was a terrible man and that he was a robber and a murderer.

For example, when God told Hagar that a son will be born to her he said that this son will be a “perah adam”. Some commentaries interpret “perah adam” negatively to mean “wild ass of a man On the other hand, lbn Ezra believed that it meant that Yishmael was to be “free among people and that no one would rule over him”. Another commentary translated “perah” as prolific, someone who would have many children. And in fact, Yishmael had 12 sons.

God also told Hagar that Yishmael would have “Yado bakol vehad kol bo” - his hand against everyone ~and everyone will have their hand against him.” This has traditionally been interpreted as meaning that Yishmael will always be fighting and attacking. However, Chizkuni translated this as “Yishamel’s hand will be in every type of business venture and everyone will be associated with him commercially.”

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Another example of why Yishmael might not have been so bad is that God gives him nearly the same blessing as Yitzhak. God reassured Avraham by saying: “As for Yishmael, I heeded you I hereby bless him I will make him fertile and exceedingly numerous. He will be the father of 12 sons and I will make him a great nation.” The crucial difference between Yishmael and Yitzchak’s blessing is that although God told Yishmael that a great nation will descend from him, he did not give Yishmael any land.

Why is that? What was wrong with Yishmael that he only qualified for one-half of the blessing, while Isaac received both land and children? I believe that the answer to this question is found in the description of the Brit Ben Habetarim, the covenant between the pieces. There, God told Avraham that before his children could inherit the land of Israel they would first be strangers in a land and would be enslaved and oppressed for 400 years.

I think that Yishmael did not qualify for the complete blessing because he was not the type of person who would have agreed to go through avdut, slavery, and be subjugated. After all, as we have seen, Yishmael was a “perah adam,” a hunter, and a free spirit type of person. Yishmael refused to be ruled over. Instead, he always wanted to be on top of things. The son who received the land of Israel needed to be able to experience Gerut (alienation ) Avdut, (Slavery), and Inui (oppression).

Yitzhak, on the other hand, was more of a thinker and a man of faith. He was also a more passive person. For example, when God told Avraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac went along with his father and didn’t say anything. I believe that had Avraham told Yishmael one day “I have to kill you because God says so”, Yishmael would have protested or run away.

When I started thinking about Yishmael and Yitzhak I thought of them as good and bad. Now I see that it is a lot more complicated. I think that everyone has a little bit of Yishmael, the man of action in them and also a little bit of the more spiritual Yitzhak in them. But in the end, everyone needs to be both a thinker and a doer.
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The torah tells us that Yishmael and Yitzhak actually came together at Avraham’s funeral which suggests that a reconciliation had taken place between them. The reunion of these two brothers gave me hope that there is a light at the end of this very long tunnel; and that if Yishmael and Yitzhak were able to come together, despite their differences then, maybe, the Arabs and Jews can too.

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