Ishmael is the subject of a number of rabbinic commentaries in the midrash, Bereshit Rabbah that essentially cast him in a negative light -- unlike the actual Torah texts of Genesis.
Gen. Ch 16 Genesis 16 / Hebrew - English
Bible / Mechon-Mamre
As Sarah was barren and now age 75[i],
she voluntarily and formally gave her Egyptian
handmaiden, Hagar, to Abraham as a full wife (לוֹ
לְאִשָּׁה) with
the understanding that through Hagar and her future offspring, Sarah could be
“builded up” (אִבָּנֶה מִמֶּנָּה) through them.
I.e.,
Hagar would be her ‘surrogate’ and Hagar’s child would be as if Sarah’s own offspring.
But soon this plan faltered.
Sarah was offended by pregnant Hagar’s haughty ways and treated her
meanly, leading the pregnant Hagar to run away. (Gen. 16: 4 - 6)
She returns on the advice of an angel (Gen. 16: 9), is now treated
better, and gives birth to a son whom Abraham, now age 86, names Ishmael, i.e.,
God has listened to my prayers. (Gen.16:15-16)
Fast forward 15 years.
Abraham is now age 100 (Gen. 21:5) and Sarah 90, and suddenly, by a
Divine miracle, Sarah gives birth to Isaac. (Gen. Ch 21:2)
When Isaac was 8 days old, he was circumcised (Gen. 21: 4) and thereafter grew well.
Then, when Isaac was “weaned” and no longer considered an infant, Abraham hosted a great feast (Gen. 21: 8).
And in the very next verse, Gen. 21: 9, trouble arose.
Sarah sees a young Ishmael ‘מְצַחֵק ‘.
The above
English translation is “making sport”, but it can also be translated as
“playing,”” mocking” or simply “laughing”[ii]
.
And
suddenly she tells Abraham: no, orders Abraham to expel Hagar and Ishmael –
which Abraham reluctantly does once God tells him to do so. (Gen. 21:10-14)
After
getting lost and running out of bread and water, Hagar places Ishmael under a
shrub and goes far off so she can die without seeing her son’s death. And she
sits and cries. (Gen. 21: 15-16)
But an
angel appears and shows her an nearby well, so Hagar and Ishmael survive and
live on in the Negev/Sinai desert (Gen.
21: 17-19)
Hagar
eventually arranges for Ishmael to marry an Egyptian woman (Gen. 21: 20-21).
Ishmael’s
story picks up again in Gen. Ch. 25.
When
Abraham dies at age 175, Ishmael returns and alongside Isaac buries their
common father in the family cave crypt. (Gen. 25: 9).
Then, at great length the Bible details Ishmael’s
offspring. (Gen. 25:12 - 16).
Ishmael
himself fathers 12 sons, 12 “princes” who in turn father a great many offspring
who set up their own villages and settlements in the desert.
So he
fathered 12 “tribes” very much as Jacob does in the next generation of Isaac’s
lineage.
The Bible in Gen.
16:12 predicts he and his offspring will
be:
“a wild ass
of a man: his hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against
him; and he shall dwell in the face of all his brethren.”
Now this description of Ishmael and his descendants as ‘wild ass“ means,
according to Rashi, Ibn Erza and Ramban, that they will enjoy living in the
desert as wild donkeys do.
And while Rashi interprets that “his hand shall be against every
man, and every man's hand against him” means he and they will be robbers and
highwaymen, Ibn Ezra and Ramban
thereafter understand this to mean Ishmael’s nation will conquer many others,
but in the end will be overcome by some other nation.[iii]
So
the Gen. 16:12 text is not necessarily derogatory.
Moreover,
God tell Abraham He will be blessed Ishmael and make him a great nation:
Gen. 17
|
כ וּלְיִשְׁמָעֵאל, שְׁמַעְתִּיךָ--הִנֵּה
בֵּרַכְתִּי אֹתוֹ וְהִפְרֵיתִי אֹתוֹ וְהִרְבֵּיתִי אֹתוֹ, בִּמְאֹד
מְאֹד: שְׁנֵים-עָשָׂר נְשִׂיאִם יוֹלִיד, וּנְתַתִּיו לְגוֹי גָּדוֹל. |
20 And as for Ishmael, I
have heard thee; behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and
will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make
him a great nation. |
Hardly what one would expect if Ishmael is inclined to robbery.
Finally, the Bible concludes by noting Ishmael died at a ripe old age of
137[iv] and most peacefully: וַיִּגְוַע ( Gen. 25:17).
|
יז וְאֵלֶּה, שְׁנֵי חַיֵּי יִשְׁמָעֵאל--מְאַת שָׁנָה
וּשְׁלֹשִׁים שָׁנָה, וְשֶׁבַע שָׁנִים; וַיִּגְוַע וַיָּמָת, וַיֵּאָסֶף אֶל-עַמָּיו. |
17 And these are the years
of the life of Ishmael, a hundred and thirty and seven years; and he
expired and died; and was gathered
unto his people. |
As pointed out in an earlier blog, the Bible only uses the special Vav-hahefuch
term וַיִּגְוַע
when God grants a righteous person a
quick and instant death: Abraham (Gen.
25: 8), Isaac (Gen. 35:29) and Jacob (Gen. 49:33).
So Ishmael is in very good company.
Bereshit Rabbah’s perspective
1.
Why did Sarah have Ishmael and his mother expelled?
Chapter 53: 11 cites Rabbi Akiva who interprets the word מְצַחֵק (metzaḥek ) to
mean sexual immorality.
Sarah saw [the son of Hagar…playing [metzaḥek]]”
– metzaḥek is nothing other than sexual immorality, just as it says:
“The Hebrew slave whom you brought to us came to me to play with [letzaḥek]
me” (Genesis 39:17). It teaches that our matriarch Sarah would see Ishmael
force himself on women, trap married women, and violate them.
Now, at Isaac’s birth
Ishmael, born when Abraham was 86 years old, would be 13 or 14 years old. And if the weaning celebration took place
after a year or two or eve3n when Isaac was 3 years old, Ishmael would have
been a young teenager of 14 to 17 years old.
Too suggest such a young man
could be a sex crazed rapist is extraordinary.
And to have Rabbi Akiva say
Sarah saw all these attacks and said nothing to Ishmael or Abraham is also
unbelievable.
Ishmael was still young and
living with Abraham and under his parental guidance.
Now there is a later Bereshit Rabbah statement, 53:36, that
Ishmael was age 27 at his expulsion. But it is without substantiating proof or
Biblical quote and raised in a totally different and odd context.
Namely, when Abraham sent off Hagar and Ishmael he placed a container of
water in her shoulder and Ishmael on the other.
On her shoulder and the child” – he was twenty-seven
years old and yet you say: “On her shoulder”? It teaches that Sarah
introduced an evil eye into him and he was afflicted with fever and pain [and
could not walk on his own]. Know that it is so, as it is written: “The water in
the skin was finished” (Genesis 21:15), as a sick person typically drinks a lot
and frequently.
No Rabbi’s name is given as
a source for this interpretation, and the idea that Sarah would or could put an
“evil eye” or curse on Ishmael is not very laudatory re: Sarah’s character.
It is also bizarre to think
that Abraham, the loving father, would send off Hagar with a very sick Ishmael
and put his weakened 27 year old adult body on her shoulder; let alone that
Hagar could carry such an adult son on one shoulder and a flask full of water
in the other for the very long trip back to Egypt.
Truly a most unusual and dubious speculation.
Now back to Ch 53:11 which continues
with other rabbinic interpretations re: Ishmael מְצַחֵק :
Rabbi Yishmael says “ This expression of tzeḥok (
מְצַחֵק ) is
nothing other than idol worship, as
it is stated: “The people sat to eat and drink and they rose to revel [letzaḥek]”
(Exodus 32:6). It teaches that our matriarch Sarah would see Ishmael building
altars, trapping grasshoppers, and sacrificing [them] upon them.
Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Yosei HaGelili says: This expression of tzeḥok
is nothing other than an expression of bloodshed,
as it says: “Let the lads rise now and play [visaḥaku] before us” (II
Samuel 2:14).
Rabbi Azarya said in the name of Rabbi Levi: Ishmael said to Isaac: ‘Let us go and see our
portion in the field.’ Ishmael would then take a bow and arrows and shoot toward Isaac, conducting himself as though
he was [just] playing. That is what is written: “Like the prankster who
shoots firebrands, [arrows, and death], so is a man who deceives his friend,
and says: Am I not joking?” (Proverbs 26:18–19).
As is quite clear, all four
of these rabbinic interpretation, from Rabbi Akiva on. are negative.
They use much later Biblical
verses with the word מְצַחֵק to justify Sarah's forced expulsion
of Ishmael and his mother, and justify it as Ishmael is seen as EVIL.
Such
searching for later מְצַחֵק verses is also surprising as the word מְצַחֵק appears 6 times in the
Bible account re Isaac’s birth.
·
Gen.
17
|
טו וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, אֶל-אַבְרָהָם, שָׂרַי
אִשְׁתְּךָ, לֹא-תִקְרָא אֶת-שְׁמָהּ שָׂרָי: כִּי שָׂרָה, שְׁמָהּ. |
15 And God said unto Abraham: 'As for
Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name
be. |
|
טז וּבֵרַכְתִּי אֹתָהּ, וְגַם נָתַתִּי מִמֶּנָּה
לְךָ בֵּן; וּבֵרַכְתִּיהָ וְהָיְתָה לְגוֹיִם, מַלְכֵי עַמִּים מִמֶּנָּה
יִהְיוּ. |
16 And I will bless her, and moreover I
will give thee a son of her; yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother
of nations; kings of peoples shall be of her.' |
|
יז וַיִּפֹּל אַבְרָהָם עַל-פָּנָיו, וַיִּצְחָק; וַיֹּאמֶר בְּלִבּוֹ, הַלְּבֶן
מֵאָה-שָׁנָה יִוָּלֵד, וְאִם-שָׂרָה, הֲבַת-תִּשְׁעִים שָׁנָה תֵּלֵד. |
17 Then Abraham fell
upon his face, and laughed, and said in his
heart: 'Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old? and shall
Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?' |
Gen. Ch.8 Visit of the three strangers/angels
|
י וַיֹּאמֶר, שׁוֹב אָשׁוּב אֵלֶיךָ כָּעֵת חַיָּה,
וְהִנֵּה-בֵן, לְשָׂרָה אִשְׁתֶּךָ; וְשָׂרָה שֹׁמַעַת פֶּתַח הָאֹהֶל, וְהוּא
אַחֲרָיו. |
10 And He said: 'I will certainly return
unto thee when the season cometh round; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a
son.' And Sarah heard in the tent door, which was behind him.-- |
|
יא וְאַבְרָהָם וְשָׂרָה
זְקֵנִים, בָּאִים בַּיָּמִים; חָדַל לִהְיוֹת לְשָׂרָה, אֹרַח כַּנָּשִׁים. |
11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, and
well stricken in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of
women.-- |
|
יב וַתִּצְחַק שָׂרָה, בְּקִרְבָּהּ
לֵאמֹר: אַחֲרֵי בְלֹתִי הָיְתָה-לִּי עֶדְנָה, וַאדֹנִי זָקֵן. |
12 And Sarah
laughed within herself, saying: 'After I am waxed old shall I have
pleasure, my lord being old also?' |
|
יג וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה,
אֶל-אַבְרָהָם: לָמָּה זֶּה צָחֲקָה שָׂרָה
לֵאמֹר, הַאַף אֻמְנָם אֵלֵד--וַאֲנִי זָקַנְתִּי. |
13 And the LORD
said unto Abraham: 'Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying: Shall I of a
surety bear a child, who am old? |
|
יד הֲיִפָּלֵא מֵיְהוָה,
דָּבָר; לַמּוֹעֵד אָשׁוּב אֵלֶיךָ, כָּעֵת חַיָּה--וּלְשָׂרָה בֵן. |
14 Is any thing too hard for the LORD. At
the set time I will return unto thee, when the season cometh round, and Sarah
shall have a son.' |
|
טו וַתְּכַחֵשׁ שָׂרָה
לֵאמֹר לֹא צָחַקְתִּי,
כִּי יָרֵאָה; וַיֹּאמֶר לֹא, כִּי צָחָקְתְּ. |
15 Then Sarah denied, saying: 'I laughed not'; for she was afraid. And He
[God] said: 'Nay; but thou didst laugh.' |
|
טז וַיָּקֻמוּ מִשָּׁם הָאֲנָשִׁים, וַיַּשְׁקִפוּ
עַל-פְּנֵי סְדֹם; וְאַבְרָהָם--הֹלֵךְ עִמָּם, לְשַׁלְּחָם. |
16 And the men rose up from thence, and
looked out toward Sodom; and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way. |
In each of these instance: whether spoken by Abraham or Sarah, מְצַחֵק means to laugh in derision
or disbelief.
And of course, מְצַחֵק is the root of the very
name Abraham gives his son Isaac, יִצְחָק .
Gen. Ch 21
|
ג וַיִּקְרָא אַבְרָהָם אֶת-שֶׁם-בְּנוֹ
הַנּוֹלַד-לוֹ, אֲשֶׁר-יָלְדָה-לּוֹ שָׂרָה--יִצְחָק. |
3 And Abraham called the
name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac |
No etymology or explanation
of the name is given here, contrary to normal Bible practice.
But it should be
obvious.
Five times it is used by
Abraham and Sarah in silent disbelief or ‘ laughing in derision’.
But with Isaac’s birth, it can now be spoken aloud: the child is named
“laughter of joy”.
Now returning to Bereshit Rabbah 53:
11 continues with Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai
saying something complimentary re: Ishmael
מְצַחֵק .
“This expression of tzeḥok
is nothing other than an expression of inheritance.
When our patriarch Isaac was born, everyone was rejoicing. Ishmael said to
them: ‘You are fools. I am the firstborn and I will inherit twice as much.
[This is clear] from Sarah’s response to
Abraham: “For the son of this maidservant will not inherit with my son, with
Isaac.”
Rabbi Shimon ben
Yoḥai bases his interpretation on the actual
context and Sarah’s actual response.
Not some much later use of the word
מְצַחֵק in some negative context.
And the speech he suggests Ishmael gave to the
assembled guest is based in Torah law.
Deut.
21: 15 -17 (https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0521.htm)
|
טו כִּי-תִהְיֶיןָ לְאִישׁ שְׁתֵּי נָשִׁים, הָאַחַת
אֲהוּבָה וְהָאַחַת שְׂנוּאָה, וְיָלְדוּ-לוֹ בָנִים, הָאֲהוּבָה
וְהַשְּׂנוּאָה; וְהָיָה הַבֵּן הַבְּכֹר, לַשְּׂנִיאָה. |
\ 15 If a man have two wives,
the one beloved, and the other hated, and they have borne him children, both
the beloved and the hated; and if the first-born son be hers that was hated; |
|
טז וְהָיָה, בְּיוֹם הַנְחִילוֹ אֶת-בָּנָיו, אֵת
אֲשֶׁר-יִהְיֶה, לוֹ--לֹא יוּכַל, לְבַכֵּר אֶת-בֶּן-הָאֲהוּבָה, עַל-פְּנֵי
בֶן-הַשְּׂנוּאָה, הַבְּכֹר. |
16 then it shall be, in the
day that he causeth his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not
make the son of the beloved the first-born before the son of the hated, who
is the first-born; |
|
יז כִּי אֶת-הַבְּכֹר בֶּן-הַשְּׂנוּאָה יַכִּיר, לָתֶת לוֹ
פִּי שְׁנַיִם, בְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר-יִמָּצֵא, לוֹ: כִּי-הוּא רֵאשִׁית אֹנוֹ,
לוֹ מִשְׁפַּט הַבְּכֹרָה. |
17 but he shall acknowledge the first-born,
the son of the hated, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath; for
he is the first-fruits of his strength, the right of the first-born is his. |
But as the expulsion of Ishmael took place over three
hundred years before the Exodus and before the 40 years in the Sinai wilderness
where Moses wrote down God’s words: including the above laws of inheritance, Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai’s textual
analysis and logic is correct, but it was not Torah Law that was in play.
The laws of
inheritance that Abraham and his kin followed then were the laws of Mesopotamia,
the ancestral lands above the Euphrates which gave Abraham and his kin and
descendants[v]
the name ‘Evri’ or ‘Hebrew’: meaning ‘from north of the great river (Euphrates)’.
And
Canaanite peoples were also descended from
the north.
The Code of
Hammurabi, Abraham’s contemporary, explains Sarah’s original and current
predicament, and the story of Hagar and Ishmael to a tee.
I have discussed this at length in an
earlier blog on Hagar.
Put simply, Mesopotamian law preferred only one wife
at a time but a barren wife could give her husband her handmaid to bear an heir
and offspring. (Hammurabi Code[vi] 144 -
146).
That son, even if the original wife became pregnant
and had a son, would still be an heir of the father, if the father while living
declared him “my son”.. (Hammurabi Code 165 167 and especially 170).
Abraham declares Ishmael as his son and an heir to
God in Gen. 17: 18 – 20 and the text stresses this status again at the
expulsion:
Gen. 21: 11
|
יא וַיֵּרַע הַדָּבָר מְאֹד, בְּעֵינֵי אַבְרָהָם,
עַל, אוֹדֹת בְּנוֹ. |
11 And the thing was very grievous in
Abraham's sight on account of his
son. |
But if the father agrees to formally expel both the
maidservant and her ‘offspring’, that son is no longer an heir. Implication of
146-147.
However, there no double portion to the firstborn, just
equal shares among all his acknowledged offspring. (Hammurabi Code 165 and
167).
This is why Sarah replies correctly:
|
י וַתֹּאמֶר, לְאַבְרָהָם, גָּרֵשׁ הָאָמָה הַזֹּאת,
וְאֶת-בְּנָהּ: כִּי לֹא יִירַשׁ בֶּן-הָאָמָה הַזֹּאת, עִם-בְּנִי
עִם-יִצְחָק. |
10 Wherefore she said unto Abraham: 'Cast out
this bondwoman and her son; for
the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with
Isaac.' |
No challenge that the firstborn gets a double
portion as per later Torah law, just EQUAL shares as was the law of the day.
CONCLUSION
Rabbinic tradition as recorded in Bereshit Rabbah has a nearly unanimous anti-Ishmael mindset and seeks to
defend Sarah’s forced expulsion of Ishmael and Hagar by speculating wildly that
Ishmael was evil in one way or
another.
Only Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai bothered to understand
Ishmael’s מְצַחֵק in context. And Sarah’s immediate reply.
Anyone living in the time of Abraham -- and possibly
down to Moses’s time -- would have
understood: it was about who inherits what under the law.
Sarah knew the law of the day and wanted to have her
flesh and blood son be Abraham’s sole heir and inheritor. And she knew what ‘escape clause’ existed in
Mesopotamian law to prevent Ishmael from acquiring half.
Rabbi Shimon ben
Yoḥai should be given credit for an open minded examination of the actual
Biblical text and its meaning.
Especially
unlike Rabbi Akiva with his immoral sex spin.
[i] Sarah was 10 years younger than Abraham and
when they came to Canaan, he was 75 and she was 65. Now, 10 years later she would be age 75
(verse 3).
[ii] See Jastrow dictionary definitions
for this verse at Sefaria Genesis
2:9.
[iii] See Safaria right side commentaries for gen. 16:12.
[iv] While Abraham died at age 175, Isaac
at 180, and Jacob at 147, Sarah died at age 127, Joseph at 110, Aaron the High priest at 123 and Moses at
120.
[v] Jonah, many centuries later, identifies himself to the sailors on the ship
as “Evri”. (Jonah 1: 91 -10)
