YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH (VBM)
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INTRODUCTION TO PARASHAT HASHAVUA

PARASHAT VAYERA

Akedat Yishma'el
By Rav Michael Hattin

INTRODUCTION

Most of the charged but incomplete episodes of last week's Parashat Lekh Lekha reach their climactic conclusion in this week's Parashat Vayera.  Avraham and Sarah's deteriorating relationship with their estranged nephew Lot, the ongoing but so far unfulfilled aspirations of the aged couple for offspring, the declining fortunes of the iniquitous city of Sodom, the difficult circumstances surrounding Sarah's maidservant Hagar and her feral son Yishma'el, were all introduced with much fanfare in last week's reading but remained exceptionally unresolved at that reading's end.  

Lot may have been rescued by Avraham from the Mesopotamian kings who captured him at Sodom, but he then sheepishly returned to his home in the Jordan Plains, leaving in his wake no indication that his alienation from his aunt and uncle had been lessened.  Avraham and Sarah's perennial quest for offspring was highlighted last week against the backdrop of a recurring Divine pledge to grace them with a child, but no new developments had taken place by the time Parashat Lekh Lekha sounded its final note.  The proud and prosperous cities of Sodom and its satellites, tantalizingly described as luxuriant and lush but simultaneously implicated as full of "wickedness and transgression," were last week bested in battle but emerged otherwise unscathed, leaving us to continue to ponder their final fate.  Sarah had given Hagar to Avraham as a second wife and the union had produced Yishma'el, but the new household dynamic only introduced more instability as a consequence.  In short, every single one of last week's major events failed to foster any lasting equilibrium and instead only sowed further seeds of disquietude and turmoil.  Remarkably, it is within the narratives of this week's Parasha that all of these matters finally reach their electrifying resolution.  

In light of the nature of this week's reading as implied above, it should therefore not come as a surprise that Parashat Vayera itself concludes with proverbial fireworks of the spiritual sort: the episode of the Akeda.  While often we tend to analyze the episode of the Akeda from its own entirely internal and self-contained text, this week we will consider the Akeda as it stands in comparison and contrast to another, seemingly dissimilar event: the sending away of Hagar and Yishma'el.

THE OUTLINE OF THE EPISODE

The outline of the latter is straightforward enough.  "God remembered Sarah as He had said, and He performed for Sarah as He had exclaimed.  Sarah conceived and gave birth to a son for Avraham in his old age, at the time that the Lord had indicated to him…" (21:1-2).  The birth of Yitzchak is understandably an occasion for great rejoicing and the proud parents make a feast on the day that the young boy is weaned.  It is at that banquet that Sarah sees Yishma'el, Avraham's thirteen-year old son from Hagar, "making mirth" of the proceedings.  No doubt relations with that lad and his mother had continued to be strained from the very time that Sarah had given her maidservant to Avraham as a second wife.  Recall that in last week's reading, pregnant Hagar had even for a time refused to accept Sarah's authority, so certain was she that with the birth of Yishma'el she would become the matron of the household with her new son christened as Avraham's only heir (see Bereishit Chapter 16).  

Thus, it is with anger and indignation that Sarah now demands the driving out of Hagar and Yishma'el, putting an end once and for all to the maidservant's mercenary pretensions.  Though mightily reluctant and very pained, Avraham follows Sarah's directives at Divine behest: "The Lord said to Avraham: Do not be pained concerning the lad or your maidservant.  Hearken to all that Sarah tells you, for it the descendents of Yitzchak that shall be called your own.  As for the son of the maidservant, I shall make him into a nation also, for he is your offspring" (22:12-13).

Dutifully, Avraham arises early the next morning and sends away the maidservant and her son, providing them with bread and water.  The two wander in the wilderness of Be'er Sheva but soon become lost.  Before long, the provisions are spent and Yishma'el is stricken with dehydration.  Hagar, afraid that he will soon perish, places him under the shade of a bush and then distances herself from his cries.  She too breaks down in tears but then God unexpectedly responds: "What is wrong, Hagar?  Do not fear, for the Lord has heard the cries of the lad where he is.  Arise and carry the lad and grasp him tightly, for I shall make him a powerful nation!" (21:17-18).  Inspired, she then sees a well of water and draws the life-sustaining liquid for her child.  The account concludes with the report that Yishma'el became a desert-dwelling archer and married an Egyptian woman.

COMMON OUTLINE AND THEMES

At first glance, the above account appears to share little with the episode of the Akeda.  But a more careful analysis of both its plot and themes as well as of its literary structure and use of terms may suggest otherwise.  First of all, it should be noted that the story of Hagar and Yishma'el may be abstracted into a more general tale: a stressful experience of near death precipitated by a Divine imperative, that is unexpectedly transformed into life by the abrupt intervention of God at the last possible moment.  The motif of journey figures prominently in the account as well, for the two embark on an odyssey into the wilderness but become disoriented enroute, finding their bearings only towards the end.  Of course, quite significant also is the painful exploration of the vicissitudes of the potent mother-child bond.  While it is that Hagar and her only son embark from Avraham's household together, they are soon emotionally separated by the lad's sorry state, only to be reunited by the angel's intervention.  Finally, there is the element of Divine support and compensation, for Hagar and Yishma'el are rewarded for their efforts by a pledge of nationhood and success.  The account concludes with the report than mother and son dwelt in the wilderness of Paran.

The parallels between the above thematic outline and the account of the Akeda narrated in our Parasha are numerous.  The Akeda also describes an experience of Divinely mandated near death transposed to life, for just as Avraham lifts the knife to slay his son an angel from the heavens stays his hand.  It too begins with a description of journey, for the aged patriarch and his young son embark from the parched lands of Be'er Sheva towards the hill country of Moriah, staying the course for three days.  It too provides us with a potent image of the parent-child bond, for "together" the two begin the journey (22:6), "together" it unfolds (22:8), and "together" it concludes (22:19) as they return home.  Finally, again, there is the matter of God's pledge of assistance and help, and the explicit promise of future reward: "Because you have done this thing and have not withheld your one and only son, therefore I will surely bless you and I will increase your descendents as the stars of the sky and the sand of the seashore, and your descendents will possess the gates of their enemies.  All of the nations of the earth shall be blessed on account of your descendents, because you hearkened to My voice" (22:16-18).  The Akeda account also concludes with a report concerning dwelling, namely that Avraham dwelt in Be'er Sheva.  It is no wonder that Rabbinic tradition tended to link the sending away of Hagar and Yishma'el with the Akeda, by declaring that the two episodes together form the final stages of Avraham's so-called "Ten Trials of Faith" (see Avot D'Rabbi Natan as well as the commentary of the Rambam on Tractate Avot 5:3). 

COMMON LITERARY STRUCTURES

The literary evidence is no less striking.  Both events are precipitated by "laughter" – Yishma'el makes mirth ("metzachek" – 21:9), and Avraham is asked to take his precious son "Yitzchak" (22:2).  Both temporally begin with Avraham arising "early in the morning" (21:14/22:3), both have the protagonists carry the objects significant to the episode (bread and the water skin/kindling, fire and knife), both conclude with an "angel of the Lord calling from the heavens" and then an announcement of future nationhood (21:17/22:11, 15).

It is therefore quite evident that the Torah very much wants us to connect the two events.  That much is indicated by the text itself, for the sending away of Yishma'el is separated by the account of the Akeda by only the short and unambiguous episode of Avraham concluding a pact of friendship with Avimelech, King of the Philistines (21:22-34).  This concise passage highlights the fateful location of Be'er Sheva, for it was in the environs of Be'er Sheva that Hagar and Yishma'el became lost, it was there that Avraham and Avimelech sealed their treaty, and it was to there that the patriarch and his son repaired after the successful completion of the Akeda.

THREE PRIMARY DIFFERENCES

While the comparisons as outlined above are certainly intriguing, the key to placing both events into their proper perspective actually hinges upon the contrasts.  All told, there are three primary differences between the sending away of Hagar and her son Yishma'el and the episode of the Akeda.  First of all, while Hagar and Yishma'el wander forth, become disoriented and quickly lose their way – this being the pivotal detail for the events that follow – the journey of Avraham and Yitzchak to Mount Moriah is never aimless, in doubt or without direction.  Hagar and Yishma'el "went forth and strayed in the wilderness of Be'er Sheva" (21:14), but Avraham and Yitzchak "arose and journeyed to the place that the Lord had told him" (22:3).  In contrast to the almost immediate loss of their bearings by Hagar and Yishma'el, Avraham and Yitzchak maintain their course for a full three days until they arrive "at the place that the Lord had told him" (22:9).

Secondly, though presumably Hagar and Yishma'el journey forth from the patriarch's house together, the implied mother-son bond soon threatens to completely unravel as Hagar abandons the faint Yishma'el to his fate and distances herself a distance of "a double bow shot" (21:16), so as not to hear his death rattles as she waits for him to expire.  Is there perhaps not a small note of emotional violence in her estrangement, signified by the Torah's designation of her physical distance by the measure of a "double bow shot"?  Of course, pointedly absent from the episode is any mention of the two of them ever being "as one," this latter term being the leitmotif of Avraham and Yitzchak's momentous journey.  No less than three times, the father and his beloved son are described as going forth "as one" – once when he tellingly places the load of firewood upon his young son's back as they approach the mountain (22:6), a second time when Yitzchak's innocent query concerning the lack of a sacrificial lamb is cryptically answered by Avraham's reference to God's guidance (22:8), and a third time after the episode when they begin their journey back to Be'er Sheva (22:19).  

Finally, while Hagar responds to the great and painful challenge of her son's imminent death with utter emotional and spiritual paralysis, Avraham marches forward and himself raises the knife in fulfillment of God's command.  Hagar sits opposite, lifts up her voice and cries (21:16) but she seeks no solace or guidance from the heavens above.  God hears "the lad's cries over where he is" (21:17) but He does not respond to her entreaties, the poignant prayers of a loving mother about to lose her only son, because there are none.  Her cry is one of numbed incapacitation, for she knows not where to turn or whom to entreat.  But Avraham's inner cries, the consequence of his tragic realization that God has asked him to surrender that which is most precious in his sight, are never silent screams of rage or else sobs of spiritual stupefaction, but rather tearful prayers to a God that he has loved more than life itself.  How else to explain God's altogether remarkable exclamation that "now I know that you revere God, for you have not withheld your one and only son from Me!" (22:12).

THE MEANING OF THE AKEDA

The thrust of all of the above is imminently clear: the Akeda is the culmination of Avraham's trials because it addresses the most noble strivings of his being.  Forward and resolutely he marches forth to perform an act that he cannot comprehend, for the love of a God that he cannot resist.  His steps never waver, his feet never falter, and he never loses sight of the great mission before him.  Though asked to consciously take the life of his precious and beloved son, he never for a single instant prepares to lessen the blow by emotionally detaching from that child before the moment that he will be called upon to wield the glimmering knife.  Together they embark, together they arrive, together they remain as the terrible truth dawns upon the young boy, and together they return to life even after the unspeakable act has been stayed by Divine intervention.  Their relationship is not in anywise negatively impacted by a progression of events that would have driven an eternal emotional wedge between mortals of lesser spiritual caliber.  Though torn between the terrible determination of fulfilling God's impenetrable will or else preserving the one son dear to him more than all else, Avraham will surrender neither in his heart.  Neither his love for God nor his love for his son will be compromised by the Akeda.

How different and less noble is the "Akeda" of Yishma'el, though in external trappings it certainly bears an uncanny resemblance to Yitzchak's near-immolation.  Though Hagar is in the end comforted by God and Yishma'el is promised a bright future of brigandage, it is with Yitzchak that God's covenant will be established forever: "Because you have done this thing and have not withheld your one and only son, therefore I will surely bless you and I will increase your descendents as the stars of the sky and the sand of the seashore, and your descendents will possess the gates of their enemies.  All of the nations of the earth shall be blessed on account of your descendents…."  Is it any wonder why?

Shabbat Shalom