Spiritual and
Ethical Issues in the Historical Books of Tanach;
SPIRITUAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES IN THE BEREISHIT STORIES These four books ostensibly are merely the history of Israel from the entry into the Promised Land until the destruction of the Temple and the temporary loss of independent statehood. In fact they are actually, in a specifically Jewish sense, the most deeply religious and spiritual books of the Bible. One does not have to be specifically Jewish to see or feel the religion and spirituality in the revelations of the prophetic writings or in the words of the Tehillim. They speak to all people, as evidenced by the fact that the Bible is still the world's bestseller and there are millions of non-Jews who regularly recite the Psalms. However, it is specifically and intrinsically Jewish to understand that G-d is revealed in the prosaic material, in the political, social and military events in the lives of ordinary men and women, kings and leaders that are described in the Nevim Rishonim. Here are described the ideology and religious thoughts in Judaism, while in Chronicles we have the purely historical. HAGAR and YISHMAEL [2] Her reaction to the meeting with the angel, was that of somebody used to the presence of Divine messengers; "In the home of Avraham Avinu she had become used to their presence." (B'reishit Rabba). She was neither troubled nor surprised nor frightened by the angel's presence, unlike Mano'ach who expected to die when the angel appeared to him and his wife to tell them of the future birth of Samson (Judges 13:22). Hagar is told by the angel that Hashem has heard her cry of affliction; there is nothing remarkable about that since in all times Hashem hears the prayers of all who cry out to Him; "My House is a House of prayer for all the nations" (Yishayahu 56:7). Yet Hagar also receives Divine revelation concerning Avraham's son that is to be born to her. Revelation to a non-Jew is theologically fascinating and spiritually of great significance, yet common throughout the Tanachic period when prophecy existed in the world. Furthermore, the revelation is remarkably like that of Avraham's, a promise of a mighty nation of numerous descendants, yet at the same time radically different in that there is no mention either of slavery, redemption and a Promised Land. Hagar is told to go back to Sarah and suffer under her. In the merit of being in that household she will have a son whom she is to call Yishmael; "The Lord will hear, [as it is written] and He heard the cry of the youth [Yishmael]". However Avraham called him Yishmael since G-d revealed to him the cruelty with which the descendants of Yishmael would deal with Israel and that He would hear their anguished prayers (Pirkei d'Rabbi Eliezer 32). "Three in Israel were given names before they were born, Yitschak (B'reishit 17:19), Shlomo (Divrei HaYamim 22:9), and Yoshiyahu (M'lachim 13:2). Amongst the nations of the World, Yishmael " (B'reishit Rabba). It is interesting to note the two different approaches that the commentators have in explaining the angel's prophecy that Yishmael would be a 'pereh adam'. The Midrash, Rashi and Ramban, see it as referring to a wild uncultured violent person given to stealing and robbery, thus earning the enmity of all, as foretold by the angel. "Everybody steals money but he steals souls" (B'reishit Rabba). Modern Hebrew, following them uses the term primarily in the same way. In contrast, Ibn Ezra, Radak, Sforno and S. R. Hirsch, drawing on the grammar of allied texts, see it as referring to a lover of freedom, preferring the wide- open spaces of the deserts to urban living and constantly struggling with those who threaten his freedom. "Pere" literally refers to a wild untrainable young donkey as borne out by the many verses using 'pere' in the Nevi'im to describe Israel's rebellious behavior. "'Pere', a trait inherited from his Egyptian mother since he was to live close to Egypt, and 'Adam' from his father Avraham" (Sforno). "Free from human yoke and from the constraints of cities. Nobody will be his friend and still nobody will dare to oppose him" (S. R. Hirsch). Before returning to the tents of Sarah and Avraham, "Hagar called the Name of G-d that spoke to her: You are a G-d of seeing; Rabbi Abuha said: For You see the suffering of the miserable. For she said: Could I have seen even here after having seen [angels in the home of Avraham]; She said: Not only have I merited revelation, but also the promise of royalty by the angel; I have merited revelation that my mistress did not; Rabbi Shmuel ben Nachman said this is comparable to an important lady at court whom the king commanded to appear before him. She did appear but in her modesty she covered her face. Her maidservant who had no such modesty, merited seeing the face of the king" (B'reishit Rabba on 16:13). In the very next verse we read: " He [Avraham] called the well, Well of Living One who sees me"; so he added recognition of the transcendence of G-d over life/time to the independence of G-d towards space recognized by Hagar. The well situated at the entry to the desert was suitable as a memorial for the Arab people. G-d as the absolute Master of space and time, and his guiding and watching Providence are thoughts taught to them by Hagar and Avraham. They are the thoughts which all Arab thinkers and philosophers developed with such fineness, that the thoughts of the Unity of G-d in the works of Jewish philosophers as they are developed philosophically, rest predominately on the works of Arabian writers, who have the Emuna but not the mitzvot. It is not sufficient to have spiritual thoughts of the Unity of G-d only, for to Shema must be added V'ahavta, the practical submission of all forces and efforts to Him. From Avraham, Yishmael got the dedication of the mind, but he lacked the dedication of the life of his senses that comes from Sarah. Where a Jewish mother bears, feeds and brings up the children, there the senses are dedicated in their very roots. So the story of Hagar and Sarah is interposed between Brit Bein HaBetarim with its spiritual message of Nation, exile-redemption, and Land, and the mitzva of Mila, the practical subjection of all our senses to the Word of G-d (Rabbi S. R. Hirsch). This is the 103rd installment in Dr. Tamari’s series on “Tanach and its messages for our times” [The
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