Parashat Vayera - Fifth Aliyah
Read the biblical text and try to understand it on your own, before reading the commentary.
Abraham is a hundred years old when Isaac is born, and Sarah describes the joy the birth has brought into her life. Isaac grows, and on the day he is weaned Abraham holds a great feast. But alongside the joy, a dispute arises over Ishmael: Sarah demands that Hagar and her son be sent away so that he will not inherit alongside Isaac. Abraham finds this very hard to accept. God tells him to listen to Sarah and promises that Ishmael too will become a nation, because he too is Abraham’s son. Genesis 21:5-13
In the morning Abraham gives Hagar bread and a waterskin and sends her away with Ishmael. She wanders in the wilderness of Beersheba, and when the water runs out she lays the boy under a bush and moves away, unable to bear the sight of his death. She sits and weeps. God hears the boy’s voice, and an angel calls to her from heaven, telling her to rise and lift him up, for he is to become a great nation. God opens her eyes and she sees a well, fills the skin with water and gives her son a drink. Ishmael grows up in the wilderness and becomes an archer; he lives in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother finds him a wife from Egypt. Genesis 21:14-21
What pains Abraham?
The Torah tells us that Sarah’s demand is hard for Abraham because of his son. Yet God’s reply mentions both the boy and Hagar. Radak draws from this addition that Abraham also grieved over her: she had served him for many years and had borne him a son. The verse focuses on his son, who was at the center of the dispute with Sarah, while God, who knows his heart, also mentions his sorrow over Hagar. Radak on Genesis 21:12
This detail gives the relationship with Hagar a place within the story of parting. The command to listen to Sarah does not erase Abraham’s pain over the two people he is required to send away. And the promise concerning Ishmael states explicitly that he too is Abraham’s offspring. Genesis 21:12-13
Hagar weeps, and the boy’s voice is heard
In the wilderness, the narrative describes Hagar’s weeping and the distance she puts between herself and her son. Then its focus turns to him: God hears the boy’s voice. His words are not given, but his voice receives an answer. Genesis 21:16-17
Rashi learns from this that the sick person’s own prayer is more effective than the prayers others offer for him and is accepted first. Rashi on Genesis 21:17
Thus, within a story in which his mother acts on his behalf and an angel speaks to her, Ishmael is also heard in his own right. The rescue begins with his voice being heard. The angel calls on Hagar to rise and lift him up; later she sees the well and gives him a drink.
As he is there
Rashi also considers the words explaining why Ishmael’s voice is heard: God judges him by his deeds now, rather than by the future. He brings a midrash in which the angels argue against his rescue because his descendants will one day cause Israelites to die of thirst. The answer in the midrash is that judgment here is based on his present condition and deeds. Rashi on Genesis 21:17
We can also take from this interpretation a thought about education and our relationships with others: to distinguish what a person is doing now from our fears about what may happen in the future. In Ishmael’s case, the future raised by the angels does not cancel attention to his present deeds and his distress now.
The well she had not seen
After the angel’s words, God opens Hagar’s eyes and she sees a well of water. Radak suggests that the well may already have been there, but hidden among the bushes or far from her. Radak on Genesis 21:19
On this possibility, the rescue does not require a new well to be created. The water is already there, and Hagar’s eyes are opened to see it; she goes to give her son a drink. We can find a thought for life here too: sometimes help begins with the ability to see a possibility that already exists but that we have not yet noticed.
The aliyah distinguishes Isaac’s continuing path from Ishmael’s future, but it does not end Ishmael’s story with his departure from Abraham’s household. It follows him into the wilderness, to his voice being heard and to the life he will continue there. He leaves the household, but he does not disappear from God’s care.