PoliticalChic
Diamond Member
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- #21
1.First of all, I don’t mean to minimize the importance of the family dynamics that took place between the first Jews and the ancestor of several prominent Arab tribes and the forefather of Muhammad. ….certainly not in light of the importance of those dynamics in the headlines these days.
And soap operas have become important today….what with the coronavirus captivity.
“Daytime Soaps Surge: B&B, Days, GH and Y&R Experience Significant Ratings Boosts as America Quarantines” Daytime Soaps Surge: B&B, Days, GH and Y&R Experience Significant Ratings Boosts as America Quarantines
2. Now….the biblical soap opera: I refer to Genesis, chapter 21.
See, the first Jewish person is really old when God promises him kids. And Abraham really wants children… so, Sarah offers her Egyptian maid, Hagar, to Abraham to provide him with a child….and guess what line that child began…. “Hagar, Abraham’s concubine and the mother of his son Ishmael. Purchased in Egypt, she served as a maid to Abraham’s childless wife, Sarah, who gave her to Abraham to conceive an heir…. The Jews believed that Ishmael was the ancestor of a number of Bedouin peoples dwelling in southern Palestine. There are also legends stating that Ishmael was an ancestor of Muḥammad.” Hagar | biblical figure
Does that plot apply today? You betcha’!
“Can my husband see his mistress?': French police receive bizarre lockdown questions” 'Can my husband see his mistress?': Police's oddest lockdown questions
3. So, a miracle occurs….the aged Sarah becomes pregnant…gives birth to the promised inheritor of God’s blessing, Isaac.
21.2 Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken.
21.3 Abraham gave his newborn son, whom Sarah had borne him, the name of Isaac.
Now the plot thickens! Isaac is about two, Ishmael about sixteen, and it dawns on Sarah that….if Abraham dies….both will be his heirs…and if you are familiar with the history of ‘royal houses,’ this problem is often solved in a lethal manner!
Sarah may be a nice Jewish girl…or old lady….but she is a tigress when it comes to protecting the interests of her baby boy!
Sooo….what would the plot line be if this were on Lifetime channel???
How about if it were on the Investigation Discovery channel??? (Toccata and fugue in D)
Well, not only Hagar turned disrespectful towards our mother Sarah A"H,
but Torah tells us her son Ishmael who's wild nature as a hunter already started to appear,
used to "laugh around", shooting arrows around Itzhak, he wouldn't dare kill his brother while Avraham Avinu A"H was alive, but while laughing to himself he was thinking exactly about what You wrote - what would happen after Aveaham Avinu A"H passed.
However, one has to take in mind that our mother Sarah A"H, was actually of a higher level in prophecy than Avraham Avinu A"H - G-d Himself confirmed that (Beresheet 21:12) telling Avraham Avinu to listen to his wife when she demanded to expel Hagar.
G-d's plan was to establish a nation that would be burdened with correction of the world, specifically from one specific (Semitic) family line of the handful of Hebrews that were remained on earth in exile - "for in Isaac will be called your seed" (Ber. 21:12). And so it continued with Jacob who married within that family. One must also mention that all this time, throughout his entire life Avraham Avinu A"H kept contact and used to visit Ishmael whom he dearly loved.
Anyway, back to today - it is written that upon the two brothers hearing of Avraham Avinu A"H passing away they went to bury their father together. "And Abraham expired and died in a good old age, old and satisfied, and he was gathered to his people. And Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the Cave of Machpelah..." (Ber. 25:8-9). Thus Ishmael eventually did Tshuvah (repented) recognizing Itzhka's birthright giving him forward the way during burial.
Ishmael did Tshuvah - how is this relevant for today?
Well, look at recent development of Israel's relations with the Arab world in the last decade.
Until the current world crisis, it must be said in favor of many Arab countries, they began reversing their hostility whether openly or 'under the table', some opened their skies to Israel, played Israel's anthem in sports events, several even opened new synagogues and started working on mutual tourism, or simply publicly established official relations that could not be even perceived s a wild imagination some decades ago (probably since Israel's re-constitution).
Put cynicism aside, though there is of course a measure of healthy skepticism that has to remain, what we saw was actually a formation of a wide regional alliance based on security interests, with a great potential of further development of a unified economic trade zone, with Israel at the leadership position.
No matter how much relations with Israel could benefit Arab world,
no matter how Israel could try and play this around, and again cynicism aside,
to the favor of Arabs - without their Tshuvah this simply couldn't be brought about.
We'll see what tomorrow brings.
It appears that Hagar is the one put-upon by Sarah.
And Abraham recognizes this.
From Prager's book, "Genesis:"
21.11 The matter distressed Abraham greatly, for it concerned a son of his.
This translation downplays Abraham’s internal reaction. The Hebrew does not say “distressed.” It says, “the thing was very bad in his eyes.” Sarah’s demand must have stunned Abraham. Ishmael was, after all, also his son—a son whom he loved and, furthermore, who was conceived at Sarah’s behest. But she long since regretted her scheme (Genesis 16:4-6) and now wanted both Ishmael and his mother gone. That Sarah did not even deign to refer to Ishmael or his mother by their
names must have further upset Abraham. There are many things that can produce tension between a husband and wife. The raising of children is one of the biggest—particularly when one of them is a stepchild."
Our mother Sarah A"H did no wrong to Hagar.
Avraham Avinu A"H did love Ishmael, and thus had a blind spot even seeing the issue.
G-d later confirmed Sarah Imenu A"H was right,
even on a higher prophetic level, seeing much further in G-d's plan than Avraham A"H.
It has more to do with the universalist -cosmopolitan vs particularist vision that he pondered upon regarding the way to fulfill the mission set for him, G-d eventually confirmed as well, it was a particularist vision - but that seems a topic for a whole other conversation.
How'd Hagar and Ishmael wind up nearly dying in the desert?
The Bible applies to all people, not just Jewish people, and it does not simply make heroes and heroines out of Jewish folks.
You appear to see the lessons of the Bible as through a straw.