Expelling Yishmael - Rabbi Dr. David Gottlieb

Take a look on page 97. Talking about attitude towards women. Sarah and Abraham don't have children for a long time. Sarah tells Abraham to take Hagar to wife and they have a son, Ishmael. 13 years later, Sarah has a son, Isaac. Isaac starts to grow up. As Isaac starts to grow up, Ishmael deteriorates and reaches a stage of degradation. Top of the page. Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had born to Abraham, mocking. The word in Hebrew is hard, metzachek. It means uh crude uh vicious behavior. She said to Abraham, "Drive out this slave woman with her son, for the son of that slave woman will not inherit with my son, with Isaac." The matter greatly distressed Abraham regarding his son. Greatly distressed. That that's sort of Londonese. Uh in in in lit- literally Hebrew is he was outraged. He was outraged. Why is he outraged? There are at least two reasons. One is there's a law. That a man has two wives, one more favored than the second, and the firstborn son belongs to the second less favored wife, that son must get the initial inheritance, superior inheritance, even though later the favored wife may have a son, and he wants to do a favor for that favored wife, and he likes that son better, you cannot disinherit the firstborn son. Ishmael is the firstborn son. She wants everything to go to Isaac. She wants to disinherit Ishmael. Abraham says, "That's not God's way." That's not the way he does things. Number one. Number two, um Abraham was promised that he would die fully content. Fully content. So, if Ishmael has deteriorated and degraded, he knows he's coming back. HE'S GOT TO COME BACK. If he has a son who lives a degraded life, he will not be content. And God has promised him that he will die content. So, he knows that this deterioration in Ishmael is temporary. It's temporary. It's going to be reversed. So, the idea of expelling Ishmael from the house is very evil in Abraham's eyes. Now, I want you to look carefully at 10 and 11. That's all we've read. Just 10 and 11. And tell me, what is the key disagreement between Abraham and Sarah? It's right there in the words. You don't need any psychology and sociology and anthropology and economics and military science and all the rest of the lovely disciplines you were taught in college. You need to read carefully, which you weren't taught in college. What is the difference between Abraham and Sarah? What are they disagreeing about? It's not Sarah's son. Uh say again? It's not Sarah's son. Well, okay. So, say put put it in the text. What are you pointing out? I'm I'm pointing out where where it says regarding his son. Is it She says drive out the slave woman and her son, and he says about his son. That's it. You said her son, and he said okay. Who is Ishmael for Sarah? How does she identify him? She says the son of the slave woman twice. It says Abraham was was enraged because of his son. That's the key difference. She says you're making a mistake. Not a biological mistake. We're not talking about infidelity now. But you think he's your son, you're making a mistake. He's a slave woman's son. And Abraham says, "No, he's my son." Now, let's see who's right. Let's see who's right. God said to Abraham, "Be not distressed over the youth or your slave woman. What Sarah tells you to tells you, heed her voice. Since through Isaac will offspring be considered yours, but the son of the slave woman as well, I will make it to a nation, for he's your offspring." Where in God's speech do you get a confirmation of who's right? Cuz he says, "But the son of the slave woman Yes, that's it. 13. God says, "The son of the slave woman as well." He quotes Sarah's words. He's saying to Abraham, "You're making a mistake. You're making a mistake, and Sarah got it right, and you got it wrong. And that's why you have to do what she says." And that's only part of it. Maybe I'll finish the rest of it tomorrow. At any rate, now notice what he says, uh God at 13, "The son of the slave woman as well, but I'll make it to a nation because he's your offspring." So, the verse here makes a distinction between son and offspring. We wouldn't make that distinction. Male offspring is son. But in Hebrew, the word for son, ben, is a root which means to build. Bana means to build. So, offspring is zera. Zera means seed. That's a purely biological statement. A son, a ben, is someone who is what you build in the world, what you leave behind in the world. It's your contribution to the development of the world. Ishmael is your offspring. He's your offspring, he deserves special consideration. He'll become the father of a great nation, quite right. But he's not your ben. The only ben you have is is Isaac. And Sarah was right about that, and you're wrong about that. Now, one last remark. Uh back to 12. God says to Abraham, "Whatever Sarah tells you, heed her voice." In the Hebrew, it's obey. Say it again. The text Ever use the word heed in your whole life? Did you ever hear anybody use the word heed in your whole life? So, how do you know what it means? You don't know what it means. The In the Hebrew, it means to obey. Now, imagine the following scenario, which does happen from time to time. Husband and wife disagree. And they argue it out, and they can't come to an agreement. So, they go to an authority whom they both respect. That's how it's done in our little subculture. They go to an authority they both respect, and they put their views. Suppose the authority says to the husband, "Do what your wife says." The hus- The authority says to the husband, "Do what your wife says." And he does it. Whom is the husband obeying? Sarah. In my scenario. The authority. The authority. They went to the authority. The husband said his peace. The wife said her peace. They don't agree. Authority says to the husband, "Do what she says." The husband's obeying the authority. What is God telling him here? God tells Abraham, "Obey her voice. Obey her voice." Not obey me and do what she said, obey her. From here, the rabbis deduce that she must have been superior to Abraham in prophecy. Otherwise, God would not have told her to obey her voice. Told him to obey her voice. This is another characteristic little incident, a little vignette, which gives you an indication of how the text looks at husband and wife, men and women. Yeah. Doesn't that fit into the idea that women are naturally more spiritual and closer? Okay, that that's a that's a tricky that's a tricky issue. A lot of loose and and and vague talk has been said about that. That needs That needs careful study. I I would not base anything on on remarks of that type. But but here, the text is absolutely clear. It's telling him, "Obey your your your wife's voice." That means she's being credited as being superior. And what the commentary says, that's not me. Yeah. Did Sarah get punished for doing this or something like that? I don't know. No, as far as I know. She got punished for for chasing away Hagar when when she was pregnant. That's 15, 16 years before. Okay, we'll pick it up tomorrow in the session.