Was Yishmael Jewish? Rabbi Daniel Glatstein

okay good evening everyone we're continuing our which are graciously sponsored by Dr Zak they should be for their whole family for tonight's sh is generously sponsored by rakov mrai as a blessing of Maas from the Yim Alana Basin ma ma tonight's sh is also sponsored by my dear friend R sisma for his Z's yard site which is tonight should be a for his whole family ad sad tonight sh is also dedicated by my neighbor Dr Mrs in honor of tomorrow's BR of their new grandson born to Ram anduk the okay so yes this is a continuation of the series and before I forget first of all if you don't yet have the light on the Splender on Kaneka it's available right here on better at better bookstores near you um make sure you pick up multiple copies for every member of your household your village your city and why stop there okay um also good news is that the safer is going to print and it's uh will be available Tuesday so we're continuing our sh bous but uh most importantly we're continuing the subject that we've been speaking about the last many weeks and in fact I've gotten so in this topic that I'm very happy to announce that the next saer besides the one that's also finished we're just editing now on on working now in that will be the topic of the saer so hopefully mhia will come by then and um will be to see the downfall of all the okay so last week we discussed a very interesting subject because even though we sort of take it for granted that the fact that the Torah puts by the burial of Abraham before is Rashi points out why does why is listed before is this proves that is did Chua so we sort of take it for granted this idea Dida he repented he clapped Al he uh he wrote out a Yar check and he did all the uh he fulfilled all the 20 ingredients of R and Dida but we asked a very interesting question because there's a gar that says that there's a Tana by the name of RAB isma how does that fit into the idea that you're not supposed to name after R so the ritah brought an answer that the parents the opinion that you could give the name is holds like the that yes did cha so we we observed what do you mean he holds like the opinion thata doesn't everybody say cha isn't it generally accepted that did CH that language of the of the that did Chua that implies that it's not unanimously maintained that y did Chua not everybody holds is Chua furthermore the fact that some say that you can name after yes because Hashem gave him the name that indicates that it's not perhaps is did not do Chua we also brought a gar sanedrin the gar sanedrin said that a son could bring Merit to a father and a father can't bring Merit to a son what's the proof Abraham cannot save is a Abraham is to which many ask why would abah need to save is is did Chu and actually then would be greater than AB because didn't do CH so what why is the saying Abraham couldn't save yes doesn't need to be saved so the T and seem to say that this indicates is did not do chuva so we have this debate did y did Chua did y not do Chua so let me throw an interesting question at you how could y have done Chua yes presumably is not Jewish is he I mean is he a yid and if he's not Jewish a non-jew can't do chuba this is one of the great principles that we've learned many many times that a gentile is not able to do chuva so how could there be an opinion that is did chuva if he's a gentile unless you say no maybe ishma is a Jew and if he's a Jew he did do Chua in other words last week we discussed could y have done Chua did he do Chua did he not do Chua but don't we have to ask a more basic question how could yes have done chuva if he's not Jewish and only a Jew could do you say really only you know that already we've discussed that many many times over the years and if you don't know it yet when you get the new sa on R there's going to be a lot of discussion on that how do we know that a genti can't do Chua this beish med God will show favoritism to you can't do chuva so how would we explain that yesma did chuva if he's not Jewish unless I'm sort of you know spilling the beans in the beginning of the shear which is a very important rule never to violate you see a sheer is all in the packaging so you want to keep the you want to keep the to the end of the shear you don't want to let the spill the beans right away unless you say that the discussion of whether yal did Chua or not is dependent on whether you is Jewish or not the opinion that he did Chua is because he is Jewish the opinion he didn't do do Chua perhaps is because he's not Jewish so he can't do Chua even if he tried so like he said but he had a bris there are a lot of people in the world that is have a bris today also that doesn't make them Jewish he had no he didn't know I was there I was invited only uh yeah ym don't don't have Priya now wasn't AB a the thir yeah on him would he marry a woman that's not good so we're going to discuss that today we're going to discuss that let's start from the beginning we go back to Kar sorry we're still in Kar um and the PK says that elzar Abra was looking for a wife for y so he sends elzar and elzar brings a lot of resources with him the says the slave brings 10 camels from the camels of his master and he went with all of the goodness of his master in his hands so the E elzar took 10 camels and all of the goodness of his master in his hands meaning he took all of y's possessions says Rashi where did elzar get all this money from where did get all this money from says rash Abraham wrote a document of a gift to for all of his possessions so that people should want to give their daughter to marry him because everybody knows that nobody cares what the guy looks like nobody cares what the guy's is nobody cares if the guy has even a half a brain nobody cares if the guy has a job nobody cares if the guy has all his limbs all of this is irrelevant the only only thing people are interested in but does he have money how many years he sat nobody cares as long as he has money right so Rashi says abrahamu Abraham ainu gave a gift to for all of his possessions why so people should want to send their daughter to him okay so the mrai has a a very powerful question on Rashi the m m is probably the most important commentary written on Rashi reel theim the raim asks what about the garus doesn't the garas say that it is prohibited to to divert yamani from one son to another son because even if one son is a sadic and one son is a Rasha but you never know who could come from the from the son who who uh not leading a proper life so there's a not only you're know to take not only you're now to write in a will you know I give all the money to Ru the sadic and I don't want and shim the Russ he's going to have only a tenth of the money you know to do that now you know how to do that during your one's lifetime one is not allowed to give so to speak excessive money to the more righteous because they think you know i' I'd rather he have and not fall into the hands of the one who's Wicked you're not supposed to do that not only you're not supposed to do that you're not even allowed to preside a Dian cannot even be present when parents try to divert U their assets to one child because this is considered highly um highly wrongful to the gar calls look at number four the smart one sharp one do not be present when there's a transfer ofha even from a bad son to a good son why because you think he's a bad son but his kid might be the and then all the might come from the bad son and the good son might not produce good Offspring so the is you can you got to keep it you know fair is fair exactly equal I only had one son SOI how was Abraham allowed to give all of his assets to but isn't that a violation of Al even though maybe wasn't a great kid and he was a murderer and he was an adulterer and he was an idolator but nevertheless he is the son of Y the son of ab and what about the that's mha you hear the Kasha it's a good Kasha how could how could AB do that you're now to divert assets from a good from a bad kid to a good kid so comes Angel one of the all-time great someone who had Mastery of n ldos calidos and he weaves it all together if if you want an enjoyable learn there's nothing more enjoyable than learning this far RF Angel RF Angel far are now being reprinted by uh my good friend fredman in they republished um they republished they republished on T they republished very beautiful s so Angel is very intrigued by this question of the M how could Abraham divert assets away from is and give it to comes and he says I don't I don't understand the question at all to me now this is in his okay so if you came down to this world just to learn even one time atile in the B sir it was a good trip it was a worthwh it was a productive visit okay says angel in his opinion it's not a good question at all why cuz the gar says why can't you divert assets from a bad son to a good son because you never know what will be from the bad son who could predict what will be from the bad son but that's if you're a person who he could say about you who could predict but what if you don't need to predict because you're Nai and you know exactly what's going to come of a kid like Abu who knew exactly what was in store from ISU knew thatas the hoodis heah these are not exactly B so knew that the only reason you can transfer Yus a bad son to a good son is maybe good will come from the bad son but that's if that's because the says um a person doesn't know says but Abraham knew so if Abraham knew he was allowed to do it but says Angel still has a good question because we're all familiar the says that one day was deathly ill and yes came to him and he said you're a dead man said why I'm such a sadic so yes said cuz you didn't want to get married he said what do you mean I don't want to get married I I'm going to have bad descendants said none of your business what you see in the future you do what you have to do your Mitzvah is to procreate God will worry about the repercussions so what do we see from here that a person is not supposed to look into the future and say well oh I see what's going to be in the future so let me do things differently no you have to do what's incumbent upon you what's incumbent upon Abraham was to follow the namely not to divert assets from a bad son to a good son oh but he happened to know that bad will come out of is but we know from the that a person's not supposed to make these calculations and say well I'm not going to get married because I know my descendants won't be righteous you're not supposed to think that way so likewise the m is asking how is AB allow to divert assets from isma to he should not be thinking about what this what the future has in store but then says ofel that's not a good comparison at all because has a Mitzvah of procreating it's an outright obligation if you have an outright obligation to procreate then you can't say well I can't do it because I know what the future has in store pal you do what your obligation is and you leave it to God to calculate the future that's that's something we say when you have an obligation a you have oated to procreate and you can't you can't um exempt yourself because you see the future but Abraham doesn't have an obligation to follow the not to take money away from is and give it to is Abraham obligated to follow this no the Torah wasn't given yet Abraham as an act of EX extra righteousness abah accepted upon himself not to violate the that's not an obligation so maybe if it's not an obligation it's just an extra righteous practice then Abraham could make it should make a well under these circumstances I'm allowed to divert money away from yes to because I give it to bad things are going to happen in other words the fact that the gamar says I shouldn't make calculations that's when to have an absolute butu did not have an absolute to follow this and then R Angel says further what's the reason you have to procreate answer is cuz God said so so if God said so you can't start calculating but the children are not going to be good but what's the reason you're not allowed to take money away from one K and give it to to another what's the reason it's a it's not a May the reason is because maybe this bad kid will have righteous descendants yeah but if I know he won't have righteous descendants then the whole reason doesn't apply so it's not that you see from the garus that a person's not to calculate the future you're not to calculate the future when you have an obligation that is incumbent upon you and it's irrespective what the future has in store but if the whole reason for the AA is because you don't know what the future has in store but if I do then it doesn't apply now saying look at a now look at the now look at the now if he's good he's bad so look at the now and deal with that now oh you now yeah he was bad right so your job is not to think about maybe this going to be good see right so right now he's bad so don't give it to him because he's bad yeah but the gamar says but still you shouldn't take it away because maybe good will happen that means you're thinking of the future no you have to be concerned the gar says you need to be concerned maybe good will come out but we know not we know not and then R Angel sort of opens this whole the whole thing up for us he says that I don't understand the M's question M's question is how was Abraham ainu allowed to take the assets away from is give it to but you're not to take money away from one kid and give it to another that's only when both of them are Jewish and one is good and one is bad you can't take away from one Jewish kid who's bad and give it to a Jewish kid who's good but yesal are they two Jewish kids says was an Israelite he was born from Abraham is Jewish is is a GU so the den that you're not to take assets from a bad kid and give it to a good kid that's if you have two but if one's a is a then maybe the doesn't apply but says Angel wasal a guy what is yesal you ever wonder about that I never even thought about that is is Jewish or is is a so I want to share with you an amazing gamar what about asov was asov Jewish or was as a guy je R RKO was Jewish was she so the G starts off saying that maybe was not Jewish because the gar says that look at number six do Gentiles inherit is that a good question question do Gentiles have yusa so says yeah I'll prove to you Gentiles havea because it says I gave harha to asov and asov was a guy he was an akum he was a murderer he was an adulterer and yet he had yusha so it'sah go have yusha says it's notah go havea was as a as wasn't a he was a Jewish heretic so you don't ever proof as wasn't a go as was a Jew the ran proves from here that this gamar proves Abraham was Jewish because if Abraham wasn't Jewish how is asov Jewish in other words when did the Jewish people start did the Jewish people start on Hari or did it start from Abraham this gar proves that the Jewish people began from Abraham cuz if if asov is a is mumar then must have been a Jew says ofel if as's a Jew then isn't is a Jew if asa's a Jew because he was born from isn't is a Jew because he was born from Abraham so says umel it would seem to me that just like as's Jewish y's Jewish but listen to this but says he says but even so I don't understand the M's question cuz when the gar says you're not to take money away from one child and give it to another you're not to take money away from a bad child and give it to a good child that's when the bad child is just bad he's a naughty boy but if he's a mumar he's then presumably you could take it away from an says my opinion if you have two children if it's just a bad kid you have to leave him with whatever he's entitled to if he's uh mumar you're ala divert the yusha one had a different mother than one had a non-jewish mother okay we're going to come to that and also was yeah he was or he just killed all the other well he was says the says he did five a and right so that seems to be yeah that you know he he seems to have been M um and angle it would seem to me listen to this that yes as a is mumar Abraham would have a right to take away yusha and then he says something else that's very interesting he says even if yesma is a is meaning he's not sure if isma has a status of of Israel but what were his wives there is no question his wives weren't Jewish and therefore all of his descendants were not Jewish and therefore Abraham had a right to take away and divert yha because even if isal was like as and is mumar nevertheless his wives were not Jewish when when when did it flip from being following the M maternal the mother has to be Jewish too or it was originally the father had to be Jewish not the mother or or when did that whatever when did matenal descent begin yeah that's a big question it's a big question the ran speaks about it at the end of Pas a kid he had a Jewish mother and a gentile father and he cursed what was his status okay so so far it seems like we're not clear we know that Asa has a din of a Jew does is have a din of a Jew would there be any difference between yes and is right now rle is not making any distinction whatsoever let's come to a tyus what did mean when he said what did he mean yes what did hasm mean when he said that to AB take your son your only son only son that means he only has one son but ABR says they're both my son but hasem says you only Hashem said the one that you love who knows better so AB said I love both Hashem said it so it depends according to Rashi Hashem is agreeing to Abraham the way we learned in the shear a few weeks ago Hashem was telling him like you're saying no he's not your son so it's not clear how to read those words okay let's examine this further definitely is Jewish feels is comparable to isav although we did make a distinction we we'll see there's more than one distinction that you can make there's a very interesting says so asks but it says are you going to say but he was a murderer most of his life says so really he did CH so all of his life was good yeah but that doesn't really answer the question doing Chua is only going to make it that you're not going to be punished but the the reality is for most of the life his life he was killing so what good does it do yes that he did Chua I understand he's a but you can't say you can't say his whole life was equally good when he was sing a good part of his life says he [Applause] did and a g that converts is like a newborn child what do you mean a g that converts is like a newborn child but yal was Jewish so what do you mean he converted must be says holds that when say that did CH he didn't do Chua he converted he converted to Judaism he was a his whole life and when he did chuva he converted you ever hear that's wild cuz until now you're we always thought last week we learned some hold he didn't do chuva some held he did do chuva this week we asked how could he do chuva if he's not Jewish but now we're learning the whole chuva was not repentance it was conversion and to says that's how his whole life was good cuz when you convert you're you're not responsible for anything that happened early in your life it's like you're born now so his whole life is good because his life began in the end so says a little bit later on in the B you know I always wondered is asov is a Jew who's a heretic is is a Jew is a heretic or is he a go so you say what would the difference be between as and listen to what say what yeah right the difference is you ready right because they both have a Jewish father so I would have said the differences yeah but being a Jew is that goes by your mother and ASV has a Jewish mother and is presumably has a gentile mother is asking what do you mean married a shik was hugar Jewish that's another question we have to ask cuz Aram kept the whole tire before it was given so if you're going to say y's Mother wasn't Jewish then Aram married a g but we're going to come to that there's an amazing Mas okay but the angle doesn't bring this distinction he says you know what the difference between as andal is asov was born from had a bris Abraham was a Jew but when was Abraham a Jew when did Abraham become a Jew he was born a Jew he became a Jew and he had a bris but yish was born 13 years earlier before is was born when AB was 86 AB didn't have a m until 99 so yal maybe is a guy cuz his father was not Jewish yeah but abrah had a Mila good for him Abraham became Jewish who says is became Jewish about Jew had maybe is became a Jew we just say that no I'm he's a g how do you become a g unless you unless you did what you got maybe he went to the mikah later in life we we only know he became a g because he let y go before him that was much later on when in order to become a g is there a process besides do you need to get a me yes then yeah but when y did the bris he didn't he wasn't M MIT when he when he mes back to you want to know did he get bris by the when when Abraham died and they were carrying the coffin y said wait wait a second he called up uh never this 1800 yeah I was going to say that but I don't want to do it on he must have done yeah according to I don't know but he did he did Tru after AB died so then doesn't matter okay we discussed that last week he had to have done Chua before abrah died because Abraham died so he must have done Chua while abrah was still alive the bottom line is the fact that to says that all of is's life was good because G as gu that implies is was not Jewish why would he not be Jewish CU he was born to Abraham at a time that Abraham did not have BR we're going to come back to that now says I'm not convinced that just because T says that the Chua of is was Gus it could be it doesn't actually mean G because we find in the where he applies that becomes like an so we see you could use like these this type of language like even if you're technically Jewish so he says I'm not convinced that just because says that it means that is was a gentile what's other Marisha considered very tall religion wise religion yeah what what religion was he Ben Ben yeah but he wasn't Jewish didn't he have a he wasad yeah but he wasn't commanded to have a breast and the says that when he ate from the he was he hit he hid his now watch this and this is another topic I want to talk about upcoming but it's not necessarily about y but this opened up my eyes because the gamar says that why is a pig called a pig why is a kazir called a kazir because it will return to its state of kasas why what do you mean it will return to its state of kasas it was never kosher to begin with now I like that GAR very much you know I had um you know people very rightous people who had valve replacement and they use from aaz what yeah right so so so Hashem made it that don't worry one day it will it will become kaser but sayel what do you mean it will it will be to its it will return it was never kosher to begin with but if we know that asov is compared to a pig and if you take the gamar at face value that asov was a Jew who became a mumar so the pig will return to the original Kos that asov was on originally that's the meaning of the G but according to that says he quotes from the ofou ROV is from the and ROV K says that if as will return to his original status of Kos that the this is like what the ran said I I last week remember what ran said last week that in the end of days CH Rak couple says if as will return to his original Kos the isim will return to their Kos like in the beginning like asov so that also indicates that isma started off like a Jew but now I want to bring to your attention of what I think is a very strong possibility that isal was never Jewish the mar asked an amazing question did abam keep the tah before it was given yeah kept everything even in's tent he took a mat hard boy old egg right he had a um what is it called Football gilter Fish you know the football fish he had it all going the whole era of tan process question so had did I marry haar as Mar so you say but she was a sh he freed her and freeing a sh she converts says that doesn't do the job because she's a mitus and a mitus you can't marry for three generations what even at that time abam kept even future thing right he ate matah because took so how could AB marry a MIT you have to say that it's not true that AB kept the tah really says he only kept the tah when he was Jewish when did he become Jewish later when he got a Mila but he married huggar before he got AA and in that case you don't have to say he freed her and in that case he could have married her as a Goya and in that case is is not Jewish asked yeah but once Abraham got a says he married her be so even after he got a mil he doesn't have to divorce her he never would have taken her after the mil but he married her before the mil and if he married her before the mil but kept the it's a ra but the poor lady married him well he's going to kick her out because of a can't do that to her also she came back too she has a different name so she's saying according to that after he kicked her out how could he take her back so did he divorce her she came she came back later in a different way yeah but again she's still a MIT have she's still a mitz though that's the issue right she's still a MIT so I would maintain that it's not P another between as and isma and that is asa's mother was Rifka so so he's jewish's mother was H yeah but if AB married hugar obviously AB converted her well not so simple because even if he converted her she's still a MIT so how did he marry her it must be says before the he didn't keep the T So then maybe he didn't convert her if he didn't convert her then is is not Jewish and somehow I think we all feel a lot better if isal is not so how did he do chuva so that's what I I let the cat out of the bag in the beginning maybe the opinions in the gamar that AB can't save yes be obviously that is didn't do Chua it's because he's not Jewish he can't do chuva and T says he did Chua yeah t says he converted now theel discusses a more of a philosophical question whether he's Jewish or not I want he says I want to know did y start off a good guy or a bad guy forget religion is he is he or is he ra you said he was called that sounds bad I'm not responsible for what I say right um param that's what the Tyra said we're going to come to that soel says there's interesting Med four people were name before they were born right and schi that's sadim but are rotten from the womb so that sounds like the Yi saying that he was a good guy he was really a nice guy but he turned sour however the P that we learned last week that he's called y before he was born CU he's destined to to oppress us that sounds like he was rot into the core okay now now let's end off with the following interesting idea my son told me that his rebi said it's from the gr I I couldn't find that this attributed to the gr but I I found others say this we know there are four categories of matter in adamant things that grow living things speaking things right a rock is a is something that grows plant a is an animal living thing anadra human being and the kar says there's even a higher level is is but the tell us in between the various categories of of matter they're like Bridges so in between inanimate and plant is something called Alim that they're somewhat inanimate and they grow I don't know what that is it may be Coral you know I don't or or something of the sort between plant and living things you have something called ad it's like an animal that's attached to the ground grows from the ground between animal and man you have a k you know what a k is a monkey and between a living thing and a mad I'm between a living thing and a mad between um I'm sorry between a we said a and what about between a m and because we know the tells us there's a a difference between and there is a tradition that the bridge between and is Isam they have like a qu status you see we always until now we said well what's they're primarily and they're the Adam type so they were being classified as so to speak perhaps less than less than Adam no there's a tradition that they're more than Adam they're between Adam and is they're the category that Rivals is more than any other category because they come from they come from which might be the source of their of their uh jealousy in other words you can only be jealous if you're close enough a peasant is not jealous of the king it's the minister that's jealous of the king he's almost there in any event there's such an idea that the per of is is the bridge between and is which might mean then that maybe he has he's privileged to certain things the same way he has Mila maybe he has chuva but these are some interest interesting categorization exactly what is the status of ismaile he's born to Abraham before Abraham's Mila was his mother Jewish it's not clear ASA we know what he is as is mumar but we don't find anywhere kazal calls is is but Asel says that was himself but's wives were all and now today what if at any time they were considered they are far from that today okay and the of learning about this subject should protect us from all the and all the and we should be that when see the coming of Amen okay