AND SHE HASTENED AND LOWERED HER

PITCHER FROM UPON HER, AND SHE SAID, 'DRINK, AND I WILL

ALSO WATER YOUR CAMELS.' SO I DRANK, AND SHE ALSO WATERED THE CAMELS.

(Bereishit 24:46)

One should not divine the

future like an idolater, for it says, You

shall not practice divination (VaYikra 19:26). What is divination? For example,

those who say, "Since my bread fell from my mouth, or my staff fell from

my hand, I will not go to such-and-such a place today, for if I go, my wishes

will not be fulfilled"… and those who hear the bird chirp and say:

"This will happen, and that will not," "it is good to do this

thing and bad to do that thing"… and one who sets signs for himself

it does not happen, I will not do it," as did Eliezer,

Abraham's servant… all of these are prohibited, and anyone who performs a

deed because of [the outcome] of one of these [forms of divination] is caned.

(RaMBaM Hilkhot

Avodat Kokhavim 11:4)

RAVaD's

Gloss: Abraham [ben David] said: This is a great

error, for this ["one who sets signs for himself"] is certainly

allowed, and perhaps he [RaMBaM] was misled by

the formulation he saw [in Hullin 95b], "divination which is not

like that of Eliezer and Jonathan is not

divination." He thought that it was meant to define a prohibition, but

that is not true. Rather, this is what it is saying: "It is not worth

depending [on a method of divination], unless it is like that of Eliezer and Jonathan." How could he have attributed

this transgression to such righteous men?!

Kesef

Mishnah ad loc: RAVaD's

words seem strange to me. It is clear that the Gemara

was referring to a matter of prohibition. In any case, the matter must be

explained because it is impossible that those righteous people could have been

diviners.

I think that it should be

explained thusly: The divination prohibited by the Torah occurs when somebody directs

his acts in accordance with a sign that cannot logically cause benefit or loss

in connection with some matter, such as when bread falls from someone's hand,

or when a deer crosses someone's path. [Taking account of] these [signs] and of

others similar to them is an Amorite practice. However, when certain signs have

a logical connection with benefit or loss concerning some matter, the person

who abides by those signs is not a diviner. All of the dealings with world work

in this way; if someone says "If it rains, I will not set out on a

journey, and if not I will set out" this is not a case of divination but

rather the way of the world. Eliezer and Jonathan

decided on their actions in this manner; Eliezer knew

that a woman not fit for Isaac would not be matched up with him, so he took as

a sign that if she be so comely in her deeds and perfect in her character that

when he says to her give me a little water to drink she would answer him

in a generous spirit, Drink, and I will also water your camels, he would

know that Heaven had selected her for Isaac.

Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him – a Belated Reconciliation

Bosmat Hazon

A few verses at the end

of the parasha which tell of Sarah's death complete

the story of Abraham's life. The first monotheist, the man who answered the

call Go forth!, the man whose life was made of strange and complicated

episodes which gave rise to archetypes that would accompany the Jewish People

throughout the generations – Our Father Abraham. Old and satisfied,

Abraham was buried next to his wife Sarah:

And these

Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried. (Bereishit 25:7-10)

This almost

idyllic scene of Abraham's death and burial is surprising given Abraham's

relationships with the characters involved in the episodes that precede his

passing. The biblical text's narrative choice is such that the family unit

serves within it as the basic and foundational unit of the nation. Unlike the

stories of other faiths, this story is not concerned with miracles and

enlightenment, but with human relationships. It speaks of a plain and

foundational family empowered by a covenant with God; the family will only

appear in the biblical text as a "royal family" at a much later

stage.

Thus we see

that the story of Bereishit focuses upon the

relationships and covenants between persons and between persons and God. The

eyes are the most important part of the body in the stories of Bereishit. Who sees whom? Who is seen and who is not seen? When

and in what circumstances does a person raise his eyes to be shown something? The

stories of Bereishit are greatly concerned with the

possibility and impossibility of seeing and identifying the "other."

In the

chapters preceding his death, Abraham establishes a relationship with Ketura (whom Rashi – following Bereishit Rabbah – identifies as

Hagar) and produces with her sons who are given gifts and sent away before his

death. He seems to be hardly the same person whose relationships with Isaac,

Ishmael, Sarah and Hagar had been so emotionally charged. The urgency and

powerful love that characterized his relationships with them take on a new

aspect. The old ties were accompanied by flawed communication – perhaps one

could say a total lack of communication – with those around him. There is no

hint of any kind of dialogue between Abraham and Hagar or Ishmael following the

latter's expulsion. That moment in the story also contains the last example to

be found in the Bible of verbal communication between Abraham and Sarah. The

last conversation between Abraham and Isaac occurs while they ascend Mount Moriah on their way to the Akedah:

And

together. (Bereishit

22:6-8)

Following the Akedah, we hear no further conversations between Abraham

and Isaac. The only significant echo of their last conversation once again

involves the faculty of sight. Abraham's answer to Isaac's final question

inspires the name he gives to the place:

And

mountain, the Lord will be seen. (Bereishit 22:140)

The Book of Bereishit offers other examples of relationships and

communication. For instance – although the familial relationship between Isaac

and Rebecca is described as including disappointments and actions taken – both

open and covert – by family members against each other, verbal communication is

always reopened between them, they manage to talk again. They even bless each

other. Rebecca and Jacob join forces to trick Isaac into blessing Jacob, but

after the details of the rouse become known to him, Isaac speaks with Rebecca

and blesses Jacob, this time directly and intentionally. Many years later,

Jacob and Esau also converse again – they even fall upon each others' necks. The

situation is different in Abraham's case. The discussions are so pointed and

the situations so dramatic that they leave no way out. In his book Open,

Closed, Open (Chana

Bloch, translator, pp. 21-22), Yehudah Amichai writes:

Three sons

had Abraham, not just two.

Three sons

had Abraham: Yishma-El, Yitzhak and Yivkeh.

First came Yishma-El, "God will

hear,"

Next came Yitzhak, "he will laugh,"

And the last

was Yivkeh, "he will cry."

No one has

ever heard of Yivkeh, for he was the youngest,

The son that

Father loved best,

The son who was offered up on Mount Moriah.

Yishma-El was saved by his mother, Hagar,

Yitzhak was

saved by the angel,

But Yivkeh no one saved.

When he was

just a little boy, his father

Would call him tenderly, Yivkeh.

Yivkeleh, my sweet little Yivkie

–

But he

sacrificed him all the same.

The Torah

says the ram, but it was Yivkeh.

Yishma-El never heard from God again,

Yitzhak never

laughed again,

Sarah laughed

only once, then laughed no more.

Three sons

had Abraham,

Yishma, "will hear," Yitzhak, "will laugh,"

Yivkeh, "will cry."

Yishma-El,

Yitzhak-El, Yivkeh-El.

God will

hear, God will laugh, God will cry.

Amichai's poem

points to the drama that was characteristic of Abraham's familial

relationships. Amichai

writes about totality; when God is an active party and constant interlocutor,

it is almost impossible to imagine life not being dramatic and totalistic. However,

despite his partnership with God, Abraham remains a human being and the members

of his family remain human. They are in their own way great and unique people,

but they are also people who need not only Abraham the "Father of the

Nation," but also Abraham the personal father and personal husband. The

mixing of the private with the public, of the small and personal with the

powerful and foundational makes simple human communication – of the kind found

in Rebecca

and Isaac's family – impossible. Silence

stands in the background to Sarah's death, and many midrashim

treat the lack of discussion between Sarah and Abraham before he set off to the

Akedah, and how Sarah's death is described

immediately afterwards. It is interesting to note that, taking up the midrashic (Bereishit Rabbah 60:14)

identification of Ketura with Hagar, Rashi (Bereishit

24:62) gives Isaac credit for Hagar's return to Abraham after Sarah's

death. The midrash that lends semantic content to the

place name le'be'er lehai

ro'i views Isaac's initiative as a kind of tikkun [repair] for the expulsion, a tikkun allowing for the reconciliation between

Isaac, Ishmael, and Abraham.

Isaac and Ishmael each arrive to bury their father next to Sarah in the

Me'arat Ha'Makhpeila.

Scripture does not tell us how Ishmael came to hear of Abraham's death; it pays

no attention to the important and fascinating moment of the brothers' reunion

after so many years. For a moment it seems as if the idyllic situation is

restored – Abraham is by Sarah's side, Isaac and Ishmael are together again. But

Abraham is dead. Of course, he died satisfied and reached a ripe old age;

but only after his death could genuine tranquility be possible. In his life,

God was Abraham's active partner. The important, unique, and foundational

covenant and the discourse between Abraham and God extracted a steep price from

the individuals in his life. God's voice is stronger than that of his family's

members; at the end of the day, it silences them. At the end, however, Isaac

and Ishmael arrive together to bury their father. Ishmael and Isaac act

together, they come to give their father their last respects – despite the

difficulties they faced before him in his life. As with many moments in Abraham's

life, I think that this moment, the moment of his burial, is no less

foundational. The possibility to forgive and separate.

The possibility of an encounter between Isaac and Ishmael

after all those years. Perhaps it is worth learning not to wait until it

is too late…

Bosmat Hazon is a theater

director. Her first book, Mayim Hfuhim [Reversed Waters] was published by Hakkibutz HaMe'uhad last summer.

Isaac had just come back from the vicinity of Beer-lahai-roi – For he had gone to bring Hagar to Abraham

his father, so that he should wed her.

(Rashi,

Bereishit 24:62, as per Bereishit

Rabba)

From the vicinity of Beer-lahai-roi…

his mother's death… Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah

In the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda (Bereishit Rabba 61:4), Keturah was

Hagar, the very same woman that Sarah, in her time, had brought to Abraham. How

pure and humane was this attitude in the eyes of our Sages, even though the

denouement was unfortunate and saddening. Isaac, they said, went to the well in

the desert, and brought Hagar from there to Abraham; he himself brought his

"stepmother". And he had so loved his mother! And he went there, even

though he had not yet been comforted over the loss of his mother! Be these words understood as historical fact or as an

instructive derasha, in either case we

learn about the weltanschauung which characterized our sages. In

contrast to them, how much has our generation declined; tension – if not

outright hatred – exists between adult progeny and their fathers as a result of

second marriage!

(Rabbi Shimshon Rafael

Hirsch, Bereishit 25:1)

…The midrash says

that after the demise of his mother Sarah, Isaac went to return his stepmother

to his father. He went to Beer-lahai-roi to

bring Hagar, who had been banished by his mother, to return her to his father

and to correct the injustice. Aggadic narrative is replete

with praise of Hagar, who is identified with Keturah:

"Why is she called Keturah? Because

her actions were pleasing, as incense (ketoret)".

This flowery explication testifies to the degree which our great thinkers

reflected upon the actions of our fathers, noting every blemish and fault they

had, and considered their repair. The generations have much to learn from this.

It is wrong to idealize all that occurred; we should see things as they were,

trying to understand them, judging them and pondering their rectification.

(Y. Leibowitz:

He'arot le'Parshiyot

ha'Shavua, p. 23)

Human Beings are Equal and

Judged by their Deeds

Also the sons of Adam, also the sons of Man: What does also

the sons of Adam mean? These are the sons of Abraham, of whom

it is written "the greatest person [adam] among the giants (Joshua 14:15), also – to include the sons

of Ishmael and Keturah. Sons of man – these

are the sons of Noah, of whom it is written: a righteous man (Bereishit 6: 9).

(Midrash

Tehillim, 49)

And he will be like a planted tree – The Holy One Blessed be He took him and

planted him in the Garden of Eden.

Another interpretation: That the Holy One Blessed be

He planted him in the Land

of Israel.

That gives its fruits in season – that is Ishmael.

And whose leaves shall not wilt– that is Isaac.

And everything he does succeeds – that is the sons of Keturah.

(Midrash Tehillim, 1)

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