[Avodah] A few notes on Parshas Vayeiro

[T613K at aol.com]

From: "SBA" _sba at sba2.com_ (mailto:sba at sba2.com) 

>>"Ba'asher Hu Shom  (21:17) - Rashi: "Achshov ma hu? Tzaddik.."

But only a few pesukim  earlier Rashi repeatedly accuses Yishmoel of AZ, GA
and shefichas damim and  that he went out 'letarbus ra' (pesukim 9,10,11,14).

This is a  tzaddik??<<





>>>>>
First of all, the word "tzaddik" is sometimes used to mean "a person who  has 
more good deeds than bad"  -- like when we are judged on Rosh Hashana  -- 
rather than the way we are used to thinking of it, as an exceptionally good  
person with no aveiros.  Here it means "an innocent person" -- innocent in  the 
sense that he has not yet done anything that he would be chayav misah  for.
 
Second of all, all his sins of "AZ, GA and shefichas damim and that he  went 
out 'letarbus ra' " were subtle -- he hadn't yet done anything obvious and  
overt.  Sarah was able to spot where he was heading (and where he would  lead 
Yitzchak, if he hung around long enough) but Avraham couldn't see it (until  
Hashem Himself told Avraham that Sarah's insights were correct).  So  obviously 
whatever Yishmael was doing wasn't yet glaringly obvious.  He was  only a 
teenager, 17 years old  -- a kid.
 
 BTW I sometimes think of a "compare and contrast" essay between the  two 
17-year-olds in the Chumash -- Yishmael and Yosef.  Both were immature  and yet 
in both cases, where they were eventually going to end up was already  obvious 
at that young age.
 
While on this subject I will also mention something else about this  story.  
Yishmael was a young man of 17 yet in his mother's eyes he was a  "yeled" 
because he was ill and she thought he was dying.  When my son was  17 he was quite 
ill at one point, had to have two operations and spend nearly a  month in the 
hospital.  B'H he is well now, almost 19, and learning Torah  in 
Yerushalayim, "where my heart yearns to be."  But when he was in the  hospital and I spent 
night after night in the hospital with him, he really did  seem, despite his 
height of six feet, to be a sick little boy -- a yeled.   I really felt for 
Hagar, I have to say.
 
Another question I have about this parsha -- "ba'asher hu sham" -- is,  how 
does this square with the Jewish children who were killed in Mitzrayim,  baked 
into the bricks  -- because if they were allowed to live, they would  end up 
being reshaim and doing horrible things?   A possible answer is that  this way, 
 they would die innocent and never have the opportunity to sin  and acquire 
gehenom, so it was for their benefit, but then why wouldn't Hashem  "benefit" 
Yishmael the same way and let him die innocent?  Oh wait maybe  there is a 
reason -- because ultimately Yishmael did do teshuva.




--Toby  Katz
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