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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>From: "SBA" <A
href="mailto:sba@sba2.com">sba@sba2.com</A><BR><BR>>>"Ba'asher Hu Shom
(21:17) - Rashi: "Achshov ma hu? Tzaddik.."<BR><BR>But only a few pesukim
earlier Rashi repeatedly accuses Yishmoel of AZ, GA<BR>and shefichas damim and
that he went out 'letarbus ra' (pesukim 9,10,11,14).<BR><BR>This is a
tzaddik??<<<BR></FONT></DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent"
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT></DIV><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>>>>>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2> 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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>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.</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><BR><B>--Toby
Katz<BR>=============</B></FONT></DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">See what's new at <A title="http://www.aol.com?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001170" href="http://www.aol.com?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001170" target="_blank">AOL.com</A> and <A title="http://www.aol.com/mksplash.adp?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001169" href="http://www.aol.com/mksplash.adp?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001169" target="_blank">Make AOL Your Homepage</A>.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>