Judaism :: Parshat Vayeira - Lot and Yishmael

The connection between social depravity and sexual depravity is often overlooked. Lot split from his mentor Avraham and chose to live in the immediately attractive, but corrupt, city of Sodom. He had learned about hospitality from Avraham. He said very similar words of welcome to the angels that visited him as Avraham did earlier, and he personally attended to them. But, somehow, either he had lost part of the message or the values of Sodom had corroded his.

When the men of Sodom gathered round demanding to know who the visitors were and demanding to "know" them, we immediately realize from the way "know" is used earlier that it means sexually. Didn't Lot realize whom he was living amongst and, indeed, whom he married his daughters to? Before the Sodomites tried to break down his door, Lot offered his own two daughters to the mob in order to protect his guests. This is certainly taking the laudable value of hospitality too far. Social values are very important but they must not be allowed to override individual morality. That, after all, was what Marxism preached. Mow down as many individuals as you want to in order to get society right. The result is that you corrupt your children by giving them a distorted view of the world.

After Sodom is destroyed, Lot escaped with his two daughters. They seem to have believed that the rest of the world had been destroyed and they alone survived. A very strange egoistic attitude. Did they think that Sodom and Amorah were the only cities? The Torah text, itself, says that they fled towards another city, Tzoar, nearby. Did they exaggerate intentionally?

They wanted to have children to keep humanity alive, they claimed, believing that all else is lost. Did they really think that? Perhaps they thought that they were the only civilized beings and the rest were barbarians.

They got their father drunk and sleep with him. Not one night but two; not one daughter but both. They could do this because their mother was out of the way. But they, too, put a social ideal above a human, individual one, overriding the taboo of incest.

They gave birth to two nations, Amon and Moav, that both become sexually corrupt societies. Once again, we see that the way the forefathers influences the future generations, for bad as well as for good.

But here was one example of someone living with Avraham who seemingly failed to be influenced by his values yet in the end does indeed rise above the corruption he found himself living in. The contrast with Yishmael is enlightening.

The Hagar and Yishmael story is a crucial one because this is the primary example of Muslim tradition contradicting the Jewish. According to Islam, Hagar was the favored wife and Yishmael the favored son. It's worth pointing out that the earliest Torah texts we have predate Islam by almost a thousand years and you would have thought that somewhere, either in Jewish or Christian texts, there would be some hint of this revisionism. But, let's forget polemic; in the end, the lesson is the major issue.

Hagar was Sara's servant, given to Avraham by Sara to produce a child. Tension developed between wife and servant and Avraham supported his wife absolutely and unconditionally (Genesis 16:6). Hagar fled, met an angel at a well and was promised that her son would thrive. (Actually at an AYIN, a pool, rather than a BE'ER, a well, an important distinction--as important as the difference between God appearing in a dream and God appearing face to face.) She then returned to Sara and humbled herself, in order to continue living in Avraham's household. The environment in which she lived and brought up her son is crucial.

But then Yishmael made fun of Isaac and Sara demanded of Avraham that, together with Hagar, he be sent away. This time Avraham did not want to do it. But God insisted (Genesis 21:12). She and the boy were sent away, strange as it seems; you would have thought he should at least have set them up somewhere, unless he knew, they both knew, that this was all being done under Divine protection. Again the angel appeared and reassured her. This time she saw a well, and that's where they live and thrive. It all seems to end happily, because Yishmael and Isaac come together in the end to bury their father (Genesis 25:9).

Once again we see the ambivalence of Avraham as we have seen in other situations. Morality is not cut and dried, and human decisions are complex and often obscure. It is almost as though God has to clean up the mess we make. If this is true of Avraham, how much more so is it true of us. But the challenge is to engage, to try to deal as best we can with the conflicting demands and values we face all the time. The Torah should help us, but not necessarily take away from us the responsibility of making decisions, hopefully the right ones.

But there is another lesson here altogether. For all that Yishmael becomes a wild man, still deep down there is the influence of Avraham. In the end Yishmael is reconciled with his rival, Isaac, and together they bury Avraham. In Yishmael's case, unlike Lot's, Avraham's influence was more than skin deep.

About the Author:
Rabbi Jeremy Rosen received his rabbinic ordination from Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He studied philosophy at Cambridge University, and also holds a PhD in philosophy. He has worked in the rabbinate and Jewish education for more than forty years, in Europe and the US, and is currently director of the Yakar Educational Foundation in London.
http://www.jeremyrosen.com/index.html