PARSHAT VAYERA 5786 – WHERE HE IS NOW · Sukkat Shalom B'nei Noach

בס "ד

This week’s Torah reading tells the story of Ishmael, the oldest son of Avraham being kicked out of the home for being a bad influence to Yitzchak. Ishmael was sick and prayed to G-s. G-d decided to hear his prayers even though in the future he would be a problem.

Vayera – “And He Showed Himself”

This week’s third reading is called Vayeira, which means “and He showed Himself.”
It talks about quite a few events that happened in the life of Abraham, our forefather, after he did the circumcision.

One of those events, of course, is the birth of It, his main son, and so on. But the truth is, he had another son already called Ishmael, the son of Hagar.

Now, when they grew up, Ishmael actually wanted to kill him. He used to play with him, you know, throwing arrows over here, over there — oh, suddenly an arrow just hit you, I’m sorry!

So when Sarah, the mother of It, saw that Ishmael was a very bad influence on her son and actually wanted to kill him, she told Abraham:

“Please, kick away this child and the mother of the child also. She’s not a good person, she’s not a good influence for our child,” and so on.

Abraham immediately did what Sarah said to do, and the story is that Sarah was so angry with Ishmael that she looked at him in such a bad way that he got sick. His mother was carrying him, being kicked out of the house, carrying this guy.

At a certain point, the water just finished. They didn’t have any more water; they were in the desert, there was no place for water and so on, and they were going to die.

So she left Ishmael under the tree, she went to another place, and just waited to see what would happen.

The Torah tells us that a few angels came to Hagar and told her, “Everything is going to be fine. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.” The angels showed Hagar a well of water so that she could give water to her son, and so on. And actually, he lived.

And till today, we’re suffering from Ishmael.

The Change in G-d’s Attitude

But the point is: what made the change, so to speak, in G-d’s attitude toward this guy?
Ishmael was a bad guy — he wanted to kill Isaac, he was a bad influence, and so on — and suddenly G-d is saying, “You have to save this guy. I’m going to give water to this guy.”

To the point that the angels complained to G-d:

“Why are you saving this guy? He’s going to prevent water from the Jewish people when they are taken into exile after the destruction of the First Temple, and so on.”

The point is that the children of Ishmael would not give water to the children of Israel being sent to exile.

So they said, “He is going to prevent water from your children — why are you giving him water?”

And G-d answered with a very interesting answer, through which we can learn a very powerful lesson on the idea of teshuva.
Teshuva means repentance. Teshuva means going back to G-d.

The Meaning of Teshuva

So the point, the idea, is like this: our sages say that Ishmael himself saw himself in a terrible situation — he was going to die — so he was praying to G-d. And within his prayer, he actually repented.

He did teshuva at that moment, in that situation, in those circumstances. He did teshuva.
What later was going to be — okay, I don’t know. But at that particular moment, he did teshuva.

And the Torah tells us that, and we learn two things from it.

The prayer of a sick person for himself is even more powerful than the prayer of others for this sick person, because actually Hagar, his mother, was praying for him — however, G-d answered his prayer.
Furthermore, the Torah says in Hebrew: “G-d heard you, Ishmael, where you are.”
What does that mean?

Of course, Ishmael was there — what do you mean? G-d heard him, he was there.

No — it means the spiritual situation in which Ishmael was found. G-d heard and accepted the repentance according to the situation in which he was found right now. Not the physical place, but the situation of his soul.

The Lesson for Us

At this particular moment, he did teshuva. He repented. Later? I don’t know what’s going to happen — actually G-d knows, but whatever. It doesn’t really matter.

Right now, he did teshuva, so G-d answered him.

And this is a very powerful teaching for each one of us:
G-d judges us according to what we are right now in the present.

What was in the past? Okay — I repented.
What is going to be in the future? I don’t know — you have free will and you can do whatever, change your future, and so on.

Judaism does not believe in determinism. You can choose your own path, your future.

And of course, for good things, G-d is going to reward you, and for bad things, G-d is going to punish you.

The point is that G-d is going to judge you at any certain moment in life — right now, in the place and in the spiritual situation in which you are found right now.

Charla del rabino Tuvia Serber

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