We see a very sad thing
in this week’s Parsha, Vayeira.
A boy, Ishmael, is placed under a shrub,
perhaps to die, because his mother and he
had run out of water
as they wandered the desert. His mother,
Hagar, cannot stand to see him suffer
any longer,
but then an amazing thing happens.
An angel speaks out to her, says,
“Come! Lift up the boy
and hold him by the hand
for I will make a great nation of him”.
Sure enough, there was nothing to be afraid of.
God opens her eyes
and she sees a wellspring of water.
Perhaps it had been there all along.
What’s interesting about this act of redemption
is that the angel feels the need to ask
the crying Hagar what’s troubling her?
If the angel had half a brain,
he would have known she was afraid
for Ishmael’s life.
Perhaps the angel is suggesting
Hagar is overlooking something.
For one, yes, there’s that spring of water,
but even if the spring hadn’t been there
all along, Hagar has something working for her:
A promise! Last week in Lech Lecha, an angel,
maybe the very same angel, promised Hagar
that she would have children.
Countless children. Clearly then, this is not
the end of Hagar's story nor Ishmael’s.
It’s the beginning of the story
of how he goes on to become the father
of a great nation. Why did Hagar get
such an excellent deal? Hagar had been
running away from her mistress Sarah.
You know Sarah, the mother of all Israel.
Apparently, Sarah, who hadn’t yet had a child
of her own, didn’t like the fact that Hagar,
her servant, was carrying her husband,
Abraham’s, baby even though she’d
suggested this arrangement in the first place.
She made Hagar’s life miserable. Finally,
Hagar fled Sarah’s harassment,
and then this angel came along and said,
“Hagar, slave of Sarah,
where have you come from
and where are you going?” and she said,
“I am running away from my mistress Sarah.”
And the angel said to her,
“Go back to your mistress
and submit to her harsh treatment.”
In doing so, Hagar experienced three things,
more servitude, more affliction,
and more "strangerness." Hagar is a servant.
She’s afflicted by Sarah. And not only is she,
herself, an Egyptian, a stranger in these parts,
her name, Hagar, literally means in Hebrew
“the stranger”. What she didn’t know
is that these three things are ingredients
in the Torah’s recipe for nationhood. Earlier,
God promised Abraham that he would have
a child who would become a great nation.
God brought Abraham into
this trippy dream-state. He said,
“I know you’re an old man
and you have no children, but you will.
That’s the good news. The bad news is
that these children will go on
to experience exile, strangerness in a land
not theirs. They’ll be afflicted in slavery.”
And lo and behold, Abraham’s children
through Sarah become a great nation.
So just as Israel went from becoming a family
to becoming a great nation in Egyptian slavery,
Hagar and her children
are also bound for greatness.
Under the blazing desert sun,
Hagar is too panicky to see this, but we can.
You want to do everything you can to protect
your children from suffering, but this is, in fact,
part of the growing up process, both for nations
and for each of us. Could you have become
the independent, compassionate, thoughtful
person you are without the challenges
you have weathered, without the journeys
you’ve survived?
Producer: Sarah Lefton
Animation Director: Nick Fox-Gieg
Animation: Brenda Goldstein
Editorial Director: Matthue Roth
Theme Music: Tim Cosgrove
Written and Narrated by M. Evan Wolkenstein
Sound Recording: Sarah Lefton