A Torah Thought for
Parashat Lech Lecha
By Shmuel Sackett
This coming week marks the 23rd yahrzeit of my Rebbe, the great Rabbi Meir Kahane z"l.
Allow me to write some words of Torah in his name and in his memory.
In his book "Ohr Ha'Ra'ayon" Rabbi Kahane explains why our mother Sarah demanded that Yishmael be driven out.
The verse says: "Drive away this slave (Hagar) together with her son (Yishmael). The son of this slave will not share the inheritance with my son Yitzchak." (Genesis 21:10)
Most commentaries state that Yishmael was a bad influence on Yitzchak and this is why Sarah did not want him around. Rabbi Kahane explains that this was only part of the reason.
The second reason – understood clearly by Sarah – was that the children of Abraham, though not from Sarah (even those born in Israel), will always consider this as their land and will harbor eternal hatred towards Yitzchak and his descendants since they "will not share the inheritance".
It is only natural that when a father has two sons and he gives one of them everything – and the other just gifts: "Abraham gave all that he owned to Yitzchak and to the sons of the concubines he gave gifts" (Genesis 25:5) – that this will cause jealousy, hatred and eventually murder.
These two sons cannot live together – not even 3,700 years ago!
Sarah saw this clearly and therefore told Abraham to drive Yishmael away.
What was Hashem's response to this seemingly cruel request of Sarah?
"Do everything that Sarah tells you" (Genesis 21:12)
May we have the wisdom to understand Sarah's foresight and the courage to act upon it in our day.
No comments:
Post a Comment