"And Abraham expired and died at a good old age, wise and satisfied... and Yitzhak and Yishmael his sons buried him in the Cave of the Couples (Machpela)...." (Genesis 25:8,9)

"From this we learn that Yishmael repented." (Rashi, ad loc).

Throughout the three Biblical portions dealing with Abraham's life - Lekh Lekha, Vayera and Chayei Sarah - we
Crucial light on the Yitzhak-Yishmael relationships in the Middle East today.
read of the tensions between Abraham and Sarah concerning the treatment of Hagar and Yishmael, Abraham's 'mistress' and the son that was born to Abraham and Hagar. Given that the Ramban established that one of the central principles driving Genesis is that "the stories of the ancestors presage and foreshadow the history of their descendants," the interplay between these personalities are not only fascinating familial accounts of proper and improper moral conduct, but also shed crucial light on the Yitzhak-Yishmael relationships in the Middle East today.

Abraham and Sarah have a good but childless marriage, which leads Sarah to suggest that her husband consort with her Egyptian handmaiden Hagar, so that he may thereby gain an heir. But as soon as Hagar becomes pregnant, the familial tensions begin. Hagar "makes light" of Sarah, Sarah blames Abraham (apparently for not properly chastising Hagar) and "afflicts" Hagar, which causes the maidservant to flee into the desert (Genesis 16:1-16). An angel of G-d exhorts Hagar to return to the house of Abraham and Sarah, to allow herself to be afflicted; he also promises her a son, Yishmael, who will have innumerable progeny, but who will be a "wild ass of a man, whose hand will be over everything and everyone, everyone will be over him, and he will dwell in the face of all of his brothers." (ibid 12)

The classical commentaries are critical of Sarah's actions: "Our matriarch sinned with this affliction [of Hagar] and also Abraham [sinned] in his allowing her to do it," says the Ramban, adding that - in measure for measure fashion - the descendants of Yishmael will afflict the descendants of Abraham and Sarah. Rabbenu David Kimhi (the Radak) warns us to learn what not to do and how not to act from our ancestors' affliction of Hagar.

However, Rabbi Elahanan Samet recently pointed out that Sarah and Abraham can hardly be faulted. If we study the Code of Hammurabi, accepted legal practice at the time and place of our forefathers, then we learn it stipulated that if a hand-maiden brought into a childless marriage to provide an heir then conceives and acts haughtily towards her mistress, the mistress may demote her to her prior status as hand-maiden (Hammurabi Code 144, 146, 147). Apparently, Sarah was therefore justified in restoring Hagar to her handmaiden status (the "affliction" of the Bible), which also explains why the angel instructs Hagar to submit to Sarah's "affliction."

But then, after the birth of Yitzhak, and after the two boys grow up together, "Sarah sees the son of the Egyptian Hagar mocking (so translates Targum Onkelos); and she said to Abraham, 'Banish this hand-maiden and her son, because the son of this hand-maiden will not inherit together with my son, with Yitzhak.' And the matter was very evil in the eyes of Abraham concerning his son." (Genesis 21:9-11)

Abraham loves Yishmael. When G-d first promised him a son with Sarah, and yet Sarah remained barren, Abraham cries out to G-d, "Would that Yishmael live before you." (Genesis 17:18) In such a situation, when the family constellation is such that there is a child from the maidservant and a child from the original wife, the Code of Hammurabi prescribes that both share the patrimony. However, the handmaiden's son is deemed an inappropriate heir, he is to banished from the household, and the other son receives the full inheritance (Hammurabi 170).

On this basis, I would suggest that Sarah is completely justified in her actions. She argues for banishing Yishmael not because she is against Yishmael's sharing of the inheritance with Yitzhak; she is responding to the reality of a mocking Yishmael, who has already been described by G-d's angel as "a wild ass of a man whose hand is over everything," who insists on owning it all, who would be incapable of sharing anything with Yitzhak. Yishmael must be banished and disinherited because he cannot - constitutionally - inherit together with someone else And G-d Himself endorses Sarah's assessment, telling Abraham not to feel grieved about Yishmael and Hagar, but rather to heed his wife Sarah's request (Genesis 21:12).
Sarah and Abraham can hardly be faulted.

Nevertheless, the Midrash (Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 30, Yalkut Shimoni 95) poignantly describes Abraham's conscience gnawing at him for having banished Yishmael. Abraham can never stop thinking about his first-born son, "wishing to know about the path his son has taken." After three years he sets out to visit him, swearing to Sarah that it'll be a perfunctory visit, that he won't even descend from his camel. Only Yishmael's wife is at home, and she refuses to give water or bread to Abraham. Departing, the patriarch asks her to report to Yishmael of the father's visit, and to change the entrance at the front of the tent. Three years later Abraham returned to Yishmael and was pleased to find that Yishmael had understood his father's message and changed wives; this wife, named Fatima (also the name of Mohammed's daughter), offered Abraham bread and water. Abraham thereupon prayed for his son, whose home became filled with blessings. When Yishmael returned and was told what had transpired while he was away, he understood "that Abraham's love and compassion extended to him with all the love and compassion that a father has for children."

I would suggest that one of the implicit purposes of this Midrash is to teach us why and how Yishmael repented at the end of Abraham's life. A father must never give up on his child, even a mocking, heretical and grasping son. Yishmael the penitent returns to his father's house (at least in time for the burial), and our Biblical portion concludes with the twelve sons of Yishmael, 12 princes of their nations, paralleling the 12 tribes of Israel, "whose portion falls out in the presence of all of his brothers." (25:18) And the Midrash likewise identifies Keturah, the woman Abraham marries after Sarah's death, as being none other than Hagar, and the shadchan was none other than Yitzhak (Genesis 25:11 and 24:62; Rashi, there). The circle - for the ancient family of Abraham - is complete.

I believe that once Yishmael again repents - and is ready to share, truly share, this land with us - we will indeed be able to dwell together in the Middle East, to fill our homes with blessings, and the historical circle will truly be complete.