Ishmael be-tselem Elokim (in the image of G-d)
♦“At the end of days, Israel is destined to experience the Ishmaelite exile. This fifth and last exile will be the most difficult of all. It is the exile of Ishmael, who is called pere adam (פרא אדם), a wild man.” (Eitz Hadass Tov, Chaim Vital, commentary on Psalm 124)
♦ Ishmael is considered to be the forefather of the Muslim religion according to Jewish sources. Therefore, understanding the spirit of Ishmael, allows us to understand the struggle that exists in our world today between the values of Judaism and those of Islam, along with its ramifications onto the international stage.
The first struggle lies in one of legitimacy. Ishmael was Avraham’s first born son, while Yitzchak (Isaac) was second. Ishmael gave birth to a nation, while Yitzchak established a separate people through his son, Yaakov (Jacob) and the 12 tribes of Israel.
Judaism claims that Avraham offered his son Yitzchak as a sacrifice to G-d, while Islam claims the sacrifice was Ishmael’s. The competition is fierce, and is carried even in their name. “El” is one of the names of G-d in Hebrew. Yaakov became Isra-el (G-d contends), and Ishma-el means: “G-d will hear.”
The confrontation was serious, even at the time of their youth. Yitzchak’s mother saw it fit to oust Ishmael from Avraham’s house, as she perceived him to be a danger to her son. Midrash Tanchuma (Shemot 27:1) interprets that the threat was one of life and death:
Ishmael hated Isaac, as is said: And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne unto Abraham, making sport (Genesis 21:9). Making sport implies, in this instance, that he wanted to kill him, as it is said: Let the young men, I pray thee, arise and make sport before us (II Samuel 2:14)
Judaism is crystal clear in its determination that Ishmael was unfit to carry out Avraham’s legacy as a representative of G-d on earth as he possessed some despicable characteristics. For one, the understanding of Ishmael begins with the particular blessing his mother received from an angel of G-d before his birth:
And the angel of the Lord said to her, "Behold, you will conceive and bear a son, and you shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard your affliction. And he will be a wild man; his hand will be upon all, and everyone's hand upon him, and before all his brothers he will dwell." (Bereishit 16:11-12).
Why would a blessing include a description of a child as a wild man – pere adam?
Rabbi Yechiel Weitzman provides a thorough analysis of Ishmael in “The Ishmaelite Exile” quoting from various sources. Citing Onkelos’ translation of the Five Books of Moses, “wild man” can be understood as “one who kills people.” Furthermore, he cites Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Diskin in an analysis of the grammatical irregularity of having the adjective precede the noun “pere/wild” and “adam/man” and not the reverse, as is normative in Hebrew, to warn us about a spiritual truth: “wild” is not a descriptive attribute, but represents the essence of the man.
And yet Ishmael, like his father Avraham, is given the honorable title of “adam,” a term used sparingly in our commentaries. Rashi’s commentary refers to Avraham as “the greatest man” (Rashi commentary, Yehoshua 14:15). The answer for Avraham is that his recognition of G-d’s existence allowed him to fulfill the essential purpose of mankind, and therefore, to truly be called “man.” The answer for Ishmael is complex as in addition to his flaws, he has tremendous merits – circumcision and prayer being amongst them.
Here is Rabbi Weitzman’s startling conclusion and one that gives us great insight into Ishmael’s might.
Ishmael has an inherent thirst for murder, that is supported by an attachment to divine doctrine, so that his contemptible acts come to be masqueraded as the highest form of devotion and selfless sacrifice.
Daily, the media presents us with innumerable examples of this truth. Here is one instance:
On the 90th anniversary of the 1929 Hebron massacre, when 67 Jewish men, women and children were murdered with horrific brutality, a commemorative interview was broadcast by the Al Aqsa TV (Hamas-Gaza) news program. On May 31, 2011, the journalist spoke with Sara Muhammad ‘Awwadh Jaber, a 92 year old woman, who had lived through it. She proudly recalled the massacre:
Why wouldn’t I remember? May Allah support us.... Allah willing, you will bury [Israel], and massacre the Jews with your own hands. Allah willing, you will massacre them like we massacred them in Hebron… We, the people of Hebron, massacred the Jews. My father massacred them, and brought back some stuff…
[https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/08/90th-anniversary-of-arab-massacre-of-jews-in-hebron-and-safed/]
Conventional assumptions would attribute wisdom and compassion to a 92 year old woman; yet here she complacently mixes the terms “Allah” (G-d) and “massacre” in a seamless dance no less than 8 times in 5 sentences.
Another instance of murder justified as pious righteousness under Islam is recounted by Yaron Avraham, a Muslim convert to Judaism. As a 9 year old child, he witnessed the beheading of two 13 year old boys in a mosque:
“My brothers put me there in the mosque and left me there… What is this hell? Ruthless people...As much as I cried, acted out, begged… Imagine being a nine year old boy abandoned in a mosque… you can’t get out of there… they woke us in the mosque and told us while we are sleeping… who are the Jews? A kind of bloodthirsty vampires...such levels of hatred… two children who were suspected of having sex were beheaded in front of our eyes. They were 13 years old.”
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07y4TsAA5xU]
The synagogue, in Judaism, is a House of Prayer, and meant to be a replicate of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, which was the House of G-d.
The Mosque is Gaza, mentioned above, was considered a suitable arena for demonizing human beings (Jews) and carrying out executions of adolescents in the presence of young children. These murderous intentions and acts are being proclaimed by Ishmael's descendants as righteous and are perpetratred in a structure meant to house holiness and teach about the divine.
Such is the act of the pere adam who destroys G-d’s precious creations while proclaiming to be His messenger, violating natural laws of ethics, love and compassion.
Yet every human being can choose the divine, life and creation. And there is at least one interpretation that Ishmael repented: “[we may deduce] that Ishmael repented” (Rashi on Bereishit 25:9).
Rabbi Weitzman referred to the concept of tselem elokim as quoted in Genesis: “G-d created man (adam) in his image; in the image of G-d, he created him (be-tsalmo be-tselem Elokim)” . In the Rabbi’s words: “since the soul is a function of the Divine, whatever qualities are present in the Source on a grand scale are found in miniature in man… the human soul is eternal… the Creator has free will… so, too, does man… G-d is a creative force, and so is man”(p.33).
Throughout the historical struggle between Ishmael and Yaakov, there has been a minority of Muslims who “betrayed” their brethren’s false and cruel depiction of “Allah,” the Merciful One. We witnessed on October 7th several such righteous men who acted with true self-sacrifice to save innocent victims. Their act is a redeeming factor for humanity, and G-d willing will tip the scales away from the decree of destruction that shackles us.
The Rambam, in his Hilchot Teshuva (Guidelines for Repentance), states:
It is, therefore, necessary for every man to behold himself throughout the whole year in a light of being evenly balanced between innocence and guilt, and look upon the entire world as if evenly balanced between innocence and guilt; thus, if he commit one sin, he will overbalance himself and the whole world to the side of guilt, and be a cause of its destruction; but if he perform one duty, behold, he will overbalance himself and the whole world to the side of virtue, and bring about his own and their salvation and escape…" (Hilchot Teshuva 3:4)
Our Sages predicted the harshness of the Ishmaelite exile. Yet they also prophesied and expounded upon Ishmael’s ability to repent, and the inherent notion of free will for human beings.
Would that we live to see this. May Ishmael rise to the call of “man,” abandon the urge for destruction upon the world, and lead the redemption of peace.