Mitzvah d'var

In our Torah portion Lech Lecha, we learn about the covenant God made with Abram, the change of Abram and Sarai's name, and the birth of Ishmael. At the beginning of the portion, God makes a covenant with Abram. In this covenant, God states that if Abram follows his plans, he will be the father of a great nation with as many offspring as the stars. This is shown when God changes the names of both Abram meaning  “Father Is Exalted” and Sarai meaning “Contentious,” to Abraham, which means “Father of a Multitude” and Sarah meaning  “Princess”. Both of these changes represent the relationship between God, Abraham, and Sarah. 

We also have the birth of Ishmael who is the son of Abraham and Hagar. You see Hagar and Sarah had beef with each other, because Sarah couldn't have a child with Abraham, and told Hagar to have a child instead. This made Sarah feel lesser than Hagar in Abraham's eyes and Sarah banished Hagar  into the desert. So God sends an angel to help Hagar. The angel prophesied that Hagar will give birth to the leader of a strong and plentiful nation, much like God's promise to Abraham. Later Hagar gives birth to Ishmael after going back to Sarah and submitting to the harsh treatment. Many years later Ishmael will become the patriarch of the Muslim people.

I was especially intrigued about the covenant that God made with Abraham when he said; “To your offspring, I assign this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.”  Over a thousand years later, God will divide the land between all 12 tribes of the Israelites. But There were ten indigenous tribes already in the land of Canaan before the 12 Israelite tribes arrived after being freed from slavery by Moses. It is disputed to this day, how the 12 tribes took over the land, either by war as proposed in the Torah or by assimilation of the existing tribes. I lean towards the idea that the 12 tribes joined with the indigenous people rather than fight them. I say this because archeologists haven't found any evidence that a war happened at that time. 

The division of the land of Israel is described in several places in the Torah: the book of Numbers and Deuteronomy both contain descriptions of how the land is to be divided and what the boundaries were: The tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of Menasheh would settle on land east of the Jordan, and the Torah also details the borders of the land west of the Jordan where the remaining tribes would live.

I wonder, did God divide the land equally? Why only half of Menaasheh? Did the most important tribes get the lushest parts? How did he divide such a massive area between so many important groups? Well to answer some of this, In God's eyes all land was sacred land, so, no matter what it would be equal.

As I read the Torah I noticed many sections where God chooses to be fair, and create an equal society. A consistent theme of the Torah is that everyone should be treated equally. For instance, in my portion, he makes sure that it’s equal between Hagar and Sarah and gives Sarah a child after not being able to conceive one. 

God also wants the Israelites to follow the plans set out in the Torah so that the Israelites stay in a society of compassionate, fair, and equal people. Instead of creating an unfair system, he wants the people to create a society that gives everyone an equal chance. 

Now we seem to have this nice story, that does not deviate from God’s plan to create great nations. But that’s not how it worked out. There is no la-ti-da story where there are no problems whatsoever. As stated Abraham had at least two sons that we know about, one child with Sarah named Isaac and another child with Hagar being Ishmael. Ishmael's children in the future would become Muslims, while Jews consider themselves the children of Isaac. Both Ishmael and Isaac create great nations, but their children war against each other for many years.

Is this tension between the two nations because Ishmael wants to avenge Hagar and make Sarah's nation pay for what she did? Is God letting the two nations fight, and if so doesn't that create more problems?  And why did God allow a conflict to emerge between Sarah, Hagar, and their half-brother sons that would go on to create so many problems later on?

 Skip forward to today, and Isaac’s descendants are  still fighting wars with Ishmael's and for decades if not centuries. I thought God wanted the world to be peaceful. Does he have omnipotent powers and if so could he change the future and the past, including doing something about this fighting or the conflict between the two nations?  I think God wants Ishmael's nation and Isaac’s nation to coexist peacefully, but it doesn't seem like it’s working. You know maybe it's because humans actually deviated too much from God’s plan. Is that why we have so many problems? Or maybe God planted those seeds of conflict so that we would learn how to make peace by ourselves.  “Blessed are the peacemakers,” so it is written, and we read in our siddurim that “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”  I’d like to think that this has been God’s plan all along, and he’s left it to us to make it happen.  Maybe then our whole society will have its own b’nai mitzvah, and finally become adults in the eyes of God.

Shabbat shalom

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