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Ishmael’s story is told at great length in the Torah. We read about his unusual parentage, the dramatic circumstances of his birth, and how Abraham was 86 when he was born. We read about Abraham training him to be hospitable as a lad, circumcising him as a teen, and banishing him as an adolescent. Ishmael’s life hits a nadir when he and his mother are sent away from Abraham’s home. In the home where everyone – from idolaters worshiping the dust on their feet to the sinners of Sodom and Gomorrah – was welcome, Ishmael was unwelcome. He and his mother went back to Egypt, and he married an Egyptian woman and became an archer. But Ishmael underwent a dramatic rebirth. He was restored to Abraham’s good graces. He repented. He became righteous. The story of Ishmael is not merely the analysis of a character in antiquity. Ishmael is still enormously relevant today. The Ishmaelites number in the hundreds of millions. They are indeed innumerable, and our relationship with the Ishmaelites is still riven by conflict. Who was Ishmael? What did he stand for? What lessons can we learn from his dramatic story? He is our personage of the week, and we learn all the answers.
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