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ries of Abraham and his two sons:
how he sent Ishmael with his mother
Hagar into the wilderness, where they
almost died; and then took his son
Isaac up the mountain, there to
slaughter him as an offering to God.
On behalf of both sons, God inter-
vened at the last moment.
These stories are rich with many
meanings. But especially this year, as
we count five years since the Rosh
Hashanah when the State of Israel and
the Palestinian Liberation
Organization signed their first peace
agreement, we might draw on the tra-
dition that Ishmael was the ancestor of
the Arab peoples, as Isaac was of the
Jewish people. In some deep and
archetypal sense, these Torah readings
bespeak the 3,000-year-old brokenness
of our families, the families of
Abraham.
In the Torah, the story does not
stop with brokenness. When Abraham
dies, both sons gather to bury him in
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iessesmiesmieffisisimmffismiaisimiffismia
is
the tomb he himself had set aside, in
the Cave of Machpelah near Hebron.
(Genesis 25:8-18.) There they are rec-
onciled, and then Isaac goes to live at
Be'er Lachai Ro'i, the Well of the
Living One Who Sees Me, the well
that had saved Ishmael's life.
Perhaps it is time to add this story
to the Torah readings for the High
Holy Days. Perhaps on Yom Kippur,
when repentance is full and forgive-
ness is near, we might read the passage
where, for the first time, the Torah
speaks of both these sons together. We
might pause to pray that our decision
to make a tshuvah on the terrifying
stories of their dangers will mark the
next step in a modern reconciliation
of both families.
We might strengthen our resolve by
taking action, just as we do in our
individual lives.
For example, we might as part of
Yom Kippur commit ourselves to
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