A Portrait of Yishmael/1/en

Yishmael

Introduction

Dearth of Details

Painting a portrait of Yishmael is a complex challenge, in large part because of the paucity of Biblical source material.  Yishmael himself appears by name in five chapters in the Torah:  Bereshit 16 tells of his birth and the events leading up to it, Bereshit 17 recounts Avraham's concern for his (Yishmael's) future and his circumcision, Bereshit 25 notes his role in burying Avraham and records his death and descendants,¹ and Bereshit 28 and 36 mention that his daughter² married Esav.  However, none of these narratives reveal much about the nature of Yishmael's character.

Of course, the main story which could potentially shed light on Yishmael is the account of the expulsion of Hagar and her son in Bereshit 21.  Fascinatingly, though, Yishmael is not mentioned by name even once in this entire chapter, but is rather referred to repeatedly as "הַיֶּלֶד" or "הַנַּעַר"‎.³  Moreover, in most of this story he is a passive character acted upon by others,⁴ and never once do we hear him speak.⁵  Thus, Biblical exegetes attempt to make the most of the small clues which the Torah does provide.

Ambiguous Phrases

¹ His descendants, the "יִשְׁמְעֵאלִים", make a cameo appearance also in the story of the sale of Yosef (Bereshit 37:25,27-28, 39:1).

² While Bereshit 28 identifies Esav's wife as "מָחֲלַת", Bereshit 36 refers to her as "בָּשְׂמַת".  See Esav's Wives for discussion of how many wives Esav had.

³ This omission is so striking that it led R. Menashe Wiener (Mikhlelet Herzog Yemei Iyyun BeTanakh 5770) to entertain the notion that Hagar was expelled together with a younger sibling of Yishmael (perhaps more aptly described as the "יֶלֶד" carried by Hagar; Yishmael was already at least sixteen years old), and that Yishmael himself remained in Avraham's home.

⁴ In fact, his limited number of actions (with the exception of those in the addendum of 21:19-20) are described merely through the eyes of other characters.  21:9 tells of what Sarah saw Yishmael do, and 21:17 speaks of how Hashem heard him cry.

⁵ Yishmael's silence is noted by C. Bakhos, Ishmael on the Border (Albany, 2006): 14.  The Torah tells of Yishmael laughing and crying (the text actually explicitly says only that Hagar cried and that God heard her son's voice), but not of any of his uttered words.