Tol’dot…"Generations"…Genesis 25:19-28:9

I'll be out of town at the annual meting of the Society of Biblical Literature this weekend, so I am posting a little early.

Parashat Toldot recounts Rebecca’s conception and delivery of Jacob and Esau, Isaac and Rebecca’s “visit” to King Abimelech, Esau’s marriage to Canaanite women, and Jacob’s purchase of Esau’s birthright and theft of Esau’s blessing.

As we saw last week through the variations on the betrothal type-scene, Rebecca is the ultimate powerful mother, the planner, the plotter, the one getting things done. Just as he has been from the start, Isaac is a much more passive character. He has been toyed with (by Ishmael), tied up (by Abraham) – he does not even get to go and get his own wife, but this task is delegated to another (Abraham’s servant)! Again in these chapters we see that Isaac is a rather flimsy personality a person acted upon rather than an actor. Rebecca is the powerhouse – it is through Rebecca’s machinations that the promise to Abraham is carried out. Isaac’s “seed” may be the vessel, but Rebecca is the instrument of the covenant.

Rebecca is also given to bouts of hyperbolic speech, which is something I love about the way she is portrayed. When the twins struggle in her womb, she says: “If it is to be this way, why do I live?” (Genesis 25:22) When she decides to send Jacob away from home for his own protection, she tells her husband: “I am weary of my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women such as these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?” (Genesis 27:46) All this over-the-top complaining makes me like her even more.

When Isaac and Rebecca travel to Gerar, Isaac passes off his wife as his sister, just as Abraham has done twice before. To view the three wife-sister narratives in parallel columns, click this link: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=ddbxqpcb_5c6g9xfdh&hl=en

This is a strange repetition. But notice that each time the story is told – or retold – we learn something different. There are three glaring problems with the first story, wherein Abraham lets Pharaoh take Sarah as a wife.
1. Abraham lies – he says that Sarah is his sister, when this has never been the explanation of their relationship before.
2. Worse…does Pharaoh have sex with Sarah?? The horror! Especially because in the next chapter she’ll give birth to Isaac, and we want to be sure about paternity!
3. Abraham seems to make a good deal of money off this little transaction…giving the reader the uncomfortable feeling that he successfully pimped out his wife.

The second wife-sister narrative solves each of these problems.
1. We are told that Sarah is in fact Abraham’s half-sister… so his statement is a half-truth.
2. We learn that God prevented Abimelech from having sexual intercourse with Sarah… from this the reader is supposed to logically infer that if God prevented a violation of Sarah in the second case, he surely must have done the same in the first scenario, we just are not told there that it happened. We can breathe a sigh of relief; Sarah’s virtue remains intact.
3. The money problem is also solved – Abimelech gives the silver to Sarah and not Abraham, saying “it is your exoneration before all who are with you; you are completely vindicated.”

So what is the point of the third wife-sister story? What do we learn? Maybe a little more about Isaac’s character.

Unlike Sarah, taken by both Pharaoh and Abimelech, Rebecca is taken by no one in Gerar… and Isaac isn’t very careful, they are caught in a compromising situation! So why the lie? It certainly IS and outright lie in this instance. Why expose Rebecca to such danger? Yes, he became wealthy in that land, but at what possible cost? How does this scenario influence your understanding of this patriarch?

As for Jacob and Esau, once again the younger usurps the elder. Notice that while Genesis 25:28 reads: “Isaac loved Esau, because he was fond of game; but Rebecca loved Jacob.” Yet Malachi 1:2-3 says: “…the LORD says ‘Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.’” Isn’t that a huge difference? In Genesis Rebecca loved Jacob more than Esau. In Malachi, Esau is not only hated, but it is GOD and not Rebecca doing the hating!

This not only seems a little hard on Esau, but has spawned some nasty rhetoric when communities identify themselves as Jacob (or his descendants) and their opponents as “Esau.” Rabbinic Judaism identified Esau as Rome:

[Isaac’s words in Genesis 27:22] “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau” [really refer to the people of Rome,] for Jacob rules only through his voice, but Esau [Rome} rules only through his hands.” Genesis Rabbah 65:19

Early (Pauline) Christianity decided that the Christ-as-messiah believing community was Jacob, and, ironically, that non-Christ-as-messiah believing Jews were “Esau.”

Romans 9:6-13 "It is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all Israelites truly belong to Israel, 7and not all of Abraham’s children are his true descendants; but ‘It is through Isaac that descendants shall be named after you.’ 8This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants. 9For this is what the promise said, ‘About this time I will return and Sarah shall have a son.’ 10Nor is that all; something similar happened to Rebecca when she had conceived children by one husband, our ancestor Isaac. 11Even before they had been born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose of election might continue, 12not by works but by his call) she was told, ‘The elder shall serve the younger.’ 13As it is written,‘I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.’"

Such pain has been wrought by those asserting their connection to one of these twins! So few seemed to remember, that like Ishamel and Isaac, who came together to bury their father, Esau welcomed Jacob back to his homeland, and the two brothers made peace.

“Chayei Sarah”… the life of Sarah...Genesis 23:1-25:18

Although titled “the life of Sarah,” this parasha opens with her death. “Sarah lived one hundred twenty-seven years; this was the length of Sarah's life. And Sarah died at Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan; and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.” Genesis 23:1

It has often been speculated that Sarah died of a broken heart. While Abraham set off with her beloved son Isaac, to fufill God’s command, interpreters wondered if Sarah knew what he was up to. Did he tell her of the terrible chore to come? Did she guess? And remember that – ram as substitute sacrifice or not - Abraham descended from Mount Moriah without his son. “So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham lived at Beer-sheba…” Genesis 22:19.

In her book of poetry A Cry Like A Bell (Harold Shaw Publishers, 1987), Madeline L’Engle speaks up on Sarah’s behalf:

Sarah: before Mount Moriah
Genesis 11-12, 16-22

Like a small mouse
I am being played with.
Pushed around, sent from home,
passed off as a sister,
free to be the sport of others
(nobody asked me).
Nobody asked if I wanted
to leave home and all my friends
(the cat never asks the mouse).
Would my womb have filled
if we had stayed where we were
instead of following strange promises?
My maid, giving my husband a child for me,
then made mock of me.
So when the angel came
announcing—promising—
a child in my womb long dry
what could I do but laugh?
And then warmth came again, and fullness,
and my child was born,
my laughter, my joy.
But do not play with me any more!

What kind of logic lurks in your promise
that the sky full of stars
is like the number of our descendents
and then demand the son's life who makes
that promise possible?
Can I trust a breaker of promises?
What kind of game is this?

Are you laughing at my pain
as I watch the child and his father
climb the mountain?
Am I no more than a mouse
to be played with?

I am a woman.
You—father-God—
have yet to learn
what it is to be a mother,

and so, perhaps, have I.
And if you give me back my laughter again,
then, together we can learn
and I will say—oh, I will sing!—
that you have regarded the lowliness
of your handmaiden.

I have always find that this parasha adds insult to injury by reporting Abraham’s marriage to Keturah (easily fertile, another slap in the face) before Sarah’s grave was cold. Although rabbinic scholars often sought to soften this hard reality with the contention that “Keturah” is another name for Hagar – who Abraham brought back home after Sarah’s death, this is not born out by the biblical text.

Genesis 25:1 Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah. 2She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. 3Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. The sons of Dedan were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim. 4The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah. 5Abraham gave all he had to Isaac. 6But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, while he was still living, and he sent them away from his son Isaac, eastwards to the east country.

7 This is the length of Abraham’s life, one hundred and seventy-five years. 8Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. 9His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre, 10the field that Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried, with his wife Sarah. 11After the death of Abraham God blessed his son Isaac. And Isaac settled at Beer-lahai-roi.

The other big – and happy! – news that Isaac has taken a wife. As Robert Alter has shown, this is not a simple report of an engagement, but the story of Abraham’s servant finding Rebecca and bringing her home for Isaac conforms to a literary convention of ancient Hebrew narrative he calls the Betrothal Type-Scene. (The Art of Biblical Literature, Basic Books: 1983)

Each literary culture has its own norms and conventions which assist the author and audience by providing a shared set of assumptions about how a given interaction will play out. The audience recognizes the conventions without necessarily being aware of them, much as one of us, watching movie previews in a darkened theater, can probably identify the genre of a given clip within the first 60 seconds of music and images. We know a Sci-Fi film from a Romance from a Comedy intuitively based on a myriad of cues. In much the same way, when flipping TV channels we can identify within seconds whether we are watching a commercial, infomercial, news program, or drama. We speak the language, we have internalized the genres. The challenge in dealing with ancient texts like those in the biblical corpus is that we do not have the same facility with genre that exists between ourselves and modern works of art. We must stretch ourselves to meet the biblical text in the fixed form that it remains – we must attempt to in-generate ourselves.

So here are the elements of a Betrothal Type-Scene, according to Alter:
A. The Bridegroom (or his surrogate) on Journey to a Foreign Land
B. Girl(s) at a Well
C. Someone Draws Water
D. Girl(s) Rush to Tell
E. Betrothal
F. Ceremonial Meal

Download and print out a document I have prepared with examples of this type-scene in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, accessible at this link: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=ddbxqpcb_4fcrqc4fb&hl=en

Try to identify every element in each story. Isaac and Rebecca’s betrothal is the most complete of the examples, but it also gives us tremendous information about its heroine – Rebecca is the mother of industry, drawing water for the servant and all the camels, too!)

Notice that the Jacob narrative lacks the final element – the ceremonial meal, a good hint that something with this betrothal is about to go terribly awry. (Does waking up after the wedding night with the wrong woman in your bed qualify as ‘terribly awry’?!)

Alter demonstrates some of the ways that an author can invoke a type or genre only to subvert it, creating tension in the audience who, recognizing the type and getting prepared to see it play out, are surprised when the formula doesn’t come together and forced to make meaning out of its lack of fruition. Look at the examples of 1 Samuel 19:11-12 (there is no wedding! this should be a clue that Saul will end up without a kingdom…) and Ruth 2:1-14.

Variations upon the type-scene give the audience cues about characterization: Laban’s avarice; Isaac’s passivity; Rebecca’s initiative; Jacob’s sensitivity; Rachel’s barrenness; Moses as liberator; Ruth’s heroism; Saul’s isolation.

Now look at John 4. It will be clear by now that we will be considering the story of the Samaritan woman at the well…let’s walk through it together.

A. Bridegroom (or his surrogate) on Journey to a Foreign Land:

John 4:4 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, ‘Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John’— 2 although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized— 3he left Judea and started back to Galilee. 4But he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

Audience expectations are being established. Is Jesus the bridegroom? His surrogate? Will he meet a marriageable young woman at a well?

B. Girl(s) at a Well

7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’.

Great! Here’s the girl, there’s the well. The audience settles in for a good old fashioned betrothal. But wait – why is the bridegroom asking the maiden to draw the water? Is she going to be like Rebecca, that ultimate biblical woman of industry?

C. Someone Draws Water
9The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)* 10Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ 11The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ 13Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ 15The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’ 16 Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come back.’ 17The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, “I have no husband”; 18for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!’ 19The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you* say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’ 21Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ 25The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ 26Jesus said to her, ‘I am he,* the one who is speaking to you.’ 27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, ‘What do you want?’ or, ‘Why are you speaking with her?’

Now the audience finds itself quite uncomfortable and thinking hard. Is somebody going to hurry up and get that water? Each of them keep asking the other for it! And what is this ‘living water’ business all about. In addition, it turns out that this is no young maiden at the well, but an unfortunate woman whose life has seen tragedy after tragedy – in the culture of the time, where unmarried women were extremely vulnerable, a woman whose husband died had to accept marriage to his brothers or other kin in order to survive. Clearly this woman lost multiple husbands and suffered great turmoil – and worse, is presently being forced to live without the small legal protections that official marriage provided. The audience is moved by her plight, and by Jesus’ recognition of her social poverty. The betrothal scene – invoked by all this marriage talk and yet subverted by its content – has truly run off the rails.

D. Girl(s) Rush to Tell

28Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’ 30They left the city and were on their way to him.

This is just one example of the many ways the New Testament repeats renews and pays homage to the literary convention of the Hebrew Bible.

Vayeira..."And He Appeared"...Genesis 18:1-22:24

Genesis 22:1 After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ 2He said, ‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt-offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.’ 3So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt-offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. 4On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. 5Then Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.’ 6Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. 7Isaac said to his father Abraham, ‘Father!’ And he said, ‘Here I am, my son.’ He said, ‘The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?’ 8Abraham said, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt-offering, my son.’ So the two of them walked on together.

9 When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. 11But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ 12He said, ‘Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.’ 13And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt-offering instead of his son. 14So Abraham called that place ‘The Lord will provide’; as it is said to this day, ‘On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.’
15 The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, 16and said, ‘By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, 18and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.’ 19So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham lived at Beer-sheba.

Generations of readers have wondered at how Abraham could tolerate God’s test. Already forced to abandon Ishmael and Hagar, how could he obediently agree to kill his son Isaac- and do it himself?

In times of cruel oppression and dire desperation, Jews saw bravery in Abraham’s actions, and even more bravery in Isaac’s!

4 Maccabees 12:9-12
"Brothers, let us die like brothers for the sake of the law; let us imitate the three youths in Assyria who despised the same ordeal of the furnace. Let us not be cowardly in the demonstration of our piety." While one said, "Courage, brother," another said, "Bear up nobly," and another reminded them, "Remember whence you came, and the father by whose hand Isaac would have submitted to being slain for the sake of religion."

At different times and places in history, some Jews have acted on the challenge and killed themselves rather than submit to forced conversion or other violence.

Centuries of Christians have read in the text of Genesis 22 a prefiguring of the crucifixion of Jesus:

“Although Judaism sees the purpose merely as a point of testing of Abraham’s faith, Christianity understands the full typological significance of what took place—as a sign post pointing to the most significant event in all history: when another Father would offer His “only Son” upon the same mountain. The offering of Isaac is a carefully constructed divine pattern which pointed to the redeeming sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross many years later. That this is true can be seen from the numerous typological correlations between this event and the crucifixion.” (See link for reference)

Click on this link for a table listing the perceived links between the two stories:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddbxqpcb_3f9vzw4dr&hl=en

Muslims, however have preserved a different story of Abraham’s test, where Ishmael, and not Isaac, is the intended (and very willing!) victim.

QURAN CHAPTER 37:
101So We gave him the good news of a boy ready to suffer and forbear. 102. Then, when (the son) reached (the age of) (serious) work with him, he said: "O my son! I see in vision that I offer thee in sacrifice: Now see what is thy view!" (The son) said: "O my father! Do as thou art commanded: thou will find me, if Allah so wills one practising Patience and Constancy!" 103. So when they had both submitted their wills (to Allah., and he had laid him prostrate on his forehead (for sacrifice), 104. We called out to him "O Abraham! 105. "Thou hast already fulfilled the vision!" - thus indeed do We reward those who do right. 106. For this was obviously a trial- 107. And We ransomed him with a momentous sacrifice: 108. And We left (this blessing) for him among generations (to come) in later times: 109. "Peace and salutation to Abraham!" 110. Thus indeed do We reward those who do right. 111. For he was one of our believing Servants. 112. And We gave him the good news of Isaac - a prophet,- one of the Righteous.

Notice that the Qur’an does not specifically state that Ishmael was the sacrificial son…however, only after the incident did Abraham hear “the good news of Isaac - a prophet,- one of the Righteous.” Therefore, some exegetes (not all Muslim interpreters!) reasoned, Ishmael is the son referred to in the Qur’an’s story.

Hayatu 'l-Qulub (Merrick's ed. p. 28) says: "On a certain occasion when this illustrous father (Abraham) was performing the rites of the pilgrimage at the Mecca, Abraham said to his beloved child, `I dreamed that I must sacrifice you; now consider what is to be done with reference to such an admonition.' Ishmael replied, `Do as you shall be commanded by God. Verify your dream. You will find me endure patiently.' But when Abraham was about to sacrifice Ishmael, the Most High God made a black and white sheep his substitute, a sheep which had been pasturing forty years in Paradise, and was created by the direct power of God for this event. Now every sheep offered on Mount Mina, until the Day of Judgment is a substitute, or a commemoration of the substitute for Ishmael." (Hughes' Dictionary of Islam, p. 219).”

So what "really happened"? What is "the meaning" of the story? We would do well to remember a quote from Zakovitch and Shinan: “The Torah does not always ask to imprison the reader in one interpretative channel. To the contrary, at times it encourages and calls for confusion, and places upon itself the responsibility that not all readers will arrive at identical interpretive understandings.”

(Zakovitch and Shinan, That's Not What the Good Book Says, 2004.)

Lech L’cha "Go Forth!": Genesis 12:1 through 17:27

Each week I discuss the interpretation of a portion of the Torah, or Pentateuch. In order to complete the 5 Books of Moses in one year, I have chosen to follow the Jewish reading cycle, known as the “parasha” or “section.” A few readers of this class/blog have asked me about the titles of each section, so here is the explanation: most parashot (plural of parasha), just like most biblical books, are titled after one of the first major Hebrew word present in them. This week’s title is Lech Lecha… "Go forth."

With these words begin the story of the emergence of a new family, nation, and eventually, religion:

Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ Genesis 12:1-3

Last week’s lesson included Jewish and Muslim versions of a story about Abraham smashing the idols – way back in his childhood in Ur of Chaldea. Here is the link to last week’s handout: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddbxqpcb_2c88gxjhd&hl=en

But what gave the interpreters creating this Abraham legend the idea that Abraham’s father Terah was and idol worshipper or seller? They read their bibles very closely and noticed Joshua 24:2

“And Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors-- Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor-- lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods.”

And so, bidden to “go forth,” Abraham and his family journey into a new land and new covenant.

Each parasha is so vast that a discussion of the history of interpretation of all its parts would take a long time! Today I want to concentrate on the figure of Hagar, introduced in Genesis 16:

“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian slave-girl whose name was Hagar, 2and Sarai said to Abram, ‘You see that the Lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my slave-girl; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.’ And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3So, after Abram had lived for ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave-girl, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. 4He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. 5Then Sarai said to Abram, ‘May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my slave-girl to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!’ 6But Abram said to Sarai, ‘Your slave-girl is in your power; do to her as you please.’ Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she ran away from her.”

Many modern readers feel sympathy for Hagar, who seems to be pushed around at best, without consent, and at worst, against her will.

African-American women have often found a in Hagar a figure mirroring the stories of their own mothers:

“Enslaved, raped, but seen by God, Hagar has been a cherished biblical character in African-American communities. Womanist theologian Delores S. Williams explains:
The African-American community has taken Hagar’s story unto itself. Hagar has ‘spoken’ to generation after generation of black women because her story has been validated as true by suffering black people. She and Ishmael together, as family, model many black American families in which a lone woman/mother struggles to hold the family together in spite of the poverty to which ruling class economics consign it. Hagar, like many black women, goes into the wide world to make a living for herself and her child, with only God by her side.

The story of Hagar demonstrates that survival is possible even under harshest conditions.”

Other modern African-American interpreters have seen in Hagar a true love for Abraham, a heart broken by the viciousness of Sarah and Hagar’s ultimate expulsion:

O Abraham! what dost thou say?
That I depart? I must away
From out thy home, from out thy life!
What words are these? canst thou be mad,
Or do I dream? What means this strife?
Thy love alone hast made me glad;
O Abraham! thou hast been the light,
Within these years of woeful night.

From: "The Expulsion of Hagar” by Eloise Alberta Bibb

Next week we will see how Islam has envisioned Hagar as a heroine, not a victim; mother of a nation. For a preview, see this link, which tells an Islamic version of Hagar’s espulsion from Abraham and Sarah’s household; how this valient mother bravely succumbed to God’s will and let Abraham leave her, and their son, behind. Like Abraham, Hagar concedes to the bewlidering command, Lech Lecha..."Go forth."

http://books.google.com/books?id=hc5CuBCvTGsC&pg=PA150&lpg=PA150&dq=Sahih+Al-Bukhari++hagar&source=web&ots=dVKXr60niN&sig=E571kIsL6XiV9uvKGDflZYfX4WY&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA152,M1