A Hand to Hold
Her beautiful 16-year-old Ishmael lying whimpering nearby from mortal thirst and her own death close at hand, Hagarβin Genesis 21:15β18βis about as pitiable as one might imagine. So when an angel asks, βΧΧ ΧΧ, ΧΧΧ¨?β (Mah lakh, Hagar? What troubles you, Hagar?; 21:17), one has to wonder what the angel is thinking. βWhat troubles you?β Why, isnβt it plain?
The angel assures Hagar that God will not only see the doomed Ishmael through, but that great fortune beckons: βFear not, for God has heard the ladβs voice where he is . . . A great nation will I make himβ (21:17β18). The angel can be forgiven his innocent question, as Hagar heard the same message before. In chapter 16, when Hagar fled Saraiβs abuse, the angel sent her back, saying, βI will surely multiply your seed and it will be beyond all counting . . . Look, you have conceived and will bear a son and you will call his name Ishmael. For the LORD has heeded [literally, God heard] your sufferingβ (16:10β11). The angelβs message in chapter 16, inscribed in the boyβs name, is that God will act in response to ±α²Ή²΅²Ή°ωβs suffering, by making her only child the father of many. As the child is not yet born, however, the name ³ΫΎ±²υ³σ³Ύ²Ήβe±τ&²Τ²ϊ²υ±θ;(ΧΧ©ΧΧ’ΧΧ) signifies that God hears Hagar.
In our chapter, though, the text plays with the question of who needs to be saved and whom God hears. At 21:16, despairing, Hagar sets (or casts) her ailing son down to die, sits a distance away, and raises up her voice and cries. Without having informed us that Ishmael, too, is crying, the text now tells us that βGod heard the voice of the lad.β The angel directs Hagar to step back from her despair and act to save her sonβs life and prominent legacy. God opens ±α²Ή²΅²Ή°ωβs eyes and she sees a well of water that had been there all along: βShe went and filled the skin with water and gave to the lad to drink. And God was with the ladβ (21:19β20). The angel continues: βRise, lift up the lad and hold him by the hand, for a great nation will I make him.β
βLift up the ladβ: lift him up because he is so weak from thirst that he cannot move on his own.
βHold him by the handβ: Bring him to the well to drink and be revived.
βFor a great nation I will make himβ: The present crisis is not his destiny; greatness is.
While Hagar presumably props her son up and revives him, she does not, in fact, lead him to the well: βShe went and filled the skin with water and gave to the lad to drink.β Why, then, do we need βHold him by the hand?β Wouldnβt βlift up the ladβ be sufficient?
Another curiosity: True, Hagar has already heard directly from the angel that her life and that of her son are secure. Still, she has been banished from home, sent out by her sonβs father to the wilderness with insufficient water and provisions. She has lost her way and, predictably, seen the water run out and her son collapse. At the end of her rope, she leaves her child to die and sobs. Arenβt her tears worthy of Godβs attention? Why doesnβt God hear her and Ishmael both?
I think the answer lies with βHold him by the hand.β When the angel tells Hagar to hold her sonβs hand, itβs not to guide him to safety, but to save herself. Ishmaelβs great destiny will save her as well. Hagar and Ishmael are without a family, stateless, and destitute; their prospects this day in the wilderness seem to be nil. The angel comes to tell her to hitch her star to her sonβs; he will yet be great and she will share in his greatness. When the angel tells Hagar that God has heard the voice of the lad (rather than hers), itβs as if he is saying sheβs already saved. She need only revive her son with the water thatβs been there all along. The news that God will be with Ishmael means that he will enjoy a life of blessing, and so commences the story of a great and sustaining people.
Hagar believes that her banishment condemns her to ultimate failure as a mother. So consumed with panic at her hopelessness to protect her son, she is blind to the means for his rescue until God opens her eyes. But neither does she see that her own salvation does not sit upon her shoulders (unlike the bread and skin of water Abraham placed there). Ironically, her own salvation resides in the one she must save: βHold him by the hand (italics added).β
Midrash Sehel Tov (by Menahem ben Solomon in Rome, 1239) draws out this point most poignantly:
[In telling Hagar to lift up her son and then hold Ishmaelβs hand,] the angel announces his recovery: βFirst carry him, and then you will need only take his hand. He will guide you by the hand.β This recalls the passage in Isaiah 51:18, describing Jerusalem, the bereft mother figure: βShe has none to guide her, of all the sons she bore; none takes her by the hand, of all the sons she reared.β Isaiah, like the angel before him, preaches comfort:
!ΧΧͺΧ’ΧΧ¨Χ¨Χ, ΧΧͺΧ’ΧΧ¨Χ¨Χ, Χ§ΧΧΧ ΧΧ¨ΧΧ©ΧΧΧ
Hitβoreri, hitβoreri, kumi Yerushalayim! Rouse yourself and arise, O Jerusalem!
In extremis, prayer offers us two insights: first, as God is with us, we must recognize that we have great capacity, wisdom, and strength. Second, that in adversity, we may already be blessed with the help we need. We are rarely truly alone in our quiet desperations.
We pray that if we open our eyes, there are wells to be found. When all appears lost, we mustnβt blame ourselves for our plight, cursing our foolishness and condemning ourselves by relying only upon ourselves. We must learn to look up, to discover wells of water, and to take the hand of those who will, in turn, save us. May God always train our eyes to see and guide our hands to reach out and to hold.
The publication and distribution of the JTS Commentary are made possible by a generous grant from Rita Dee and Harold (zβl) Hassenfeld.
