Hi,
"A person is judged only based on his deeds of that
moment, as it is written, ‘G-d has heard the voice of the youth [Yishmael], as he is
there.’"
(Talmud, Rosh HaShanah 16b)
גמר חתימה טובה,
Mordechai
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It's interesting that while the gemara refers to ma'asav (his deeds), the verse refers to the state of Yishma'el himself. The difference being, the Torah says it is not our actions that are judged, which is what a human court judges. Rather, it is the person themselves (presumably: as shaped by those actions and the decisions that led to them) that are assessed..
ReplyDeleteWhy was Yishmael deemed to be righteous if he had performed at least of of the 3 cardinal sins per Rashi to 21:9?
ReplyDeleteThe whole reason for reading this story on Rosh haShanah -- to show the power of teshuvah. Even what Yishmael thought was a deathbed confession had the power to make him worth saving "as he was there".
DeletePrecisely the point - the sages who believe him guilty of those deeds also accept the idea that he can be called a "tzadik" (per the gemara there) when he cries out to Gd.
DeleteThat truly would be a great lesson!
ReplyDeleteBut, then is not 'the main portion missing from the book'? When/where are we told he did teshuva? In the verse we are not even told that the boy cried out, how are we to know he did so because of teshuva and not out of pain of starvation and impending death?
We are not told the boy cried out, but we are told that Hashem listened to the boy's voice. And as Rashi quotes from Bereishis Rabba, Chazal use the fact that we're told that Hashem listened to Yishma'el rather than Hagar to prove "from here we learn that the prayer of the sick person is superior to that of others". So, I agree with your question, but since Chazal assume he davened, I'm comfortable running with that assumption.
DeleteInteresting the gemarah (RH 16b, quoted by Rashi) focuses on as Yishmael is then in contrast to the future, not the past.
Rabbi Berger, certainly we can draw a distinction between prayer to save one's life and repentance? I think this may leave us with a tzarich iyun...
ReplyDeleteWRT avodah zara, I'm not sure we can make that distinction.
DeleteBut I don't have a problem with the tzarikh iyun. I would prefer to live with the question of why Yishmael's teshuvah isn't mentioned than that of why Yishmael earned miraculous salvation after having committing all three cardinal sins.
There is, BTW, another possible answer... Perhaps it was Avraham who earned being spared of losing a son. At the time of the eviction, 21:17 says that Hashem would build a nation from Yishmael because he was Avraham's son. The problem is that we're told it was in response to Yishma'el's tefillah...