You’ve heard the expression, there is none so blind…as he that will
not see. Ray Stevens made the declaration
in his 1970 song, Everything is Beautiful. The expression points out that we have a
habit of closing our own eyes and therefore missing opportunities. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve missed
seeing something that was right in front of my face. But I didn’t see it, because I wasn’t looking
for it. Or perhaps, I had let my
despair of the moment cloud my vision.
Criminal investigators
will tell you that eyewitness accounts of events are the most unreliable in trials. Their eyes fail them, or they simply filter
what they do see through their unique prejudices. Through the lens of their preconceived
notions. Everybody involved in criminal
justice learns to fear the declaration, I saw it with my own eyes.
In more traditional congregations, two
days of Rosh Hashanah are observed. The
Torah portion for the first day is the 21st chapter of the book of
Genesis. The reading for the second day
is the 22nd chapter of Genesis.
In less traditional congregations, where only one day is observed, the
reading for that day is typically the 22nd chapter.
Genesis 22 is
therefore the better-known of the two readings.
And that’s not a bad thing. It
is, of course, the narrative of the binding of Isaac. The story that is considered of central
importance for defining Hashem, the G-d of Israel. And distinguishing Him from the gods of the
ancient pagan cults. This G-d made it
clear through the experience of Abraham and Isaac, that a totally new order had
been decreed. That the age of human sacrifice was finished. What could be more central to the Jewish
worldview?
But Genesis 21,
included in today’s Torah reading, gives us an important glimpse into a
critical aspect of human nature. It’s
also an important message to get every year as we enter the New Year. It’s a message of hope, but it’s even more
than that. It’s the message that success
is in front of our faces, if we will only allow ourselves to see it.
It’s the narrative of the expulsion
of Hagar and Ishmael, from the household of Abraham. As we remember, G-d promised Abraham and Sarah
a child in their old age. But Sarah didn’t
believe it would happen. How could it? She was in her 80’s when the promise was
made. Abraham was in his 90’s. The Torah tells us that, when G-d’s messenger
bought this promise to them, חדל להיות לשרה ארח במשים.
In other words, she was well beyond
menopause. But when she laughed at the
notion that she would have a child, she expressed it in terms of Abraham’s
incapacity: ואדוני זקן - My husband is OLD!
Now this was pre-Viagra, but even an
old man can sometimes surprise you. On
the other hand…a woman’s menses are a prerequisite for her getting
pregnant. So Sarah sent her handmaiden,
Hagar, to Abraham’s bed and Hagar conceived, and delivered, Ishmael.
But then – surprise of
surprises! – G-d’s promise came to pass. Sarah did conceive, and she gave birth to
Isaac. So there were two boys playing
around in the camp, Ishmael and Isaac. And
every time Sarah saw Ishmael, or heard his squeals of joy, it was a stinging
rebuke because she had not believed in G-d’s promise. So great was her continued distress, that she
asked Abraham to send Hagar and the boy away.
She needed peace, even if that meant she would lose the services of her
maidservant.
So Abraham set Hagar
and Ishmael on a journey to Hagar’s people in Egypt. He gave them provisions and directions. Hagar was greatly distressed, as one would
imagine. It was not only the stress of
the journey. She also felt a loss that
she had not born the heir to Abraham’s legacy, as Sarah had promised her. She was so upset that she could not
function. When the provisions ran out,
she sat down on the ground and sent her son away. She cried out to G-d, saying she didn’t want
to see her son die of thirst in the desert.
Now G-d had told
Hagar that He’d blessed Ishmael, and he was not going to die as a child in the
desert. But Hagar in her misery refused
to believe it, just as Sarah had refused to believe she would conceive. G-d comforted her. And our reading informs us: ויפקח אלקים את-עיניה
ותרא באר מים – So G-d opened her eyes, and
she saw a water spring. We need to
listen closely to this, because the Torah is not being elliptical here. Hear it literally: she saw a water spring. Not, G-d provided a water
spring. The spring was there all
along. But Hagar in her misery did not
see it, right there in front of her eyes.
I don’t know about
you, but I sometimes behave like Hagar. I allow my misery of the moment to close my
eyes so that I miss what is simply there in front of them. We all do this at times. Each one of us has, at one time or another,
allowed ourselves a deep funk that denied us a clear vision of the means of
success. I’m not talking simple optimism
and pessimism. I’m talking a deep
despair that clouds our vision…and clouds our thinking. Hagar had descended into that despair.
Some people seem to be perpetually beset
by it. Everybody knows someone who
is so pessimistic that they go through life lashing out at everybody and
everything for denying them the happiness and the success that they deserve.
When, all along, the means to that
happiness and success are right in front of their eyes. Most of us are not thus. We fall for it on occasion, not constantly. But occasionally, or constantly…there is an
antidote.
And that antidote is
to believe! Just because things
aren’t presently working out in the way you wish for, is no reason to allow a
darkness to cast a pall upon your whole world. Once Hagar was able to look beyond her
distress and disappointment, she saw the means to salvation that had been there
all along. We, too. When we learn to take a deep breath and open
our eyes to what’s in front of our faces, we can step out of the despair
brought on by any failure or disappointment. And we can move forward. To happiness.
And success. Shabbat shalom.
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