Friday, October 29, 2010

Daily Aliya for Chaye Sarah, Shvii (7th Aliya)

Aliya Summary: The descendants of Yishmael are now enumerated. Yishmael is identified fully as the son of Avraham and Hagar the Egyptian maiden of Sara who bore Yishmael to Avraham. This is quite parallel to the description of Yitzchak's connection to Avraham as stated in the beginning of next week's Parsha. This might further indicate Yishmael's Teshuva in his later years.

It is noteworthy that Yishmael fathered twelve sons, not like Yitzchak, but like Yaakov. Yishmael dies at the age of 100 and 30 and 7 years. The wording in the Torah purposely parallels that which was used to describe Sara's lifespan, a further indication (perhaps) of the change for the better in Yishmael. Rashi says that the age of Yishmael is included to help us compute the chronology of Yaakov.

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