Yishmael = arabs?

באשר הוא שם WHERE HE IS — According to the actions he is now doing shall he be judged and not according to what he may do in future. Because the ministering angels laid information against him, saying, “Master of the Universe, for him whose descendants will at one time kill your children with thirst will You provide a well?” He asked them, “What is he now, righteous or wicked?” They replied to him, “Righteous.” He said to them, “According to his present deeds will I judge him.” This is the meaning of what is written: “[For God hath heard the voice of the lad ] באשר הוא שם in that condition in which he now is” (Genesis Rabbah 53:14). Where did he (Ishmael) kill Israel with thirst? When Nebuchadnezzar carried them into exile — as it is said, (Isaiah 21:13, 14) “The burden upon Arabia … O ye caravans of Dedanites, unto him that is thirsty bring ye water! etc.” When they were bringing them near the Arabians the Israelites said to their captors, “We beg of you bring us to the children of our uncle, Ishmael, who will certainly show pity to us”, as it is said, “O ye caravans of the Dedanites (דדנים)”; read not דדנים but דודים, kinsmen. — These indeed came to them bringing them salted meat and fish and water-skins inflated with air. The Israelites believed that these were full of water and when they placed them in their mouths, after having opened them, the air entered their bodies and they died (Eichah Rabbah 2:4).

Rav Ḥana bar Aḥa said that the Sages in the school of Rav say: There are four creations that the Holy One, Blessed be He, created, yet He, as it were, regrets that He created them, as they do more harm than good. And these are they: Exile, Chaldeans, and Ishmaelites, and the evil inclination. Exile, as it is written: “Now therefore, for what am I here, says the Lord, seeing that My people is taken away for naught” (Isaiah 52:5). God Himself is asking: For what am I here? Chaldeans, as it is written: “Behold the land of the Chaldeans, this is the people that was not” (Isaiah 23:13), meaning, if only they never were.

Ishmaelites, as it is written: “The tents of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure, in whatsoever God brings with His hand” (Job 12:6). God brought upon Himself these Arabs that dwell in the deserts in tents. The evil inclination, as it is written: “On that day, says the Lord, will I assemble her that is lame, and I will gather her that is driven away, and her that I corrupted” (Micah 4:6). God is saying that He created the evil inclination that led the people to sin and to be cast into exile.

THAT THOU SHALT SHAKE HIS YOKE. U-farakto (that thou shalt shake) comes from the same root as mefarek (rent) in rent (mefarek) the mountains (I Kings 19:11). The word mafrakto (his neck) (I Sam. 4:18) is derived from the same stem. These blessings present a number of great difficulties. If the blessings were prophecies how is it possible for Isaac not to know whom he was blessing? The wise men of our generation respond to this problem by explaining that when Jacob entered the room, God told him, “Bless this one.” However, if this was the case Isaac would have told Esau, “God commanded me to bless Jacob.” Furthermore, if God told Isaac to bless Jacob, why did Isaac bless Esau because he cried? Others say that Isaac was no prophet and his blessings did not come to pass. However, they are also mistaken. Scripture explicitly tells us, And the Lord appeared unto him (Isaac) (Gen. 26:2, 24). Moreover, King David in referring to the patriarchs says, And do My prophets no harm (I Chron. 16:22). Others ask, what efficacy could there be in Isaac’s blessings since he thought that he was blessing Esau? The truth of the matter is that Isaac was in doubt as to who was really before him. Indeed, he said, The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau (v. 22). What Isaac did was bless the one in his presence without regard to whether it was Esau or Jacob, the reason being that both were his sons. Some ask, how could God say (Gen. 25:23) And the elder shall serve the younger? Similarly how could Isaac say, and thou shalt serve thy brother (v. 40)? Saadiah Gaon superficially answers this question by pointing to Scripture’s statement, And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all the souls of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts…and went unto a land away from his brother Jacob (Gen. 36:6). However, the Gaon seems to have forgotten that the Bible relates, and (Jacob) bowed himself to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother (Esau) (Gen. 33:3). It appears to me that the prophet’s blessing was akin to a prayer, and God accepted his prayer, for Isaac’s prayer was mainly concerned with the offspring of Jacob and Esau. Those who have as yet not awakened from their foolish sleep think that we are in the exile of the Edomites (Esau). However, this is not so. Edom (Esau) was subject to Judah. Scripture thus states, In his (Jehoram’s) days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah (II Kings 8:20). We are also told that Joab cut off every male in Edom (I Kings 11:16). It is because of their subjugation to Judah that they rejoiced on the day of Judah’s calamity and told the Babylonians, Raze it, raze it even to the foundations thereof (Ps. 137:7). The taunts of the Edomites on the day of Jerusalem’s fall was harder for the Judeans to bear than the afflictions visited upon them by the Babylonians. This is also the meaning of Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom (Lam. 4:21), and Neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction (Obad. 1:12). Also, Hyrcanus the elder made the Edomites (Esau’s descendants) guard Jerusalem and had them circumcised. Also, in the days of Agrippa when Jerusalem was taken, troops of Edomites came to Judah’s aid. The Romans who exiled us are from the seed of Kittim. Onkelos similarly explains Kittim to mean Rome in But ships shall come from the coast of Kittim (Num. 24:24). The Kittim are the very kingdom of the Greeks as I have explained in my commentary on the Book of Daniel. [At first there were only a few people who believed in the man that was made into a god. The Romans accepted the belief in this man in the days of Constantine who introduced this new religion to the Romans upon the advice of an Edomite priest and placed upon his flag an image of this man. At that time there was no one in the world aside from a small group of Edomites who followed the new religion. ] Similarly the contemporary inhabitants of Egypt, Sheba and the land of Elam are called Ishmaelites even though only a tiny minority of the people living there are true decendants of the Ishmaelites.

AND SARAI DEALT HARSHLY WITH HER, AND SHE FLED FROM BEFORE HER FACE. Our mother did transgress by this affliction, and Abraham also by his permitting her to do so. And so, G-d heard her [Hagar’s] affliction and gave her a son who would be a wild-ass of a man, to afflict the seed of Abraham and Sarah with all kinds of affliction.

2. Now in a little time Abraham had a son by Sarah, as God had foretold to him, whom he named Isaac, which signifies Laughter. And indeed they so called him, because Sarah laughed when God (25) said that she should bear a son, she not expecting such a thing, as being past the age of child-bearing, for she was ninety years old, and Abraham a hundred; so that this son was born to them both in the last year of each of those decimal numbers. And they circumcised him upon the eighth day and from that time the Jews continue the custom of circumcising their sons within that number of days. But as for the Arabians, they circumcise after the thirteenth year, because Ismael, the founder of their nation, who was born to Abraham of the concubine, was circumcised at that age; concerning whom I will presently give a particular account, with great exactness.

“The Lord demolished and had no compassion for all the abodes of Jacob; He destroyed, in His ire, the strongholds of the daughter of Judah. He brought them to the ground; He profaned a kingdom and its princes” (Lamentations 2:2).
“The Lord demolished and had no compassion for all the abodes of Jacob.” Rabbi Pinḥas said in the name of Rabbi Hoshaya: There were four hundred and eighty synagogues in Jerusalem. From where [is that derived]? “Filled with [mele’ati] justice” (Isaiah 1:21), meleti is written. Each one of them had a school and an academy, a school for Bible and an academy for Mishna.
Another matter, “the Lord demolished and had no compassion for all the abodes [neot] of Jacob,” all the pleasant ones [neotav] of Jacob, like Rabbi Yishmael, Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Yeshevav, Rabbi Yehuda ben Bava, Rabbi Ḥutzpit the disseminator, Rabbi Yehuda the baker, Rabbi Ḥananya ben Teradyon, Rabbi Akiva, ben Azai, and Rabbi Tarfon. Some remove Rabbi Tarfon and insert Rabbi Elazar Ḥarsena.
Rabbi Yoḥanan would expound sixty aspects of “the Lord demolished and had no compassion.” Rabbi [Yehuda HaNasi] would expound twenty-four aspects. It is not that Rabbi Yoḥanan was superior to Rabbi [Yehuda HaNasi], but rather, since Rabbi [Yehuda HaNasi] was close to the destruction of the Temple, he would remember, expound, cry, and be consoled.
Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Rabbi [Yehuda HaNasi] would expound: “A star will arise from Jacob” (Numbers 24:17), do not read it as star [kokhav], but rather as fraudulent [kozav]. Rabbi Akiva, when he would look at that bar Koziva, he would say: ‘This is the messianic king.’ Rabbi Yoḥanan ben Torata said to him: ‘Akiva, grass will grow in your cheeks and he still will not have come.’ Rabbi Yoḥanan said: “The voice is the voice of Jacob [and the hands are the hands of Esau]” (Genesis 27:22), “the voice”—the emperor Hadrian killed eight hundred million people in Beitar. Eighty thousand sounders of horns were laying siege to Beitar. Bar Koziva was there, and he had two hundred thousand men with severed fingers. The Sages sent to him: ‘Until when will you cause Israel to be blemished?’ He said to them: ‘How then can they be tested?’ They said to him: ‘Anyone who does not uproot a Lebanese cedar, let him not be written on your military roster.’ He had two hundred thousand of these and two hundred thousand of those. When they would go out to war they would say: ‘Do not help and do not hinder.’ That is what is written: “Is it not You, God, who had abandoned us, You, God, who would not go out with our armies?” (Psalms 60:12). What would ben Koziva do? He would catch a catapult stone on one of his knees and propel it and kill several of their people. It was due to this that Rabbi Akiva said that.
For three and a half years, the emperor Hadrian surrounded Beitar. Rabbi Elazar Hamoda'i was there, engaged in his sackcloth and his fasting. Each and every day, he would pray and say: ‘Master of the universe, do not sit in judgment today.’ Ultimately, [Hadrian] made up his mind to return. A certain Cuthite came and found him and said to him: ‘My lord, every day that this chicken wallows in the ashes, you will not conquer it. But wait for me, as I will arrange for you to conquer it today.’ Immediately, he entered through the sewer system of the city. He found Rabbi Elazar, who was standing and praying. He made himself look as though he was whispering into the ear of Rabbi Elazar Hamoda'i. They went and told bar Koziva: ‘Your uncle, Rabbi Elazar, seeks to yield the city to Hadrian.’ He sent and had that Cuthite brought [to him]. He said to him: ‘What did you say to him?’ He said to him: ‘If I tell you, the emperor will kill me. If I do not tell you, you will kill me. But it is preferable that I have myself killed than having the secrets of the empire revealed.’
Ben Koziva thought that he wanted to yield the city. When Rabbi Elazar concluded his prayer, he sent and had him brought. He said to him: ‘What did that Cuthite say to you?’ He said to him: ‘I do not know what he whispered in my ear, and I did not hear anything from him, as I was standing in prayer and I do not know what he was saying.’ Ben Koziva was filled with rage. He gave him one kick with his foot and killed him. A Divine Voice emerged and said: “Woe to the worthless shepherd who abandons the flock; a sword upon his arm and upon his right eye” (Zechariah 11:17). It said to him: ‘You paralyzed the arm of Israel and blinded their right eye; therefore, the arm of this man “will wither and his right eye will go blind”’ (Zechariah 11:17). Immediately, the iniquities caused Beitar to be captured. Ben Koziva was killed and they brought his head to Hadrian. He said: ‘Who killed this one?’ A certain Gontite said: ‘I killed this one.’ He said: ‘Go and bring him to me.’ He went to bring him, and he found a serpent wrapped around his neck. [Hadrian] said to him: ‘Had his God not killed him, who could have overcome him?’ He applied to him the verse: “If not that their Rock had sold them” (Deuteronomy 32:30).
They were killing them until the horse was submerged in blood until its nostrils. The blood would roll boulders [weighing] forty se’a and would flow four mil into the sea. And lest you say it is proximate to the sea, it is a distance of four mil from the sea. Hadrian had a large vineyard eighteen mil by eighteen mil, like the distance between Tiberias and Tzippori. He surrounded it with a fence of the slain of Beitar. He did not issue a decree [allowing the dead] to be buried, until a certain [new] emperor arose and issued a decree in their regard, and they buried them. Rabbi Huna said: The day that the slain of Beitar were brought to burial, [the blessing]: Who is good and does good, was instituted. Who is good, because they did not decompose, Who does good, because they were brought to burial.
Beitar existed for fifty-two years after the destruction of the Temple. Why was it destroyed? Because they kindled lamps over the destruction of the Temple. Why did they kindle them? They said: The ruling aristocracy of Jerusalem would sit in the center of the city, and when one of them would ascend to pray, one of them would say to him: ‘Do you wish to become a member of the ruling aristocracy?’ He would say: ‘No.’ ‘Do you wish to become a local governor?’ He would say to him: ‘No.’ [The aristocrat] would say to him: ‘I heard that you have an estate; do you wish to sell it to me?’ He would say to him: ‘I do not intend to do so.’ He would write and send his bill of sale to a member of his household: ‘If so and so comes, do not allow him to enter the estate because he sold it to me.’ That man would say: ‘If only that man’s leg would have been broken and he would not have ascended to that corner.’ That is what is written: “They hunted [tzadu] our steps [from walking in our squares]” (Lamentations 4:18); may the roads be desolate [tzadya] of [people] walking to those plazas. “Our end approaches” (Lamentations 4:18); the end of that Temple, “our days are filled” (Lamentations 4:18); the days of that Temple. They, too, their good did not last, as it is written: “One who rejoices at calamity will not be absolved” (Proverbs 17:5).
Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Three hundred babies’ brains were found on a single rock, and three hundred baskets of phylacteries boxes were found in Beitar, each and every one of them holding three se’a. When you arrive at a tally, you find that there were three hundred se’a.
Rabban Gamliel said: There were five hundred elementary schools in Beitar, and the smallest among them had no fewer than three hundred children. They would say: ‘If our enemies come against us, we will emerge and stab them with these quills.’ When the iniquities were the cause and the enemies came, they wrapped each and every one of them in his scroll and they burned them, and I am the only one of them who survived. He applied to himself the verse: “My eye distressed my soul…” (Lamentations 3:51).
There were two brothers in Kefar Ḥaruva and they would not allow a Roman to pass there whom they did not kill. They said: ‘The entire objective of the matter is to take Hadrian’s crown and place it on Shimon’s head.’ The Romans came, and when they went out [to fight them], a certain elder encountered them and said to them: ‘May the Creator come to your aid against them.’ They said to him: ‘Let Him not help and let Him not hinder.’ Immediately, their iniquities were the cause and they were killed. [The Roman soldiers] brought their heads to Hadrian. He said: ‘Who killed these?’ A certain Gontite said to him: ‘I killed them.’ He said to him: ‘Go bring me their bodies.’ He went and found a serpent wrapped around their necks. [Hadrian] said: ‘Had their God not killed them, who could have overcome them?’ He applied to them the verse: “If not that their Rock had sold them” (Deuteronomy 32:30).
There were two cedars on the Mount of Olives, and beneath one of them there were four stores of sellers of ritually pure items. From one [store], they would take out forty se’a of fledglings each month, which would supply pairs of birds for Israel. Mount Shimon would produce three hundred barrels. Why were they destroyed? If you say it was because of the prostitutes, but was there not only one young woman there and they expelled her? Rabbi Huna said: It is because they would play ball on Shabbat.
There were ten thousand towns on the King’s Mountain. Rabbi Elazar ben Ḥarsom owned one thousand of them. Corresponding to them, he had one thousand ships at sea. Three of those towns, Kavul, Shiḥin, and Magdela, their taxes would be taken up to Jerusalem. Why were they destroyed? Kavul, due to strife; Shiḥin, due to sorcery; Magdela, due to prostitution.
There were three towns in the south that would produce twice the number of those who departed from Egypt, and they were: Kefar Bish, Kefar Shaḥalayim, and Kefar Dikhrin. Kefar Bish, why was its name called Kefar Bish? Because they did not receive guests. Kefar Shaḥalayim, why was its name called Kefar Shaḥalayim? Because they would produce numerous children, like cress. Kefar Dikhrin, why was its name called Kefar Dikhrin? Because every woman there would give birth to male [dikhrin] children. Any woman who wished to bear a female would go outside the town and bear a female. Any other woman who wished to bear a male son, would go there and bear a male. But now, when you attempt to plant six hundred thousand reeds there, the space will not suffice. Rabbi Yoḥanan said: The Land of Israel has contracted.
Rav Huna said: There were three hundred stores of sellers of ritually pure items in Magdela of the Dyers, and three hundred stores of weavers of curtains in Kefar Nimra. Rabbi Yirmeya said in the name of Rabbi Ḥiya bar Abba: There were eighty brothers who were priests, who married eighty sisters who were daughters of priests on one night in Gufna, not including brothers not to sisters, not including sisters not to brothers, not including Levites, and not including Israelites.
Eighty thousand young priests were killed over the blood of Zekharya. Rabbi Yudan asked Rabbi Aḥa: ‘Where did they kill Zekharya, in the Israelite courtyard or the women’s courtyard?’ He said to him: ‘Neither in the Israelite courtyard nor in the women’s courtyard, but rather in the priestly courtyard.’ They did not treat his blood like the blood of a gazelle nor like the blood of a deer. There it is written: “Any man from the children of Israel, or from the strangers who resides among them, who shall hunt game of a beast…he shall [pour out its blood and] cover it with dirt” (Leviticus 17:13). However, here it is written: “For its blood was within it; on a bare rock it placed it. It did not pour it on the ground to cover it with dirt” (Ezekiel 24:7). Why to that extent? “To arouse fury to take vengeance, I placed its blood upon the bare rock that it not be covered” (Ezekiel 24:8).
Israel performed seven transgressions on that day: They killed a priest, a prophet, and a judge, they spilled innocent blood, they desecrated the Name, they impurified the Temple courtyard, and it was Shabbat and Yom Kippur. When Nevuzaradan ascended, he saw that the blood of Zekharya was boiling. He said to them: ‘What is this?’ They said to him: ‘It is the blood of bulls and sheep.’ He brought bulls and sheep but [their blood] was not similar. He said to them: ‘If you tell me, fine. But if not, I will comb the flesh of these people with a comb of iron,’ but they did not tell him. When he said this to them, they said to him: ‘Why should we conceal it from you? We had a prophet, a priest, who would reprimand us in the name of Heaven, [saying] ‘Accept [my words],’ but we did not accept it from him. Rather, we rose against him and killed him.’ He said to them: ‘I will assuage it.’ He brought the Great Sanhedrin and slaughtered them onto it, but it did not rest. He slaughtered the lesser Sanhedrin onto it, but it did not rest. He brought young priests and slaughtered them onto it, but it did not rest. He slaughtered schoolchildren onto it, but it did not rest. He said to it: ‘Zekharya, I have eliminated the best of your people. Is it your will that all of them will be eliminated?’ Immediately, it rested. That wicked one contemplated repentance, and said: ‘One who eliminates a single Israelite soul, it is written in his regard: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, his blood will be spilled by man” (Genesis 9:6), this man who eliminated many souls, all the more so.’ Immediately, the Holy One blessed be He became filled with mercy for them, and He intimated to the blood, and it was absorbed in its place.
Eighty thousand young priests breached the armies of Nebuchadnezzar with gold shields in their hands. They went to the Ishmaelites, who took out salty foods and inflated wineskins. They said to [the Ishmaelites]: ‘Let us drink first.’ They said to them: ‘Eat first and then you will drink.’ After they ate, each and every one of them took the wineskin, placed it in his mouth, and the wind entered his stomach and burst it. That is what is written: “A prophecy of Arabia: In the forest in Arabia you will stay the night, caravans of Dedanites. Bring water to the thirsty. The inhabitants of the land of Teima greeted the wanderer with his bread [for they wandered due to swords, due to the drawn sword and to the bent bow]” (Isaiah 21:13–15). The one who is located “in the forest” of Lebanon “will stay the night.” But “caravans of the Dedanites,” is it the way of cousins to act this way? Is this what their Father did to your ancestor? What is written regarding your ancestor? “God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went and filled the skin with water, and gave the lad to drink” (Genesis 21:19). But you did not fulfill: “Bring water to the thirsty.” Was it because it was good for them that they came to you? “For they wandered due to swords” (Isaiah 21:15), it is due to the sword of Nebuchadnezzar that they wandered.
“Due to a drawn [netusha] sword” (Isaiah 21:15), it is because they did not observe their Sabbatical Years properly, just as it is said: “But the seventh, you shall leave it fallow and relinquish it [untashtah]” (Exodus 23:11). “And to the bent [derukha] bow” (Isaiah 21:15), it is because they did not observe Shabbat properly, just as it is said: “In those days I saw in Judah some treading [dorekhim] winepresses on the Shabbat” (Nehemiah 13:15). “And due to the rigor of the war” (Isaiah 21:15), because they did not engage in the give and take of the war of Torah, of which it is written: “Therefore, it is said in the book of the Wars of the Lord” (Numbers 21:14).
Rabbi Yoḥanan said: From Giveton to Antipatris there were six hundred thousand cities, the smallest of which was Beit Shemesh. That is what is written: “He smote among the men of Beit Shemesh…[and He smote of the people seventy men and fifty thousand men]” (I Samuel 6:19). Now, there are not even one hundred reeds there. Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Its priestly watch was the smallest of the priestly watches and would produce eighty thousand young priests.
How many attacks did Hadrian launch? Two amora’im, one said fifty-two and one said fifty-four. Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Happy is he who saw the downfall of Tadmor. Why? Because it played a role in two destructions. Rabbi Yudan said: In the first destruction it provided eighty thousand archers and in the second it provided forty thousand archers. Rav Huna said: In the latter destruction they were like the first.

Neither go into thy brother’s house in the day of thy calamity. R. Joshua the son of Levi said: When the wicked Nebuchadnezzar exiled the Israelites to Babylon, they bound their hands behind them; and coupled them together with iron chains and led them naked, like beasts. As they were passing the territory of the Ishmaelites, they said to the officers in charge: Be kind and merciful to us and take us to our brethren, the sons of Ishmael, our uncle. They did so. The Ishmaelites went out to meet them, bearing salty bread and briny meat. They brought along empty water bags which they had dipped into water and hung at the doors of their tents. When the Israelites beheld the bags, they felt reassured, for they believed the bags were filled with water. The Ishmaelites said: “Eat the bread first and we will bring you the water.” After they had eaten the bread, the Ishmaelites came and said to them: “We are unable to find any water.” The Israelites thereupon bit into the bags, causing warm air to rush into their stomachs, and they perished. Hence it is said: The burden upon Arabia. In the thickets in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye caravans of Dedanites. Unto him that is thirsty bring ye water! The inhabitants of the land of Tema did meet the fugitive with his bread. For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war (Isa. 21:13–15). What is meant by The burden upon Arabia? It means that a heavy burden would be imposed upon the sons of Arabia. He (God) asked them: Is this the way the Dedanites treat their kinsmen and welcome their uncle’s sons? Usually when a man comes from a highway, they bring bread and water to him, as it is said: Unto him that is thirsty bring ye water (Isa. 21:14), but ye, the inhabitants of the land of Tema, did meet the fugitives with bitter bread. Did you not know that they were fleeing from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow and from the grievousness of war? When your father suffered from thirst in the desert, I disclosed the well of water to him, as is said: And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water (Gen. 21:19), yet now you do such a thing. Hence, Better is a neighbor that is near than a brother far off.