Torah Study towards Peace for B'nei Avraham

His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, facing Mamre,

His sons Yitzchok and Yishmael buried him in the Machpeilah cave, in the field of Ephron, son of Tzochar, the Chitite, which faces Mamrei.

And Izhak and Ishmael his sons buried him in the double cavern, at the field of Ephran bar Zochar, the Hittite, which is before Mamre;

יצחק וישמעאל ISAAC AND ISHMAEL — From this we gather that Ishmael repented of his evil ways (cf.Bava Batra 16b) and yielded the precedence to Isaac. This is what is meant by the “good old age” mentioned in connection with Abraham (Genesis Rabbah 38:12).

ויקברו אותו יצחק וישמעאל בניו , “and his sons Yitzchak and Ishmael buried him.” Seeing that Ishmael was the senior of the brothers, the Torah should have mentioned his name first. The fact that the Torah did not do so shows that our sages were correct when they said (Baba Batra 16) that Ishmael had become a penitent while Avraham was still alive and that he had acknowledged Yitzchak’s status as Avraham’s major descendant. When Yitzchak died, the Torah writes: “Esau and Yaakov his sons buried him” (Genesis 35,29). Clearly, the contrast between what is written here and what is written there must tell us something, seeing Esau was a non-penitent firstborn born of the same mother as had given birth to Yaakov. Though he had “sold” his birthright, the Torah still lists Esau there as the elder brother. Death is described in six different forms throughout the Bible, three of which are applicable to the wicked and three to the righteous. The three terms applied to a wicked person dying are: מחייה, אבדן, כרת. Death described as מחייה is the worst of the three deaths. It is applied to the deaths of the kind of wicked people who have neither Torah knowledge nor ordinary wisdom to their credit and remained unaware of the Creator and His wonderful deeds. Such people’s death is no different than the death of animals. Their souls perish as absolutely as do their bodies. Proverbs 13,9 ונר רשעים ידעך, “and the lamp of the wicked will be extinguished,” compares the soul of the wicked person to a lamp, explaining that this soul is dependent on the body it inhabits much as the light of a lamp is dependent on its oil supply. When that supply fails the light is extinguished. This group of wicked people has neither reward nor punishment to look forward to ever. [I suppose the reference is to the time of resurrection. Ed.] Examples of such people were the people of the generation who perished during the deluge of whom the sages have said that just as they have been wiped out on earth their life expectancy in the hereafter has also been wiped out (compare Sanhedrin 108). The sages there concentrated on the words וימח את כל היקום, “He erased all creatures” (Genesis 7,23). This line refers to their destruction in this life, whereas the subsequent words וימחו מן הארץ in verse 24 in the same chapter refer to their becoming extinct in any form of life in the future.
The expression אבדן when applied to the death of the wicked refers to such Israelite sinners as died without benefit of having repented their sins prior to their deaths. They are being judged after their physical death in Gehinom; this is the meaning of Leviticus 23,30 והאבדתי את הנפש ההיא. Such a death is worse than the death described by the Torah as כרת. The people guilty of the penalty called כרת are judged and after they have completed whatever length of punishment has been decreed for them, their souls are admitted to the hereafter.
The three types of deaths mentioned in connection with the righteous are:
1) גויעה, אסיפה, ביאה — All three of these types of death are mentioned in connection with Avraham. This means that these three are all of the same category [as Avraham certainly died only once. Ed.] We read in 25,8 ויגוע ויאסף; we also have the Torah telling Avraham about his death in the future where G’d said to him in Genesis 15,15 ואתה תבא אל אבותיך בשלום, “as far as you are concerned you will come to join your fathers in peace.” Expressions of death involving either of the three words mentioned in connection with Avraham apply to the kind of righteous people who transfer to Gan Eden immediately upon the death of their bodies, not having to face any punishment at all. Such a death was the lot of Ishmael, of whom the Torah writes ויגוע וימת ויאסף אל עמיו. Clearly, he had become a penitent.
2) The second type of death involving the righteous is described in the Torah by the word לקיחה, “being taken away.” Such an expression is applied to people who enter Gan Eden while physically alive such as Chanoch (Genesis 5, 24) of whom the Torah wrote: “he was no longer, as G’d had taken him.” The prophet Elijah experienced a similar “death,” as he had told his disciple Elisha (Kings II 2,10) אם תראה אותי לוקח מאתך, “if you will see me taken from you, etc.”
3) The third type of death applicable to the righteous is described as “rest.” This is an expression promising the righteous participation in the resurrection, a time which our sages have described with the words מנוחה or שבת. This promise was applied to Daniel who had been told (Daniel 12,13) ואתה לך לקץ ותנוח ותעמוד לגורלך לקץ הימין, “But you, go on to the end; you shall rest and arise to your destiny at the end of the days.”

Ravina asked: But isn’t there Ishmael, about whom gevia and asifa are written, as it is stated: “And these are the years of the life of Yishmael…and he expired and died [vayyigva vayyamot]; and was gathered to his people” (Genesis 25:17)? Meanwhile Rava, who had heard the discussion in his dozed state, fully awoke and said to them: Children [dardekei], this is what Rabbi Yoḥanan says: Ishmael repented in the lifetime of his father, as it is stated: “And Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, buried him” (Genesis 25:9). The fact that Ishmael allowed Isaac to precede him demonstrates that he had repented and accepted his authority.

“Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Makhpela, in the field of Efron, son of Tzohar the Hitite, that is before Mamre” (Genesis 25:9).
“Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Makhpela” – here the maidservant’s son [Ishmael] accorded honor to the mistress’s son [Isaac, by allowing him to go first].
“The field that Abraham purchased from the children of Ḥet; there Abraham was buried, and Sarah his wife” (Genesis 25:10).
“The field that Abraham purchased” – Rabbi Tanḥuma said: Were there not thirty-eight years between Sarah’s burial and Abraham’s burial? And yet you say here: “There Abraham was buried, and Sarah his wife”? The explanation is that it is to teach you that everyone who performed kindness to Sarah [in attending her funeral] was privileged to perform kindness for Abraham [in attending his funeral as well].
Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman said: Shem and Ever were walking before his bier, and they saw an empty spot alongside her [Sarah] for our patriarch Abraham, and they buried him in that adjacent plot, in the place that was prepared and designated for him.

And at that time Abraham again took a wife in his old age, from the land of Canaan, and her ‎name was Keturah; and she bare unto him: Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and ‎Ishbak, and Shuah—six sons. And the sons of Zimran were: Abihen, and Molech, and Marim. ‎And the sons of Jokshan were: Sheba and Dedan. And the sons of Medan were: Amido, and ‎Joab, and Gochi, and Elisha, and Notach. And the sons of Midian were: Ephah, and Epher, and ‎Chanoch, and Abi da, and Eldaah. And the sons of Ishbak were: Makiro, and Bejodua, and ‎Tator. And the sons of Shuah were: Bildad, and Mamdad, and Meman, and Mehan. All these ‎are the families of the children of Keturah, the Canaanitish woman, which she bare unto ‎Abraham, the Hebrew. And Abraham sent all of them away, giving them gifts, and they went ‎away from Isaac his son, to locate wheresoever they should find a suitable place; and they ‎went all unto the mountains eastward and they built unto themselves six cities and they dwelt ‎therein even unto this day. And the children of Shebah and Dedan, the sons of Jokshan, did ‎not dwell with their brethren in their cities, and they journeyed about camping in the countries ‎and in the deserts even unto this day; and the children of Midian, son of Abraham, went ‎eastward of the land of Cush, where they discovered a large valley in the country of the east, ‎and they located there and built a city, and they dwelt in it. That is the land of Midian unto this ‎day. And Midian dwelt in the city which he built, with his five sons and all belonging unto him; ‎and these are the names of Midian's sons, according to their names and their cities: Ephah, ‎and Epher, and Chanoch, and Abida, and Eldaah. And the sons of Ephah were: Methach, and ‎Meshar, and Avi, and Tzanua. And the sons of Epher were: Ephron, and Zur, and Alirun, and ‎Medin. And the sons of Chanoch were: Reuel, and Rekem, and Azi, and Alyoshub, and Alad. ‎And the sons of Abida were: Chur, and Melud, and Keruy, and Molchi. And the sons of Eldah ‎were: Miker, and Reba, and Malchiyah, and Gabol. These are the names of the Midianites ‎according to their families; and afterwards the families of Midian spread throughout the land ‎of Midian. And these are the families of Ishmael, the son of Abraham, whom Hagar, Sarah's ‎handmaid, bare unto Abraham. - - And Ishmael took a wife from the land of Egypt, and her ‎name was Ribah, the same is Meribah. And Ribah bare unto Ishmael: Nebayoth, and Kedar, ‎and Adbeel, and Mibsam, and their sister Bosmath. And Ishmael disowned his wife Ribah, and ‎she went from him and returned to Egypt to the house of her father, and she dwelt there, for ‎she had been very wicked in the sight of Ishmael, and in the sight of his father Abraham. And ‎Ishmael afterward took a wife from the land of Canaan, and her name was Malchuth, and she ‎bare unto him: Nishma, and Dumah, and Masa, and Chadad, and Tema, and Yetur, and ‎Naphish, and Kedma. These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, twelve ‎princes according to their nations; and the families of Ishmael spread forth,

Genesis ‎25,13. “And these are the names of Yishmael’s children ‎according to their names and their further developments.” ‎According to Rashi the line is to be understood as the Torah ‎recording the names in the chronological order in which they ‎were born. The reason why Rashi emphasizes this is because ‎there are numerous occasions when the Torah does not list the ‎name of the children in this order, for instance: Genesis 9,18 ‎when the Torah lists the names of Noach’s sons as ‎שם, חם, ויפת‎, ‎naming ‎שם‎ first, although Yaphet was the firstborn. Similarly, in ‎Genesis 25,9 where Avraham’s burial is described, Yitzchok is ‎mentioned ahead of his older brother Yishmael as he was the ‎more righteous of the two.‎