In Psalms we find the familiar direction to " Seek peace and pursue it" (34:15). Of course we all know that peace in Hebrew is shalom. The root for "shalom" though means "whole" or "complete" and from this we understand that for Jews, peace is somehow dependent upon Wholeness. It is always interesting when a message seems to repeat itself in our sacred text. "Seeking" and "Pursuing" seem like the same thing. But the Hebrew words are different. One word seems to indicate that we are to be a voice for peace and the other seems to say that we are also to take action and work for peace.

Another well-known reference to peace from our tradition is at the end of our Torah service when we say of the Torah, "...Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace." It is my belief that everything we ever want or need to know can be found in Torah... on some level of her. These Truths can be found in other places as well but, for Jews, The Torah is the first place to look. A clue to the art of understanding The Torah can be found in Pirke Avot, 5:26, "Ben Bag Bag says: Turn it this way and turn it that way, for everything is in it and, through it you will perceive clearly; grow old and gray in it and from it do not depart, for there is no better pursuit for you than it."

I didn't know I was going to be a peacemaker. Before coming to Texas, 24 years ago, I barely knew anyone who wasn't Jewish. I never dreamed that I would end up convening a dialogue group of Muslims, Christians and Jews. But that is what happened as a result of delving into the Torah. I am going to take you for a journey down one path of The Torah that had many obstacles for me. But you will see as I turn Her this way and that... I will show you how I found a path of peace.

Shortly after Rabbi Block arrived at Temple Beth El he instituted The Shabbat Morning Adult Torah Study. As innocent as this seems, it soon became apparent that he had created a monster in me. Some of you may have heard about me in those early years and of my unusual mystical interpretations, which challenged Rabbi Block's patience to say the least. We sure had some lively conversations back then. It was during Adult Torah Study, that first year, I sensed an impending problem. A real discomfort started to well up in me. I knew even before we got to the Torah portion that it was coming because I was familiar enough with the story of Abraham. I recalled his two sons Isaac, the Jewish Patriarch, and his older half-brother Ishmael, the ancestor of the Arab peoples. I also remembered that some of the story was alarming yet I hoped that The Torah would not let me down... that She would prove to be a Torah Orah, a Teaching of Light and that as Ben Bag Bag promised me, I would "perceive clearly."

When we began the story of Abraham with God's directive "Lech Lecha," "Go, Go to yourself," I was excited but as we reached Chapter 16 of Genesis, I became quickly uneasy. At this point in the story we are dealing with Abram and his wife Sarai. God has not yet changed their names to Abraham and Sarah. Sarai is barren and concerned about the fact that God had promised Abram his heirs would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Knowing she is old, Sarai decides to give Abram her personal handmaiden, Hagar, so that she might become a mother through Hagar and give Abram an heir.

Abram does his part and before long Hagar is pregnant with his child. When Hagar realizes that she is pregnant she feels quite special. Then as you can easily imagine this seemingly good idea turns quickly bad as the women proceed to torment each other.

Because of Sarai's harsh treatment, Hagar runs away but an angel of the Lord appears to her and tells her that God has paid heed to her suffering. Hagar is told to return to Sarai but not before the angel explains that Hagar will have a son and name him Ishmael, because "God heard" her. The Torah also says other things about the nature of Ishmael and his descendants that are often times translated in an unfavorable way. Then later, after Isaac is born, the Torah tells us that Sarah becomes upset at Ishmael and orders Abraham to send him and his mother, Hagar away for good. Abraham very reluctantly obeys which causes Hagar and Ishmael to nearly die in the desert.

I must admit that this story really disturbed me. The treatment of Hagar seemed very unfair, even mean... and the reasons for it were way too vague to justify. How could I reconcile Sarah's actions? After all, Hagar's own name, "Ha Gar" seemed to mean "The Stranger." We are told time and again in our liturgy, to honor the stranger in our midst and to treat them well. So I looked up that quote and found it in Exodus: 23:9 "You shall not oppress the stranger for you know the feelings of the stranger having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt." The Hebrew though hints at more than just a casual understanding of slavery. Rather it indicates having an "intimate knowledge" of the "soul" of a stranger. Could this mean that having been slaves was supposed to condition us for a higher sense of compassion and empathy? Could we chalk up Sarah's behavior to the fact that our own slavery experience as a people had not yet occurred? Perhaps, but then also, a more current question loomed. What might this tell us about our actions as a people in the present?

Then I had to take a closer look at some of the words used to describe Ishmael. They were quite unsettling. Not only did there appear to be name-calling but, the question arose, "How could this depiction not be called racist?" Surely The Torah could not be racist. This looked like the kind of thing we pointed to in other peoples' texts and said was anti-Semitic. Again a careful examination of the Hebrew brought the clarity and higher wisdom that I sought.

There are more explanations than I have time to go into here. However, one possible way of reading the message of Ishmael is that he will be "in the face of his brethren." What does it mean to be in someone's face and who are Ishmael's brethren? Well, it has been my experience that when something is in my face it is usually "pushing a button" and drawing attention to something about me that I don't want to look at. Usually, some great realization and growth comes from that kind of situation. And an occurrence that starts out distasteful actually ends up serving a Higher Good.

Also as the descendants of Isaac, Ishmael's half-sibling, the Jewish people can certainly be understood to be brethren of Ishmael. The whole Middle East can suddenly be reduced to a mere family problem. In today's world is it not a common occurrence for a man to have children from more than one marriage or woman? And isn't it always the most emotionally healthy response if somehow the mothers can recognize and support their children's half siblings and step mothers? This is not easy but I believe this is one of lessons Sarah and Hagar are trying to teach us.

When the story began, Sarai had not yet become Sarah. The letter "HEY" is the letter that gets added to her name. It is a letter connected with God. As Sarai maybe she was not yet operating at her fullest spiritual potential. She had not trusted that God could and would accomplish whatever needed to have happened. Sarai could not logically see how Abram could achieve the great nation that was promised him with her being barren. Perhaps in her doubt she interfered by thinking she needed to help the situation along by giving Hagar to Abram in order to make God's promise come true. While still Sarai, she may have set into motion an alternate plan, a plan that we, in our day, are challenged to rectify.

Our tradition teaches that all of our heroes and heroines had flaws and shortcomings. This was certainly true perhaps of Sarai but even Moses had his shortcomings. It is from this though we are taught that anyone can and must come forward to try and mend our world.

If it is, the Ishmaelites who become the Arabs, then who really are they? Are they our enemy and what does that mean? The great Israeli General Moshe Dayan once said that, "If you want to make peace you don't talk to your friends, you talk to your enemies." It becomes really very clear then what an enemy is... An enemy is our peace partner! Without an enemy, we cannot perform one of the highest of all Mitzvot, making peace. An enemy can provide another way of looking in the mirror and seeing the B'tzelem Elohim, the Image of God, reflected back in a new perspective. One's enemy can provide the opportunity to evolve more fully.

Through the turning of The Torah I learned many things about Ishmael. God promises to place in him a great nation and he too would have twelve tribes which is a number that indicates a whole people. His nationhood is defined in the Torah even before the nation of Israel. The Torah even indicates that after Isaac is nearly sacrificed he goes off and settles in the last place we are told Ishmael lives. It seems natural that a sibling would seek the comfort of a big brother following a traumatic event with a parent. When their father Abraham dies, The Torah points out both Ishmael and Isaac bury Abraham... together, like brothers should.

So, let us see where this walk down a pathway of Torah has taken us.

First, Abraham shows us we have to get up and get out there in the world. In the classic Kabbalistic text, The Zohar, we are told that before Earthly life begins, the soul dwells in The World To Come, in close proximity to G-d. There it understands revelation with such clarity that there is essentially no free will and therefore no chance for spiritual growth and advancement so it is called "omaid" a standee, or one who stands. But, once in this World, the soul has free will and thereby can make progress in the spiritual sense. Here he is called a "holaich" a walker and struggles to overcome the challenges of humanity. The goal of our "Neshemah" is to enter this physical place with all of its materialism, enticements and the emotions that come with being in human form, and yet maintain priorities consistent with the world from where our soul was sent. Through Abraham, an old guy, a spiritual beginner, we learn Lech L'cha, go and become a walker... It's never too late to get out there on the road and encounter new people, places and to make a difference in the world.

But we also learn something profound and powerful from the story of his sons, Isaac and Ishmael. In the narrative both of Abraham's sons nearly die and in each case God saves him. I don't believe God saves these half brothers just so that some day the descendants of one side will destroy the descendants of the other. We learned with Cain and Able there are better ways to honor God than by killing a brother. Rather, God saves both Ishmael and Isaac because God needs both of these sons of Abraham. They are our legacy... for it is through us, the descendants of both Isaac and Ishmael that the world will come to see, please God, how peace will be made to reign upon the Earth. Then Abraham's legacy, our legacy, will surely be a " light unto the nations."

Amen