In this week’s parsha, a son is born to Avraham Avinu and Sarah’s maid Hagar. He is named Yishmael, which means “Hashem will hear.”
Prophesied by the angel to be a “wild man,” ultimately, he was sent out of Avraham’s home in favor of Yitzchak, he was not given any land as an inheritance, and he was very bitter, though at the end of his life, many say he repented, as evidenced by the deference he gave Yitzchak when it was time to bury their father.
His descendants are the Arabs of the Middle East, even to this very day.
The Pirkei D’Rabi Eliezer in Chapter 32 discusses that Yishmael was one of six people whose name was given by Hashem. The angel told Hagar what the boy should be called.
It states there: “Why was his name called Yishmael? Because in the future, the Holy One, blessed be He, will hearken to the cry of the [Jewish] people arising from (the oppression) which the children of Yishmael will bring about in the land at the end of days; therefore was his name called Yishmael, as it says, ‘Hashem will hear and answer them.’”
Yishmael has been foretold to cause the Jews to cry out with his cruel and heartless murder and torture, and it is further foretold that Hashem will answer these cries and speedily bring the Melech HaMoshiach to redeem us, the last of the six whose names are assigned by Hashem.
