At the end of Parshat Chayei Sara, following the death of Avraham Avinu, we learn of the death of Yishmael. There are a number of references in the text from which our Sages learned that Yishmael did teshuvah at the end of his life. The first indication is at the funeral of Avraham Avinu when Yitzchak and Yishmael bring him into Me’arat HaMachpela for burial – Yitzchak before Yishmael (Ber. 25:9). This is contrasted with the funeral of Yitzchak, where Esav insists on going first as the firstborn.
Still, the Maharal raises a question on Rashi’s comment on this pasuk: Clearly, Yitzchak was the son of the wife, and Yishmael that of Avraham’s concubine – it’s only natural that the legitimate son would precede the other. But, Maharal explains, when somebody is truly wicked – as, for example, Esav was – then their hatred of the good informs all their choices, and what is natural or commonsensical isn’t necessarily relevant. If Yishmael had not done teshuvah and if he were truly an evildoer, then he certainly would have fought Yitzchak for primacy on one pretext or another. Thus, we can confirm that, at the funeral at least, Yishmael was not a rasha, whether or not he truly had achieved the status of tzaddik.
A few pesukim later, the Torah tells us that Yishmael became sickly (“vayigva”), he died, and was gathered to his people (ibid. 17). Rashi states that the word we translated as “becoming sickly” is only ever used in the Torah with reference to tzaddikim. Nevertheless, the Siftei Chachamim on this Rashi points out that the same word is used with reference to the evil people who perished in the Flood. Citing the Gemara in Baba Batra (16b), he explains that the distinction lies in whether or not this process of dying is followed by being gathered to one’s people. Maharal, in Gur Arye, expands on this explanation. He says that for the righteous, their physical body interferes with their pure spirituality. When a tzaddik dies, his body is broken down and destroyed so that the purer parts of him can live on. This is the implication of being “gathered to one’s people.” The body is gone, but the essence of the righteous individual becomes part of a larger and eternal community.
Upon the death of Yishmael, the Torah goes into exhaustive detail describing his offspring and their dominions, even listing the courts and castles (ibid. 16). Rabbi David Abuchatzera, who was the grandson of the Abir Yaakov and brother of the Baba Sali, was a spiritual leader of the Jews of Morocco until his untimely martyrdom in the early twentieth century. As someone who was intimately familiar with the qualities of contemporary Islam – both for good and ill – he examined the descriptions of the people and places in the legacy of Yishmael in light of current events. Rabbi Abuchatzera was of the opinion that although Yishmael indeed did teshuvah and died a tzaddik, there was a lot of unresolved moral deficiency in his offspring that is alluded to in the Torah.
In particular, he interprets the courts and the castles as an allusion to the corruption of their ways and their efforts to fortify themselves physically and spiritually against recognizing the will of Hashem in elevating the children of Yitzchak and Yaakov and choosing them to inherit the Land of Israel. Thus, too, Yishmael has twelve principal offspring corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel – one set of tribes rooted in holiness and the other in corruption.
When the Torah relates at the end of the parsha (after already describing the death of Yishmael) that he fell before all his brethren on the approach to Ashur, Rabbi David Abuchatzera interprets this as a reference to the Purim story. When the Jewish people were preparing to leave the exile of Ashur in the court of Achashverosh, already then the heirs of Yishmael who would seek to prevent our return had begun their inexorable fall, from which they shall not rise. The Baal HaTurim points out that this account of the ultimate “fall” of Yishmael is immediately followed by the account of the deeds of Yitzchak. From this he concludes that in the end of days, the final fall of Yishmael – that is, of his descendants – will be immediately followed by the ascendancy of the King of Israel, the return of Jewish sovereignty, and the rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash, may it happen speedily in our time.