Vayera: Open Your Eyes

In parshas Vayera, Abraham must reluctantly send his concubine Hagar and their son Ishmael away when it is made known to him that Ishmael is a threat to his newborn son Isaac. Hagar and Ishmael travel into the desert, and there they run out of water. Ishmael becomes deathly ill, and Hagar weeps as she anticipates the inevitable death that awaits her son.

But an angel appears to Hagar and tells her that God has heard her cry and that they will be saved and Ishmael will become a great nation. At that point “God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water, and she went and filled the pouch with water and gave the lad to drink” (Genesis 21:19).

The sages ask what it means that “God opened her eyes.” Does this imply that the well was there all along and Hagar simply did not see it? Or could it be that there was no well previously, but now God miraculously created one in order to provide them the water they needed?

The precision of the wording indicates that there was no new creation. Yet it is clear that Hagar was not blind. Why then did she not see the well that was right in front of her? The Midrash comments on this verse that “we are all considered blind until G-d opens our eyes” (Midrash Rabba, Vayera 53:14). The Sfas Emes quotes this Midrash and states that “all that a person requires stands before him always, and he only needs to open his eyes to see” (Sfas Emes Vayera 5655).

Later in the same parsha, we read the story of the binding of Isaac. Just as Abraham is about to sacrifice his son, the angel stops him. At that point, “Abraham raised his eyes and saw a ram entangled by its horns in a thicket” (Genesis 22:13). Once again, we find a parent whose child is on the verge of death, and once again, the tragedy is averted and we see that one finds precisely what he requires as soon as his eyes are lifted or opened.

Both of these episodes are related in parshas Vayera, which means “And He appeared to Him.” The lesson is that G-d is with us and before us always. When we are facing challenges, we do not ask where is G-d and why has He forsaken me. Rather we must know that He is here now and we must strive to perceive Him in the darkness. When we “open our eyes” in this way, He will appear to us. We will see that He is always present, and we will thus be delivered from all of our trials and tribulations.

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