Rosh Hashana begins at sundown on September 28, and ends at sundown September 30. On both days of the holiday, we read from the Torah about Abraham and his family. On the first day, we read about the birth of Isaac and the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael.
A few years ago I was looking once again at these stories, and I realized that Ishmael has no voice in the Torah. He never says anything, nor is his point of view about anything given. So I decided in a group that was writing for the High Holidays to give him a voice, and the midrash that follows is the result. I assume Ishmael's age from Torah; he was 13 when Abraham and he were circumcised, and Isaac was born a year later. Sarah asks for his expulsion after Isaac's weaning, which is about three years after that, making him 16 or 17. I know in the Koranic story, he is a baby at the time, and is sometimes portrayed as such in Jewish commentary as well. But I am going according to the numbers I give above.
I have previously published this at Street Prophets.
In The Wilderness: A Midrash
Ishmael couldn't open his eyes. He tried to think where he was but thinking hurt his head, which was throbbing with pain. He felt hot, and he felt under him the hard sand, not the straw bed of home. As consciousness slowly rose in him, he began to remember things. The party for his little brother's weaning. He had been playing with Isaac, a hiding game, and they were both laughing and teasing each other. His father had been smiling, watching them. Sarah had not.
His father...something about his father was just out of memory.
Now that he was old enough, his father had given him responsibility for the flocks, and he was learning to anticipate their needs. His father was teaching him how to recognize the best ewes to breed this year. He enjoyed his days out in the pasture with the sheep. Was that where he was now? He couldn't remember, but he didn't think so. It was hard to hear through the throbbing in his head, but he didn't think he was hearing the sheep around him, and his father wouldn't have sent him out if he were ill.
He was becoming more and more aware of how ill he was. It was not only his head that ached, his stomach felt like a hot stone inside him, and when he tried to move, he could barely lift his hand. It felt so heavy. He could feel how hot he was, but strangely he was not sweating. Where was his father? Where was his mother? He drifted out of consciousness again, he did not know for how long.
He saw his father and mother. His mother was crying and his father was giving her something. What was it, water? Was he dreaming, or was he awake again? He didn't know. He wanted that picture to go away, but it wouldn't. He cried out. Or he thought he cried out, he couldn't tell. That picture...
He began to feel a great weariness in all his limbs. And the sun feeling like a weight on his head. He remembered walking, trying to help his mother.
Suddenly he was aware of movement. Cool water was poured over his brow. His mother - he recognized her touch - lifted his head and put the water skin to his lips. He almost choked then he drank greedily. She poured some water over his eyes. He opened his eyes and saw her, then he drank some more and so did she.
Now he could hear the sound of a spring nearby. After a while she helped him stand up. Holding hands, they walked together to the spring. "Your father's god did this," she said. "I thought we would die, but he saved us. This is the place where his god saw us."