Why Sarah's Word Sent Hagar and Ishmael Into the Wilderness

"Whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her voice" (Genesis 21:12). There is one who listens and is rewarded (as is written in remez 33). "For through Isaac shall offspring be called to you" (Genesis 21:12): through Isaac, but not all of Isaac. The word "through Isaac" [be-Yitzchak, whose letter bet has the numerical value two] hints at two: through the one who acknowledges the two worlds [this world and the world to come]. "And he took bread and a skin of water" (Genesis 21:14), for such is the way of servants, who draw water in their jugs. "He placed it on her shoulder, and the child": but Ishmael was seventeen years old, and you say He placed him on her shoulder? Rather, this teaches that Sarah cast an evil eye upon him, and because of this he fell ill, and a fever and pains entered him. You may know this is so, for it is written, "And the water in the skin was used up" (Genesis 21:15), since it is the way of a sick person to drink at every hour. "And she cast the child under one of the bushes" (Genesis 21:15): it was a broom shrub, for such bushes [retamim] grow in the wilderness. They are called "bushes" [sichim] because there the ministering angels conversed [hesichu] with her. "And she went and sat herself down at a distance" (Genesis 21:16). Here it says "at a distance," meaning far off, while elsewhere it says, "Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure" (Joshua 3:4). From this we learn that "opposite" [neged] in "at a distance" [mi-neged] means far off, derived from the word "far" [rachok].