Turns out, sometimes those tiny words hold enormous secrets. Take the story of Ishmael, son of Abraham and Hagar, in Genesis 21:20: “God was with [et] the lad, and he grew. He lived in the wilderness and became an archer.”

That little word, et. What's it doing there?

Rabbi Yishmael had the same question. He went straight to the expert, Rabbi Akiva, the star pupil of Naḥum of Gam Zo. Now, Naḥum of Gam Zo was famous for a specific teaching: certain words in Hebrew are restrictive (like akh and rak), while others are inclusive (like et and gam). Rabbi Yishmael wanted to know exactly what et was including in the phrase "God was with et the lad".

Rabbi Akiva's answer is fascinating. He said, imagine if it just said, "God was the lad." That would be… problematic. Instead, the Torah says, "God was with the lad." Then he quotes Deuteronomy 32:47: “For it is not an empty thing for you [mikem]"; if it appears empty, it is from you [mikem]… because you do not know how to expound." In other words, if something in the Torah seems meaningless, it's on us to dig deeper.

So, what does et hanaar, "et the lad," include? According to Rabbi Akiva, it includes Ishmael himself, his donkey drivers, his camel drivers, and all the members of his household! It's not just about Ishmael as an individual; it's about the entire community that surrounds him.

And what about Ishmael becoming an archer? The verse says he "became an archer [roveh kashat]." The Midrash plays with these words. It says he grew [rava], but his obstinacy [vekashyuto] remained with him. Or, perhaps, he grew [rava] and trained as an archer, becoming greater [rava] than all the other archers.

Finally, Genesis 21:21 tells us, "He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took him a wife from the land of Egypt." Rabbi Yitzchak offers a beautiful, almost melancholic, explanation. He says, "Toss a stick into the air, and it will fall on its base." We all tend to return to our roots. And Ishmael's roots, through his mother Hagar, were in Egypt. As it's written, "She had an Egyptian maidservant, and her name was Hagar" (Genesis 16:1). So, naturally, his mother sought a wife for him from her homeland.

So, what do we take away from this deep dive into a few short verses? Maybe it's this: that even the smallest details in the Torah are packed with meaning, waiting for us to uncover them. That our roots run deep, shaping who we are, even when we wander far from home. And that sometimes, the people we surround ourselves with – our "donkey drivers" and "household members" – are just as important as we are.