Commentary
2) Harvey J. Fields: A Torah Commentary For Our Times
Jewish rituals and customs at the time of mourning are meant to help us face death realistically and to find comfort with friends. Jewish tradition helps us to understand that “death is not the end" but that our loved ones continue to live in the memories and influences they leave behind.
This healthy minded approach of Jewish teachers through the ages provided not only beautiful rituals for the expression of grief, but also a warning that “if we dwell too long on our loss, we embitter our hearts and harm ourselves and those about us." In this regard, the Torah’s description of Abraham’s mourning for Sarah provides us with a very important model. His grief was not endless. Abraham did not stop functioning or taking on responsibilities. While his heart was filled with sadness, he knew that he had to accept her death and get on with the task of her burial and the challenges of his life.
(1) And Sarah's life was a hundred and twenty-seven years; the years of Sarah's life. (2) And Sarah died in Kiriatharba—which is Hebron—in the land of Canaan; and Abraham came to mourn Sarah, and to keen for her. (3) And Abraham rose from before his dead, and spoke to the Hittites, saying: (4) ’I am a sojourning settler with you: Grant me a burial-holding with you, and let me bury my dead now before me.’ (5) And the Hittites answered Abraham, saying unto him: (6) ’Pray, Hear us, my lord: You are a prince of God among us! In the pick of our graves bury your dead; No man among us will deny you his grave for buring your dead.’ (7) And Abraham rose, and bowed down to the folk of the land, to the Hittites. (8) And he spoke with them, saying: ‘If you have it in your hearts that I should bury my dead now before me, hear me, entreat for me Ephron son of Zohar, (9) and let him grant me the cave of Machpelah, that belongs to him, which is at the far end of his field; At the full price let him grant it to me in your midst as a burial-holding.’ (10) And Ephron was sitting in the midst of the Hittites; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites, all assembled in the gate of his town, saying: (11) Pray, my lord, hear me: the field I grant you, and the cave that is in it. I grant it to you in full view of my kinfolk. I grant it to you; bury your dead.’ (12) And Abraham bowed before the folk of the land. (13) And he spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the folk of the land, saying: ‘If you would but hear me: I give the price of the field; take it from me, and let me bury my dead there.’ (14) And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him: (15) ’Pray, My lord, hear me: Land for four hundred silver shekels, between me and you, what does it come to? Go bury your dead.’ (16) And Abraham heeded Ephron; and Abraham weighed out to Ephron the silver that he spoke of in the hearing of the Hittites, four hundred silver shekels at the merchant's tried weight. (17) And Ephron's field at Machpelah, by Mamre, the field and the cave that was in it, and every tree in the field, within its boundaries all around, (18) passed over to Abraham as a possession in full view of the Hittites, all the assembled in the gate of his town. (19) And then Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the Machpelah field by Mamre—which is Hebron—in the land of Canaan. (20) And the field, and the cave that was in it passed over toAbraham as a burial-holding from the Hittites.
Translation adapted from Robert Alter's
The Five Books of Moses
(62) And Isaac had come from the approach of Beer-lahai-roi; as he was dwelling in the Negeb region. (63) And Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening; and he raised his eyes, and saw, and, look, camels were coming. (64) And Rebekah raised her eyes, and saw Isaac, and she alighted from the camel. (65) And she said to the servant: ‘Who is that man walking in the field toward us?’ And the servant said: ‘He is my master.’ And she took her veil, and covered her face. (66) And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. (67) And Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother, and took Rebekah, as wife; and he loved her, and Isaac was consoled after his mother.
Translation adapted from Robert Alter's The Five Books of Moses
Commentaries
1) Robert Alter: The Five Books of Moses
v67: Into the tent of Sarah his mother. The proposal of some textual critics to delete “Sarah, his mother” as a scribal error should be resisted. Rebekah fills the emotional gap left by Sarah’s death, as the end of the verse indicates, and with the first matriarch deceased, Rebekah also takes up the role of matriarch in the family. It is thus exactly right that Isaac should bring her into his mother’s tent.
2) Harvey J. Fields: A Torah Commentary For Our Times
v67: The meaning of the words, “he took Rebekah as his wife, and Isaac loved her…” are meant to indicate that he was deeply grieved by his mother’s death and found no real comfort until he found love with Rebekah. It was that love that really comforted him.
In the Targum, Oneklos, an early Aramaic translation of the Torah used in the synagogue, we read: “And Isaac brought her into the tent and, behold, she was like Sarah his mother.” That is why the Torah mentions that Isaac “loved her.” It is meant to teach us that, because of Rebekah’s righteousness and the kindness of her deeds, Isaac loved her and was comforted by her. (Nachmanides on Genesis 24:67)
Closing Song
עֹשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם בִּמְרוֹמָיו, הוּא יַעֲשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם עָלֵיֽנוּ וְעַל כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל, וְאִמְרוּ : אָמֵן
Oseh shalom bimromav, hu yaaseh shalom aleinu v'al kol Yisrael, v'imru: Amen.
May the One who causes peace to reign in the high heavens
let peace descend on us and on all Israel, and let us say: Amen.