The Tears of Abraham - Parshat Hayei Sara

(1) And Sarah’s life came to one hundred and twenty-seven years — those were the years of Sarah's life . (2) Sarah died in Kiryat Arba—now Hevron—in the land of Canaan; and Abraham came to eulogize Sarah and to cry over her. (3) Then Abraham rose up from his dead, and spoke to the Hittites, saying, (4) “I am a resident foreigner among you; sell me a burial site among you, so that I may remove my dead for burial.”

To eulogize Sarah and to cry over her — The narrative of the death of Sarah follows immediately on that of the Binding of Isaac, because through the announcement of the Binding — that her son had been made ready for slaughter and had almost been slaughtered — her soul flew from her and she died.

And Abraham came to eulogize Sarah and to cry over her -

...We always find that crying comes before eulogizing, but here it is the opposite! (As it says in Talmud Moed Katan 27b: "3 days of crying and 7 days of eulogy.") And so it appears that with most deaths, the grief becomes lessened over time, because with the passing of days, everything is forgotten. But with a tzadeket like this, every day they felt her absence more and more, because of the absence of her Torah and her good deeds, which were now lost to the generation. And so it places the eulogy before the crying. Furthermore, our Rabbis of blessed memory said that, "Anyone whose first wife dies, it is as if the Holy Temple had been destroyed in his days." (Sanhedrin 22a) So at first he came to eulogize her, for her sake, but he did not cry over her because he knew that she was ascending to the heights, to a more precious and honored place than she had on this gloomy earth. But afterwards, he cried over the Holy Temple that had been destroyed in his days, and so did the Angels of Peace weep bitterly over its destruction.

And Abraham came to eulogize Sarah and to cry over her -

The 'kaf' (כ) in "to cry over her" is one of the small letters in the Torah. And it seems to me that is a hint to what it says in Talmud Bava Batra: "And God had blessed Abraham with everything (bakol)..." (Gen. 24:1) means that Abraham had a daughter and Bakol was her name. But she died. While Sarah was alive, he did not feel as severely the loss of his daughter, because he was not alone, and because he could take comfort in Sarah. But when she also died, and he was left alone, he began to feel the loss and to become bitter and cry also over the death of his daughter.

For we know in general that smallness indicates loss and diminishing. But also, if you remove the 'kaf' (כ) from "and to cry over her," (ולבכתה) it reads "and for her daughter." (ולבתה)

Avraham rose up from his dead (Genesis 23:3) - This teaches us that he saw the Angel of Death coming after him.