Missing parshah
The Life of Sarah
Genesis 23:1 - 25:18
11/18/24
11/13/23
The Life of Sarah
SUMMARY
* Abraham purchases the cave of Machpelah in order to bury his wife Sarah. (23:1-20)
* Abraham sends his servant to find a bride for Isaac. (24:1-9)
* Rebekah shows her kindness by offering to draw water for the servant's camels at the well. (24:15-20)
* The servant meets Rebekah's family and then takes Rebekah to Isaac, who marries her. (24:23-67)
* Abraham takes another wife, named Keturah. At the age of one hundred and seventy-five years, Abraham dies, and Isaac and Ishmael bury him in the cave of Machpelah. (25:1-11)
Reform Judaism
Rebecca's kindness to the animals is often the focus when teaching this story. However, there is more to chesed (the Hebrew term for lovingkindness) than her actions with the animals.
Kindness first requires that you be considerate, seeing another person, their circumstances, and their need. Rebecca knew that not only the man but also the camels would need water. She also knew that they were too tired to get it themselves,or at least would appreciate the extra effort.
Kindness requires an act of friendliness, an assumption of good will. Rebecca was not startled or offended by the request for water by the stranger. She assumed that he was in need and worked to help.
Finally, kindness requires selflessness and generosity. Rebecca does not want or expect anything in return for her actions. The text does not focus on the exertion required to offer water to the servant and all his camels, nor on how it might have been inconvenient or even dangerous for her.
In Chayei Sarah, we read the rather peculiar line: Ger v’toshav anochi imachem ..., “I am a resident foreigner living for a time among you; sell me a gravesite among you, that I may bury my dead here” (Gen 23:4). This is what Abraham says as he petitions the owner of a field for the right to purchase land for the gravesite for his wife Sarah.
That word is zakein, which, generally speaking, means “old.” Genesis 24:1 begins, “Abraham was old (zakein), well advanced in years.” The term comes up again when Abraham’s own son Isaac is dying, and many times over throughout the Hebrew Bible, including at the deathbed scene of King David, which begins this week’s Haftarah: “King David was old, well advanced in years …” (I Kings 1:1).
Sarah's death is not the only one mentioned in Chayei Sarah. Abraham dies as well. Coming at the end of the parashah, Torah tells us that "Abraham breathed his last and died in good old age, full of age, and was gathered to his people" (Genesis 25:8). But what has always intrigued me comes in the very next verse: "HIs sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah ..." (Genesis 25:9).
This is the only time these two half-brothers ever appear together in Torah. Regardless of how much the Rabbis attribute to their imagined contentious relationship (see commentaries on Genesis 21:9), the funeral is all we have. To be sure, they both had reason to be absent. This is the same Abraham who cast Ishmael out and abandoned him to the wilderness (Genesis 21:14). This is the same Abraham who tried to slaughter Isaac only to be stopped at the last moment by an angel of God (Genesis 22). Both sons could have found a convenient excuse to stay away, to let someone else bury their dad.
Nor, lest we forget, are they Abraham's only children. Abraham married again, Keturah, and she bore Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah (Genesis 25:2). Yet not one of them showed up at the burial. And even more, Torah is clear when it reminds us that "Abraham gave all that he owned to Isaac" (Genesis 25:5). Which is to say, Ishmael got nothing. And yet still he was present at his father's burial. Next to Isaac, the one who got everything.
A Year with the Sages
Love in a marriage is not to be taken for granted in the conditions of those times. Rather, it was unusual. We may assume that Abraham loved Sarah, but it is never stated. We know that Jacob loved Rachel. Society at the time was patriarchal; women were far from having equal legal status with men. Nevertheless, this section presents a very positive view of marriage and of the woman’s role in it. Her consent to the marriage is required here; love and respect are seen, and mutuality is implied. It is significant that the Torah pays much attention to the Matriarchs and honors them so.”
Excerpt From
A Year with the Sages
Reuven Hammer
Sacks
Land and Children
“Abraham, the first bearer of the covenant, receives two promises – both stated five times. The first is of a land. Time and again he is told, by God, that the land to which he has travelled – Canaan – will one day be his:”
“The second was the promise of children, also stated five times:
I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. (12:2)”
“Now as then, the divine promise does not mean that we can leave the future to God. That idea has no place in the imaginative world of the first book of the Torah. On the contrary: the covenant is God’s challenge to us, not ours to God. The meaning of the events of Ḥayei Sara is that Abraham realised that God was depending on him. Faith does not mean passivity. It means the courage to act and never to be deterred. The future will happen, but it is we – inspired, empowered, given strength by the promise – who must bring it about.”
Prayer and Conversation
“Thus there are three modes of spirituality and we experience each in the course of a single day. There is the human quest (Abraham, morning prayer), the divine encounter (Jacob, evening prayer), and the dialogue (Isaac, afternoon prayer). That is how three events in the life of the patriarchs – Abraham’s early morning rise, Isaac’s afternoon meditation in a field, and Jacob’s vision at night – became not isolated events in the past but permanent possibilities for those who follow in their footsteps, guided by their precedent, lifted by their example, enlarged by their spirit, summoned to their heights.”
Parental Authority and the Choice of a Marriage Partner
On Judaism and Islam
“First, they point out that Be’er-laḥai-ro’i, the place from which Isaac was coming when Rebecca saw him, is mentioned once before in Genesis (16:14): It is the spot where Hagar, pregnant and fleeing from Sarah, encountered an angel who told her to return. It is indeed she who gives the place its name, meaning “the well of the Living One who sees me” (16:14). The midrash thus says that Isaac went to Be’er-laḥai-ro’i in search of Hagar. When Isaac heard that his father was seeking a wife for him, he said, “Shall I be married while my father lives alone? I will go and return Hagar to him.”1
Hence the sages’ answer to the second question: who was Keturah? She was, they said, none other than Hagar herself. It is not unusual for people in the Torah to have more than one name: Jethro, Moses’s father-in-law, had seven. Hagar was called Keturah because “her acts gave forth fragrance like incense (ketoret).”2 This indeed integrates Abraham’s second marriage as an essential component of the narrative. Hagar did not end her days as an outcast. She returned, at Isaac’s prompting and[…]”
“This also changes the painful story of the banishment of Ishmael. We know that Abraham did not want to send him away – Sarah’s demand was “very grievous in Abraham’s sight on account of his son” (21:11). Nonetheless, God told Abraham to listen to his wife. There is, however, an extraordinary midrash, in Pirkei deRabbi Eliezer, which tells of how Abraham twice visited his son. On the first occasion, Ishmael was not at home. His wife, not knowing Abraham’s identity, refused the stranger bread and water. Ishmael, continues the midrash, divorced her and married a woman named Fatimah. This time, when Abraham visited, again not disclosing his identity, the woman gave him food and drink. The midrash then says “Abraham stood and prayed before the Holy One, blessed be He, and Ishmael’s house became filled with all good things. When Ishmael returned, his wife told him about it, and Ishmael knew that his father still loved him.”3 Father and son were reconciled.
The name of Ishmael’s second wife, Fatimah, is highly significant. In the Koran, Fatimah is the daughter of Mohammad. Pirkei deRabbi Eliezer is an eighth-century work, and it is here making an explicit, and positive[…]”
Excerpt From
Covenant & Conversation: Genesis
Jonathan Sacks
Held
“At the opening of the story, as Abraham and Isaac journey toward the land of Moriah at God’s command, the Torah takes special care to tell us that “the two of them walked on together” (Gen. 22:6). And yet after the intense drama of the Akedah, after the angel has stayed Abraham’s hand, we hear only that “Abraham then returned to his servants” (22:19), with whom he travels home to Beer-sheba. The sensitive reader cannot help but ask: Where is Isaac?
The next time we meet Isaac, in this week’s parashah, we are told that he “had just come back from the vicinity of Be’er-lahai-roi” (Gen. 24:62). Where is Be’er-lahai-roi, and more important, what is it? A few chapters earlier, when Hagar had been cast out by Abraham for the first time, an angel had discovered her and promised her vast offspring, including a child who could fend for himself and could not be easily victimized or enslaved (16:11–12). The angel informs Hagar that “God has heard your suffering” (16:11). She names God “El-Roi,” the God of seeing, and the place where God has seen her “Be’er[…]”
“The Torah tells us that Rebekah “hurried” (va-temaher) (Gen. 24:18,20) and “ran” (va-tarotz) (24:20,28) to be of service to the servant. These words call to mind Abraham’s own generosity in welcoming strangers: He, too, “hurried” (va-yemaher) (18:6,7) and “ran” (va-yarotz) (18:2,7) to ensure that his guests were properly greeted and fed.84 Rebekah thus proves herself worthy not only of marrying into Abraham’s family but also of being of his ethical and spiritual heir: She, like him, is committed to a life of lovingkindness (hesed).”
Excerpt From
The Heart of Torah, Volume 1
Shai Held
Jewish Study Bible
The phrasing rather precisely recalls God’s original commandment to Abraham in 12.1 (cf. 24.7, 38, 40). Similarly, Rebekah’s consent (“I will [go],” v. 58) recalls God’s first word to Abraham in that same verse, “Go.” Rebekah thus becomes a kind of Abraham figure in her own right. Abraham’s dispatch of his senior servant back to his native land and his kinfolk brings his story full circle and ensures his legacy will continue in the next generation”
“Laban’s instantaneous notice of the jewelry suggests the materialism and stinginess that he will display in dealing with his own son-in-law, Jacob (29.27; 31.14–16, 33–43), and contrasts with his sister’s innate generosity”
Excerpt From
The Jewish Study Bible
Adele Berlin & Marc Zvi Brettler
Kaplan
“Kaplan also wrote, “The will to live is animal; the will to let live is human; the will to help live is divine.”3 He understood that our highest selves, our noblest impulses, our will to help others live their best lives in a world we help to create, is how we bring God’s presence into our lives. And if we are lucky, like Abraham, our lives will end “at a good ripe age,” with our having contributed meaningfully to the world.”
Excerpt From
A Year with Mordecai Kaplan
Steven Carr Reuben