Parashat Chayei Sarah

Parashat Chayei Sarah

Heshvan 25 ~ November 10, 2012

by Diane Whitten-Vile

In this week’s parsha we read that at the age of 127, Sarah dies. 

It seems this parsha serves as a bridge between the story of Avraham and Sarah and the story of the next generation.  After Sarah dies, Avraham buys the cave of Machpelah to bury her.  Avraham then sends his servant to find a wife for his son Yitzhak; the servant finds Rivkah, and we meet her family, including her brother Lavan, who will figure prominently later on.  At the end of the parsha, Avraham dies, and is buried by his two sons, Yitzhak and Yishmael.  In a book long out of print, “The Voice Still Speaks” Rabbi Morris Adler points out a contradiction when Avraham calls himself a “stranger and a resident among you” (Ger v’Toshav).  A stranger or alien is someone without attachments or commitments.  A resident is more like a citizen or a permanent dweller in the community-someone who has settled somewhere, made a dwelling, chosen a home.  How can Avraham be both a temporary passer through and a resident? Rabbi Adler suggests that this is not so much about one’s citizenship status, but a description of a religious attitude towards life itself.  Life in this world is temporary and unpredictable.  Like travelers, maybe we should burden ourselves only with the necessities: love, good deeds, reverence, true connections with family and friends.  Yet in another sense, this world is what we have; we are residents here, and must be committed to the improvement and betterment of our communities, and therefore the world now.  We can’t say “oh I’m just passing through, it’s not my problem”

Some Rabbis extend the metaphor to include our attitude towards love, teaching that the balance is to regard our relations with those we love as temporary, yet permanent at the same time.   Thus, we must love people as best we can every moment, for we never know what accidents or fate or twists of life may remove us from our cherished ones.  But we can also be like “residents”, fully present, in our relationships, and not flit from love to love in fickle and unreliable ways. 

Though Sarah was 127 when she died, Avraham eulogized and cried for her.  Sarah was special for him every day.  When you get used to something it becomes easily taken for granted. 

If we never take anything for granted (tough task) we’ll always see that life has so much more to offer us. 

“The years of Sarah’s lifetime: all were equal for the good” (Rashi 23:1) She was 100, she was 20, she was 7.  Some people pass through life leaving the previous stage behind.  She was always as innocent as a 7 year old, with the strength, determination and idealism of a 20 year old, and always possessed the wisdom of a 100 year old.  Throughout her life she possessed all these qualities.  This is the greatness of Sarah. 

So my takeaway from this parsha is the love story of these two ancestors.  Don’t take a minute for granted when it comes to life and the one’s you love, and maintain your innocence, idealism and wisdom when you can.