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GENESIS 23:01-25:18
RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL
SYNOPTIC ABSTRACT:
Sarah dies at 127 years of age. Abraham buys her burial site at what is
now modern-day Hebron in the "West Bank." Abraham sends Eliezer to find
a wife for Isaac. He returns with Rebecca, the sister of Laban. Isaac
marries Rebecca. Abraham remarries and has six more sons. Can you name
them? Abraham dies when he 175 years old. Isaac and Ishmael bury him next
to Sarah in Hebron. It sounds simple enough. Or is it? To find out,
please read on.
Three funerals are described in this parasha. Judaism accords great
respect to the dead. Judaism has great respect for the those that have
preceded us. We have great respect for our traditions. But Judaism does
not dwell in the past. Judaism does not neglect what lies ahead. No
sooner than Sarah is buried, Abraham continues with life and sends his
servant to find a wife for his son Isaac. Judaism is a linear process. It
must grow and adapt to survive. It has grown , adapted and reformed
throughout its history. It has never been stagnant. As rabbi Mordechai
Kaplan (20th-century founder of Reconstructionist Judaism) stated, "our
traditions have a vote, but not a veto."
"Sarah's life time (Chayei Sarah, which is our parasha's name) was one
hundred years, twenty years, and seven years"(Gen. 23:01). Rashi gives an
explanation about the repetition of the word "years." Sarah's life was
divided into three periods. At one hundred years, she was as sinless as a
twenty year-old. At twenty, she still had the wholesome beauty of a seven
year old. Rashi says that three miracles occurred for Sarah due to her
spirituality. According to the Midrash, her Shabbat candles burned an
entire week, the dough she used for bread made more challah than it
should have, and a special protective cloud covered her tent. The sages
say that Sarah was so wonderful that her behavior atoned for Eve's sin
in the Garden of Eden. Sarah was the first Eishet Chayil (woman of valor)
and the first woman with a true "ba'alat chesed" (personality of
kindness). The Midrash also compares her to Queen Esther. They say that
because Sarah lived for 127 years, Esther was rewarded for her own
kindness by ruling over 127 provinces.
Abraham negotiates with Efron for a burial site. He buys the cave of
Machpelah in the town of Kiriat-Arba. The name of the cave means
"double." This is because it is a two-tiered cave, or because of the
patriach-matriach couples who will be buried here. The name of the town
means "city of four." This town is named after the four mythical giants
who lived there. The spies claimed they saw them years later during
Moses's time. The town may also be named after the four couples
traditionally thought to be buried here: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and
Rebecca, Jacob and Leah, and Adam and Eve. The Zohar says Adam and Eve
were buried here because the Garden of Eden was close by. The Zohar goes
further and says this cave is the entrance to "Gan Eden."
Efron is a shrewd bargainer. If any of you have traveled to any country
where bargaining is the norm, you will love the details of this story.
Frankly, if any of you have bought a used car lately (with my apologies
to my friends in the car biz) you will find this tale endearing. Abraham
offers full price for the cave. Efron says to take it as a gift along
with the entire field, as it would not be fitting to have a burial site
located on another's property. Abraham agrees, and Efron names the price
for the full field with the cave, for which Abraham pays. Even though
Abraham has had a rough time recently with his almost sacrificing Isaac
and his wife dying, and even though Efron is a crook, Abraham remains an
upright individual. Throughout the chapter, Efron's name is spelled with
a "vuv" ( a silent letter that becomes sounded when a vowel is added to
it). As soon as the sale is consummated, Efron's name no longer is
written with this letter. Since Efron made such a public display of
offering the land to Abraham for free, and then privately overcharged
him, Efron lost his stature. Rashi says this is what we are being taught
by the missing "vuv." Abraham was asked to pay four hundred shekels. He
counted out four hundred shekels in "negotiable currency"(23:16). Talmud
Tractate Bava Metzia 87A says that each shekel that Abraham gave was
worth 2,500 ordinary shekels. Thus, Abraham paid one million shekels to
Efron. Even though Efron was now wealthy, he had no standing with God or
Abraham, as he proved himself to be deceitful and manipulative. Efron is
no better than the land that he sold. His name without the "vuv" can now
be read "afran" which is Hebrew for dirt.
The parasha juxtaposes the Efron-Abraham story with the Rebecca-Eliezer
story. Eliezer also is in need. He has traveled a long distance and he
and his animals are thirsty. Rebecca without hope for reward, gives
Eliezer and his camels water. But she did so in an exalted manner. She
lowered the jug herself into the well to spare Eliezer the effort. She
held the jug and brought it to his mouth so he would not need to hold it.
She then brought up water for all of his camels. Verse 24:10 says Eliezer
had ten camels. A thirsty camel can drink 14 gallons of water. Rebecca
herself brought up 140 gallons of water! And the Torah said she did all
of this while running (24:20) back and forth to the well so that no one
camel would feel thirst while another camel was drinking. When Eliezer
asks if she can provide lodging, not only does she say yes, but she
offers to lodge the camels as well. Eliezer is "astonished" (24:21) at her
acts of kindness (chesed) and gives her all of the betrothal gifts that
he was to save for a member of Abraham's brother's household before he
knew that Rebecca was from the clan to which Abraham belonged. Eventually
Rebecca agrees to go back to Abraham's camp, with Eliezer, and marry
Isaac. Verse 24:59 says a "nurse" went with Rebecca. The sages, by using
the numbers of ages given in the book of Genesis, determine that Rebecca
is only 3 years old when she marries Isaac.
Abraham marries Keturah. As mentioned in last week's D'var Torah, the
rabbis say that Keturah is really Hagar who remained chaste after
Abraham expelled her. Keturah means "restrained" or "chaste" in Aramaic.
Jewish laws forbids one from remarrying his divorced wife if she married
someone else after the first divorce. Abraham gives his new sons
"gifts"(Gen.25:06) but gives Isaac "all that he had"(Gen. 25:05). The
Talmud says that this means that Isaac received all of Abraham's
spiritual possessions and all the rights of inheritance to lead the
Hebrew "family."
The Talmud says that Abraham dies with these Torah words
to describe it : "these are the days of the years"(Gen.25:07). The
Mishna says there are those who are old, but without days. And there all
those who have days, but are not old. Many of us add years to our lives
without enriching our lives. We grow spiritually or intellectually to a
certain age, and from that point on, we just add years. Abraham made
each day count. Until the end, he lived his life to the fullest.
He continued to do chesed and even fathered seven more sons. The Rambam
(Maimonides of 11th-century Spain) writes that a Jew must perform at
least one act of chesed each day in order for it even to be considered a
day. Not one day was absent from Abraham's life. The Vilna Gaon of
18th-century Lithuania reminds us that everyday of our lives we must do a
"chesbon ha nefesh," a daily accounting of our lives. This is to be done
all year round, not only on the High Holy Days.
The parasha ends with the death of Ishmael at 137 years. His life span
is broken up into three sections like Sarah's. The Totofot rabbis of 12th
and 13th-century France and Germany say that Ishmael's years are given
the same structure as Sarah's to show that his earlier sins were erased.
His teshuvah (repentant return) was so sincere and so complete that his
life was equal to an "unbroken chain of righteousness." During the High Holy Days
we beat our chests and promised to change for the better. These
verses help us to remember to keep the momentum going in our Jewish Spiritual Renewal, teshuvah and
our growth process.
Our Haftarah deals with half brothers who are also in line for succeeding
their father. King David's oldest son Adonijah wants to be king, and
plots to take over his father's throne. But Adonijah is a drunk and likes
wild parties. Nathan the prophet and Bathsheba, David's wife, act
quickly and convince David to name young prince Solomon to succeed David
and to quash Adonijah's plans(I Kings 1:1-31). In the beginning of the
Haftorah we find that King David has a high fever with severe chills and
cannot get warm. They bring him a beautiful virgin to sleep with. He is
not intimate with her. "It is good to be the king" (Mel Brooks,
20th-century screen writer).
We are all kings or queens of our domain. Like Ishmael, we can do full
teshuvah, and like Rebecca, Sarah and Abraham, we can do acts of loving
kindness that can provide water to our fellow humans' thirsty needs. We
are a "kingdom of priests" and a "light to the nations." Let us strive to
live our lives with days, and not to only just tack on years. Life is too
precious a gift to waste on pettiness. There are too many Efrons and
Labans in this world already. This Shabbat, when we call out to God in
the Amidah and repeat the names of our ancestors, let us pray to allow
ourselves to be the merciful and kind people we all know that we have the
capacity to be.
Shabbat Shalom!
RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL
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