Dvar Torah for Parashat Chayei Sarah 10/29/21 (24 Cheshvan 5782)
[Genesis 23:1 – 25:18]
This week’s Torah portion is “Chayei Sarah” which means “The Life of Sarah.” Despite that title, Genesis ch. 23 is actually about the death of Sarah, and about Abraham’s acquisition of a burial place for her in Hebron at the Cave of Machpela. To this day, that site, in the heart of what is now the Israeli-occupied West Bank, is a major holy pilgrimage site for Jews and Muslims alike. Our tradition teaches that not only is Sarah buried there, but Abraham, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob and Leah as well.
The Cave of Machpela is referenced again near the end of the parasha, when the Torah reports at Genesis 25: 8-10:
וַיִּגְוַ֨ע וַיָּ֧מׇת אַבְרָהָ֛ם בְּשֵׂיבָ֥ה טוֹבָ֖ה זָקֵ֣ן וְשָׂבֵ֑עַ וַיֵּאָ֖סֶף אֶל־עַמָּֽיו׃
Abraham breathed his last, dying at a good ripe age, old and contented; and he was gathered to his kin.
And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, facing Mamre, the field that Abraham had bought from the Hittites; there Abraham was buried, and Sarah his wife.
What does it mean that Abraham was “zaken ve-saveya” (“old and contented”)?
Abraham is the first person in the Torah to be described as “zaken”/ “old” and there’s a nice midrash that says that the word “zaken” is shorthand for “zeh kanah chochmah” (“this one has acquired wisdom.”). I don’t know about you, but I can certainly attest that as I have grown older, and acquired more life experience, I feel like I’ve acquired more wisdom – or at least more of a capacity to “not sweat the small stuff.” A lesson for us all to be sure.
And the Torah says that when Abraham reached the end of his life he was “saveya” (“contented”). And here our commentators draw a connection to the next verse which reports that both of his sons --- Ishmael, the one whom he had chased away years earlier, and Isaac, the one whom had almost sacrificed at the Akedah, that Isaac and Ishmael had reconciled between themselves, as evidenced by their coming together to bury him. Of course, Abraham was dead already, but various hints in the text have led commentators over the centuries to feel that this reconciliation was something about which Abraham was already aware.
How many of us have estrangements in our lives? Or unresolved conflicts with those that have been close to us? Abraham, the Torah tells us, lived to the age of 175. But who knows how much time any of us have left? Better sooner than later if we have reconciliation work to do with anyone in our lives.
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Please excuse the possible morbidness of those sentiments – I’m so happy to be back in the sanctuary with you after missing a month of Shabbat services as I struggled with a breakthrough bout of Covid-19. But I can’t deny that the experience has made me more conscious than ever of the fact that none of us live forever. At the same time, I have felt an enhanced sense of gratitude for each new day.
And I thank you for your understanding and indulgence as you can surely sense that my vocal stamina is still not totally back to normal yet.
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I’ve talked already a little about incidents described near the beginning of this week’s Torah portion (in Genesis 23) and near its end (in Genesis 25)
But the middle of the parasha, Genesis 24, actually takes up the biggest chunk of the narrative. It’s the longest chapter in the book of Genesis – 67 verses in all. It describes how Abraham sends his servant Eliezer back to his birthplace of Aram Naharayim to find a wife for his son Isaac.
One detail that I was particularly struck by this week as I studied the parasha is how Abraham describes God in two different ways in two verses that are not that far apart from each other. In Genesis 24:3, as Abraham entrusts Eliezer with his task to find a wife for Isaac, Abraham asks Eliezer to take an oath in the name of “Adonai elohei hashamayim velohei ha’aretz” ("Adonai, God of Heaven and God of the Earth”). However, four verses later, when Abraham is reminiscing about his earlier experiences he speaks of “Adonai elohey hashamayim” – Adonai, God of Heaven --- who had taken him out of his father’s house and charged him with going forth to a new land that God would show him.
Why, regarding that earlier time does Abraham refer only to “God of Heaven” rather than “God of Heaven AND God of Earth?”. Wasn’t Adonai always God of both?
Well, not exactly.
As Rashi (commenting on Gen. 24:7) explains:
Adonai, God of heavens, Who took me from my father’s house: But he did not say, “and the God of the earth,” whereas above (verse 3) he said, “And I will adjure you [by Adonai, God of heaven and God of the earth].”He said to him,“Now Adonai is the God of heaven and the God of the earth, because I have made Adonai familiar in the mouths of the people, but when Adonai took me from my father’s house, Adonai was the God of the Heavens but not the God of the earth, because humanity did not [yet] acknowledge Adonai, and Adonai’s name was not familiar on the earth.”
In contemporary terms, what this means to me is that “God of Heaven” is an abstract, philosophical idea. We might have beliefs and values and morals – but as long as they stay in the theoretical realm they are, in a sense, incomplete. But, for me anyway, the phrase “God of Heaven AND God of Earth” (Elohei hashamayim velohei ha’aretz) implies something more meaningful, instrumental and life changing.
Bringing those ideas and those ideals – DOWN TO EARTH – is about walking the walk, about putting our ideals into practice.
Maybe this means means working for social justice causes.
Maybe this means being present and connected with the real, flesh and blood people in our lives.
Maybe that’s what it means when we sing at the end of the Aleinu ---
Ki Adonai, Hu ha-Elohim, bashamayim mi-ma'al,
ve'al ha'aretz mi-tachat. Ein od.
Kakatuv be'toratecha: "Adonai yimloch le'olam va'ed."
Ve'ne'emar: "Ve'haya Adonai le'melech al kol ha'aretz,
bayom hahu yihiyeh Adonai echad, u'shemo echad."
For Adonai is God in the Heavens above and on the Earth below. There is none else. As it is written in Your Torah:
"Adonai will reign forever and ever."
And it is said: "Adonai will be Ruler over the
whole Earth, and on that day,
God will be One, and God's name will be One.
Shabbat shalom.
Rabbi David Steinberg
(c) October 2021/ Cheshvan 5782
