Unifying the Fragments: D’var Torah for Parashat Chayei Sarah
By Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman
October 30, 2021
Today I celebrate the 59th anniversary of my bar mitzvah. My Torah portion, when I turned 13, was Chayei Sarah (“The Life of Sarah,” Genesis 23:1-25), this week’s portion. Just as it was then, so today this portion is read all over the world in context of the annual cycle of weekly Torah readings.
I have returned to this parasha many times in the past and each time have found new lessons in it. Such is the nature of Torah—not only does it contain unique teachings for each individual, but at each stage of one’s life one can find something new, a new understanding, a new way of seeing oneself in the light of Torah.
The title of the portion—Chayei Sarah—refers to the life, death and legacy of the first Matriarch of the Jewish People, Abraham’s wife and mother of Isaac. And yet, beyond the first few verses of the portion, very little is said about this important personage or the place she holds in our heritage. This of course opens the door to many stories, midrashim and rabbinic commentaries about Sarah. Still, the rest of this portion has to do with events that followed her death (including, at its very conclusion, the death of Abraham and his burial—attended by Isaac as well as the estranged other son, Ishmael—at the Cave of Machpelah, the burial cave near Hebron that Abraham purchases from the Hittite people).
As I returned to this portion this week, two elements of the story struck me: Abraham’s words as he addresses the Hittites at the beginning of the purchasing transaction; and the important mission he entrusts his servant with—finding a wife for Isaac.
Ger v’toshav anochi ‘imachem—"I am a stranger and an inhabitant with you”—Abraham says to the Hittites. What an interesting combination of words! It had been years since Abraham had left his homeland in Haran in search of a land God promises to him and his descendants. Even after reaching Canaan, Abraham wanders the breadth and length of this land, pitching his tent in various places and setting up worship altars at every resting point. For many years he dwells in Beer Sheba, then in Hebron. For a period of time, he finds himself in Egypt and even among the Philistines, yet each time he returns to Canaan, knowing that his true home is in the Land God promises him seven times(!). One would think that after all this, he would feel at home somewhere! Yet, by his own admission, though he dwells in this land and calls it home, he sees himself a stranger, a foreign resident among his own neighbors.
Moreover, even though Abraham knows that his future is bound up with the land he knows as Canaan, his heart is still bound up with his past, in his old homeland of Haran, among the family he had left behind so many years earlier. And that’s where he sends his servant to find a wife for Isaac.
This mixture of past, present and future never crystalizes within Abraham. He is a wanderer not only in the physical sense, but also psychologically. He is a dweller and a stranger all at once. His longing knows no bounds and no boundaries, and so at the end of his life he focuses on securing the future for his son, Isaac, knowing that it is through Isaac that God’s promise will continue and endure.
Looking back at the various parts and fragments of his life, Abraham knows he has fulfilled almost all the duties and responsibilities he had taken upon himself at God’s commands. How well he has done so, however, is something that he probably struggles with every day. The pain of leaving his home and family is compounded by the deep sadness he felt when he sent Hagar and Ishmael out into the wilderness. The longing for a child with his wife Sarah and the joy of bringing this child, Isaac, into the Covenant with the Eternal God, was shattered at the top of The Mountain of Seeing—Har ha-Moriah, the future home of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem—as he saw himself holding a knife over the heart of this beloved child.
Only through his relationship with God does Abraham feel an almost mystical unity. The many losses he suffered through his long life have left him feeling isolated—a stranger among his neighbors, perhaps even estranged from his own family. In his old age, Abraham feels deeply the very temporary nature of life. Perhaps that is why he feels so strongly at this point that he needs to fuse and unify the many parts of his life. To commemorate the past, he must buy a burial site for his wife, Sarah. For the sake of the future, a wife for their son, Isaac, must be secured. With these transactions, public, fully paid for and recorded for all posterity, Abraham ties together his not only his past and future, but also his body and soul. It will be through Isaac and Rebecca that God’s promise will endure. It will be here, at this burial site near Hebron, where his sons will gather to mourn him when his time comes, where all future generations will gather to remember and honor their past and their rich heritage.
It is in this Torah portion—Chayei Sarah—that the Jewish People have always found our unity. We have traversed every land and every continent. We have lived among many peoples, assimilated customs, clothing, and cuisines. Yet throughout our wanderings, we never lost the feeling of being “dwellers and strangers.” Our true home remained—and still remains—where Abraham first staked a claim, the Promised Land. And to this day, despite the cultural differences that have emerged among us through the centuries, we remain spiritually united—one family, one nation, one people—through our relationship with our Eternal God. Our prayers, our conversations—even our arguments—with God still form the bond that cement the many into One. Like Abraham and Sarah, each of us may see ourselves an individual; the life of each of us is defined by the time and place in which we live, by changes and fluctuations, by losses and gains. Yet the streams of time that represent each of our lives, all flow into one sea. It is here, in our relationship with God and our heritage, that we find our one-ness, our unbroken unity. It is here that we find our purpose and meaning, our fulfillment and completion.
Sh’ma Yisrael: Hear, O Israel! We are one, and our God is One.
Baruch ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-Olam, shehecheyanu v’key’manu v’higi’anu laz’man ha-zeh—Blessed are you, Adonai eternal sovereign of the universe, who has given us life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this season and time.
© 2021 by Boaz D. Heilman
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