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D'var: Parashat Chayei-Sarah 5785 Commentary by Michael Goldstein Friday, November 22, 2024 |
| Chayei Sarah Genesis 23:1 — 25:18 |
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The Torah reading for this Shabbat is Chayei Sarah which translates as The Life of Sarah.
While the title implies it is about how she lived and what she did, it actually has nothing to
do with those things. The only details we learn about Sarah’s life are in the first and second verses…
the life of Sarah was one hundred years and twenty years and seven years. And Sarah died in
Kiriath arba, which is Hebron, in the land of Canaan (Gen. 23:1-2).
The 11th Century Rabbi and Torah scholar, Rashi, maintained that her age was reported in segments because when she was 100 years old, she was like a woman of 20 in that a 20-year-old is considered as not having sinned, and at the age of 20, she was as beautiful as a seven-year-old child. After her death, Abraham buys Machpelah to be a gravesite for his family, and buries Sarah there. Then he sends his servant, Eliezer, to find a wife for Isaac. Eliezer meets Rebecca at a well. She gives him water to drink and volunteers to provide water for his camels. At the end of the Parashah, Abraham marries Keturah and has six more sons. The Torah says; these are the days of the years of Abraham's life that he lived: one hundred years and seventy years and five years (Gen. 25:7). According to Rashi, his age was reported that way to indicate that "when he was 100 years old he still had the youthful virility like a man of 70 and at 70 he was without sin like a five-year-old." In 1535, an English friar named Myles Coverdale published the first complete English translation of the Hebrew Bible. While working on it, he came to a certain word for which there was no English translation that could capture its meaning adequately. He solved the problem by using the term, "loving kindness." That word was chesed. Eliezer sought a young woman for Isaac who would perform chesed and asked God to show her to him. Chapter 24:13-14 reads: O Lord, behold, I am standing by the water fountain, and the daughters of the people of the city are coming out to draw water. And it will be, that the maiden to whom I will say, 'Lower your pitcher and I will drink,' and she will say, 'Drink, and I will also water your camels,' her have You designated for Your servant for Isaac, and through her may I know that You have performed loving kindness with my master. One of the most significant messages we can take away from this Torah portion is the moral importance of acts of kindness. The Talmud teaches that chesed is even more important than tzedakah. Chesed is a core value in Judaism. It means acts of kindness, compassion, and generosity and is now translated the way Friar Coverdale designated it… loving kindness. The concept of chesed reminds me of a few lines from Wordsworth’s poem, Tintern Abbey…
– Feelings of
Unremembered pleasure: such, perhaps, As have no slight or trivial influence On that best portion of a good man's life, His little, nameless, unremembered, acts Of kindness and of love. Rabbi Abraham Heschel, was born in Poland and emigrated to New York in 1940 at age 33. He later got involved in the civil rights struggle and marched with Martin Luther King. He was known to say, "When I was young, I admired cleverness. Now that I am old, I find I admire kindness more. It is what led Eliezer to choose Rebecca as Isaac’s wife. Kindness brings redemption to the world." Let’s back up for just a bit. In last week’s Parashah, Vayeira, the Torah tells us God said: And Abraham will become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the world will be blessed in him. He commands his sons and his household after him, that they should keep the way of the Lord to perform righteousness and justice (Gen.18-19). Therein, I believe, lies another message, one that resonates in this week’s Parashah. To be happy does not mean that we have everything we want or everything we were promised as children or adults. It means, simply, we have done what we were supposed to do. We made a beginning, and then passed the baton to the next generation. The Mishnah says, The righteous, even in death, are regarded as though they were still alive because the righteous leave a living trace in those who come after them. One final thought: Maimonides wrote that it is forbidden to run on the Sabbath except to do a mitzvah… a good deed. I think that would qualify as chesed. Michael Goldstein |
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