MY DAILY LIFE TORAH COACH:
Parshat Chayei Sarah n.05

Parashat Chayei Sarah – Life of Sarah -, contrary to the title, starts with the death of Sarah at age 127 in Kiriath-arba – Hebron now – and concludes with the deaths of Abraham and Ishmael.

Let’s start with the name of the parasha: Sarah’s life and its impact on the future of her family and no only was so great and significant, that not only did it not end at the time of her death, but in fact, it increased and strengthened subsequent to her passing. Sarah, if I may say, was a “modern” woman. She lived her life with a certain vision and and a clear purpose. She had the courage to question everything around her, as we already seen last week in Va-Yera’.

Moreover, we are presented the story of Abraham concerned with two legacy issues – the purchase of a burial plot for Sarah in the cave of Machpelah, and finding for Isaac a proper wife from the land of his birth to ensure the future of the family.

For the first one, Abraham conducted a discussion regarding purchase of the field with the Hittites and with Ephron, the owner of the desired cave. This discussion is cited in the parasha in full. For the second one, the parasha depicts Abraham’s request of his servant, Eliezer, to search for a wife for Isaac, in Abraham’s own homeland. Eliezer travels to Aram Naharayim, and it is described in great detail the Eliezer’s prayer to G-d that his trip should be successful and his finding Rebecca, Isaac’s cousin, to be suitable for Isaac. Then the parasha describes in length the conversations Eliezer had with Rebecca and her family.

This parasha is about legacy and transition. Abraham made sure that the future generations will be in place, and his values would be passed down. Chayei Sarah also teaches us how to conduct our life as Jews: from how to purchase land in a proper way and how to search for a partner and what to look into when doing so up to how we should behave with our family members; and much more.

The real beauty of this parasha is that we can extract from it major concepts like responsibility, courage, humility, and joy of life.

So what can we do to use apply all these concepts in our everyday life? We can volunteer, or we can advocate for tolerance and understanding between all of us. So, like Sarah and Abraham, we can pass down a legacy of a righteous life to our children and future generations to come.