Dear Friends;
I hope that you’ll enjoy the following Parsha summary followed by a Dvar Torah;
” The Parsha in a Nutshell ”
Sarah dies at age 127 and is buried in the Machpeilah Cave in Hebron, which Avraham purchases from Ephron the Hittite for 400 shekels of silver.
Avraham’s servant, Eliezer, is sent with gifts to Charan, Avraham’s hometown, to find a wife for Isaac. At the village well, Eliezer asks G-d for a sign: when the maidens come to the well, he will ask for some water to drink; the woman who will offer to give his camels to drink as well, shall be the one destined for his master’s son.
Rebecca, the daughter of Avraham’s nephew, appears at the well and passes the “test”. Rebecca returns with Eliezer to the land of Canaan, where they encounter Isaac. Isaac marries Rebecca, loves her, and is comforted over the loss of his mother.
Avraham takes a new wife, Keturah (Hagar) and fathers six additional sons, but Isaac is designated as his only heir. Avraham dies at age 175 and is buried beside Sarah by his two eldest sons, Isaac and Ishmael.
” Dvar Torah ”
Parashat Chayei Sarah starts off by saying that Sarah’s lifetime was 127 years, and Sarah “dies” in Hebron in the land of Canaan. The parsha continues with the purchase of a cemetery plot for her, and the marriage of her son, Isaac. The Chachamim ask the following question. Why is the parsha called “Chayei Sarah”, the Life of Sarah, whereupon the parsha only speaks about the death of Sarah and the life of Isaac? Usually, when the parsha is named after someone, the parsha talks about that person’s life. For example, Parashat Noach is about Noach; Parashat Yitro talks about Yitro; Parashat Balak is about a king called Balak, and so on. So why is the parashat Chayei Sarah not about Sarah?! Why does the portion dedicated to “Sarah’s life” only talks about her death?!
Rabbi Wizman from Orthodox Union has an interesting explanation to this dilemma. He says that a person’s life can be seen through his or her achievements. And Sarah’s greatest achievement in life was to bear Isaac. Sarah, raised a son who would continue going in the path of G-d, and would willfully sacrifice his life for the sake of G-d. Sarah did not just raise a child, she raised a future Patriarch for the Jewish nation. The story of Isaac’s life is, in essence, the story of Sarah’s life. And that’s why Parashat Chayei Sarah talks about Sarah’s death rather than her life, because Sarah’s death reflects the accomplishments of her life! Now we can understand why the main topic of discussion in the parsha is about Isaac, and not about Sarah. Because Sarah’s legacy lives through Isaac.
We could see Sarah’s determination in raising a good child in last week’s parsha. Worried about Ishmael’s bad behaviors that could corrupt Isaac and pull him away from the path of G-d, she asked him and his mother to leave their house. Although, Avraham was upset at the beginning, but Hashem told him that Sarah is right and he should listen to her. In raising Isaac to be a G-d fearing person, Sarah played a more important role than Avraham did. And that’s why Sarah merited to have a Parsha named after her, since she raised her only son, in the best possible way she could. Sarah dedicated her entire life to Isaac after he was born!
Yes my friends, our greatest accomplishments in life are our children! We all live a relatively short period of time in this world and then, sadly, we have to leave everything behind. Our legacy, however, lives through our children. How we raise them and present them to the society is the reflection of our own beliefs and behaviors. And in raising the children, mothers play a much more important role than the fathers do.
But you may ask yourself, why did Hashem give such an important task to women rather than to men?! Well, the answer is quite simple. Not to our surprise, the Chachamim say that women have more patience and understanding. They are better decision makers, and believe it or not, they are more spiritual than men too. They are more caring and although not proven scientifically, but many Chachamim believe that they are more intelligent too! If our sages show so much appreciation for Sarah’s uprising of Isaac by naming a Parsha after her, then we should surely show our appreciation to our wives for raising our children too! After all, they are the ones who are in charge of taking care of our greatest assets, which they do such a fine job. We raise our hats to them all!
So my friends, the lesson of the parsha is quite simple. When you own a very valuable possession, you keep it in a safe place. So if you know that your greatest assets are your children, where else can you leave them other than in the hands of your dear wife……
Shabbat Shalom & Regards;
Martin