Parshat Chayei Sarah
This week’s Torah portion begins with Sarah being buried in a cave and ends with Rebecca entering Sarah’s tent.
The cave is permanent, a place for the dead. The tent is temporary, a place for the living. Together, they establish two foundations of Judaism: a homeland and a people.
After the death of Sarah, Abraham purchases the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron to bury her. Despite God’s promise of the Land of Israel, Abraham’s first recorded family property is a burial place. It anchors his family permanently to a particular piece of land, where generations will return to bury and remember their ancestors.
Rebecca makes the opposite journey. She leaves her birthplace, choosing to join Isaac and enter Sarah’s tent. According to the Midrash, the Shabbat light that burned from week to week, the blessing in the bread and the divine presence that had disappeared with Sarah’s death all return with Rebecca.
The cave preserves Sarah’s memory. The tent restores her way of life.
Jewish law teaches Lo’eg LaRash, that we refrain from displaying certain mitzvot before the dead because they can no longer perform them. We honor the dead by respecting what they have lost. We honor their lives by continuing what they began.
That is the paradox of the cave and the tent. The cave will remain in place for thousands of years, but no mitzvot can be performed by those buried within it. The tent can be dismantled tomorrow, yet the faith, traditions and values practiced inside can endure for generations.
We discussed the Five Israels this week: the Land of Israel, the People of Israel, the State of Israel, its government and its policies. Chayei Sarah establishes the first two, well before Jacob/Israel was born, and there was a Jewish kingdom or modern state. Judaism is rooted in a particular land, but its survival depends on a people who carry its practices and beliefs wherever they go.
Perhaps that is why a portion beginning with Sarah’s death is called Chayei Sarah, the Life of Sarah. In her passing she firmly established the Jewish family in the holy land forever, and her daughter-in-law continued her family and traditions for generations, wherever they would travel.
There is an expression in Hebrew “od avenu chai” that the Jewish patriarchs still live. It is lifted from the story of Joseph who asked his brothers whether their father Israel was still alive. We should consider that Sarah is the one whose life set the the course for the Jewish family.
Today, we refer to the “Land of Israel” and the “Children of Israel” because that was when the family became a nation. But at its core, the Jewish people have always been a family anchored in the land and traditions set out by the matriarch Sarah.
