Parashat Chayey Sarah Gen.: 23:1 - 25:18

The fifth portion of the week – Chay’ey Sarah (The Life of Sarah) – is almost a comic relief in comparison to the first four. “Comic?” you may ask, “how could you say that? Both Sarah and Abraham die in the portion. What is so comic about that?” Well, no disrespect here: While it is true that they both die, they do so at the very old age – well over a hundred and twenty years (which is nothing compared to the first lineage described in Genesis, where eight and nine hundred years were no exception, but still extremely old); they both lived long and fulfilling lives; and they died among their family and friends (most probably). That, of course, is not the comic-relief part of the portion (hence the “almost” in my opening sentence).

The comic relief, if you will, is in the fact the God is almost completely missing from the portion. After being at the epicenter of each of the first four portions, the fifth offers us something much more mundane, though equally fascinating: human life. Indeed, this week’s potion is all about people – the soap-opera version of the bible, if you will – without much God involved. No flood, no burning of a city, no punishments, but also no creation of the Universe, no moral lessons, no intervention. Instead, we find the cycle of life and death, family values, falling in love, wooing rituals, a bit of Freudian psychology, and marriage. This is what this portion has to offer, and in that sense, it is a very welcome comic relief (or respite) from the previous four. No divine drama; only human drama.

To sum up the story: Sarah dies; Abraham negotiates for a burial ground in Israel; Abraham is extremely preoccupied with finding a suitable bride to his son Isaac (whom he nearly just killed); Abraham’s slave goes out to find Rebecca; Rebecca and Issac get married (actually, the whole idea of marriage is quite complicated at the time, but, for simplicity sake, let us assume they got married), Abraham dies; both his sons – Isaac and Ishmael – burry him. End of story. End of an era.

The “Life of Sarah” – An Ironic Title?

The first four portions bore strong relations to their titles: Be’re’shit (in the beginning), Noah, Lech Lecha (Go, go away), Va’yeera (“And God was seen to him”). But the fifth presents somewhat of a conundrum: The title is “The Life of Sarah,” but the portion actually begins with her death. How can that be? The answer is simpler than one might assume. The title of the portion are not selected after careful examination of its content and then vetting of the best one or two words to represent it. Rather, the title is simply the first (meaningful) word or words in every portion. Recall that the division to verses and portions, and the actual naming of the portions, is a much later ritual than the (divine?) writing of the text itself.

So, the portion opens with the notice of Sarah’s death, at the age of 127 years. [An elegant, though not entirely authentic, interpretive effort was made here by the JTS translation: “Sarah’s lifetime – the span of Sarah’s life – came to one hundred and twenty seen years.” Gen. 23:1] So, is the title truly a complete coincidence, and has nothing to do with Sarah’s life? Not quite. In two very important ways, the portion is, in fact, about Sarah. But before we get to that, a word about the age in which she dies, which may provide us with a clue as to this week’s title: that same number – 127 – appears again as the number of countries in which an ancient king holds court in the very first verse of The Book of Esther – another very impressive woman in Jewish history.

Sarah’s Burial

And, indeed, despite her death this portion could not be more aptly named. First, Sarah’s burial, and the negotiation over her burial grounds, occupies a great deal of the portion – and rightly so. Abraham insists to bury her in Hebron, in Israel, and not where he came from. The great detail in which the text describes every move here suggest that this was the exception. Indeed, a careful reading shows the “burial ground” careful negotiation as a real legal tug of war. In short, Abraham knew that despite his inferior status as “a foreign resident” (or a “resident alien,” as nicely translated by JTS, Gen. 23:4), the way to first buy and own land in the new country – and therefore to make the first steps towards future ownership on the land as a whole – would be through his wife’s burial ground. Who would refuse to sell a parcel of land to bury the wife of a very rich foreigner?

Well, the locals were far from stupid. Knowing that buying the land would constitute an irreversible step, they “kindly” offer him to take the land for free – a symbolic gesture, that would not grant him with any ownership title (apparently), but only “a right of passage” to use the land for burial and visit his loved wife’s grave. “Not so fast,’ insists Abraham, I want to buy it “for the full price.” (Gen. 23:9) Indeed, Abraham is willing to pay a lot of money to enter the selective club of land-owners in Israel. Well, again – the locals are far from stupid. By the time the negotiation reaches the designated place – Me’arat Ha’machpella in Hebron, a place that today, as then, was a great source of tension between Jews and Arabs – it becomes public. Statements are made for the ears of the crowd. The drama intensifies. Efron insists, again – “No, my lord, hear me: I give you the field and I give the cave that is in it; I give to you in the presence of my people; bury your dead.” (Gen. 23:11). When Abraham insists, Efron retorts with the unforgettable “between you and me,” what is 400 shekels? (23:15). Now, it is important to understand that this was a fantastic, truly fantastic sum. (Meir Shalev writes beautifully on this public drama in the fields in his classic “bible now.”)

Now imagine the staging for a minute: A great crowd – all locals – is gathered, standing between the two people; the local land owner, after consulting with his advisors, publicly dares Abraham to either receive the land for free (no rights), or buy it for the equivalent of 400 million dollars. The foreigner, on the other side, is aided by no one (other than his God, of course). He says nothing. He turns to his slaves, and within short order “weighs” each of the four hundred silver coins to Efron, the land owner. The crowd disperses, speaking of this amazing sum of money which they have never seen before.

So it was in her death that Sarah enabled her husband – and, as a result, the entire Jewish People – to become land owners in Israel. Not conquerors, buyers. That is the right way to own a new land.

Sarah’s Legacy

But Sarah’s spirit is all over this week’s portion in another, very important aspect. The entire story of the Selection of Rebecca as Isaac’s wife is a true story of (what is known today as) “girls’ power,” or true feminism. To begin with, Abraham understands, before he dies, that while he would not be able to amend his relationships with the son he already tied to the woods, he needs to find him a proper wife – the most important last task before he himself dies. Second, the slave that Abraham sends – after encountering the “extremely good looking virgin,” which, to eliminate any doubt, “no man has ever known,” (Gen. 24:16) – meets her brother, Laban. Now this Laban guy would cause a lot of problems to our third Father, Jacob. But even now we get a flavor of his crafty ways. Right after noticing all the jewelry and gold that his younger sister received from the slave, he becomes extremely friendly to the slave, who then describes his master’s wealth in great details. Laban happily agrees that his sister would wed into this rich family (not much has changed since), but when the time to leave arrives, he (Laban) suddenly comes up with what later becomes his trademark – a nasty delay tactic: “let the girl sit with us some days, or ten, and then she would come with you.” [Importantly, the “ten” may also be interpreted as a decade.] (Gen. 24:55) This, of course, is presumably done to raise her price – “you want her now, you pay more. Nobody said anything about now.” But the slave insists. He wants to leave now (before his master dies). Laban, pressured, thinks of a creative solution. There’s no chance, he thinks, that the girl – until now completely ousted from the process – would like to leave with a complete stranger, a slave at that, to marry someone she never even met in a foreign country. “Here is the solution,” thinks Laban, “let’s make her say she doesn’t want to go, and this would be over.”

And thus comes one of the most famous – and surprising – feminist statements in all times, from none other than the most conniving, hypocrite persons of all the bible: “Why won’t we call the girl and see what she wants?” [or, more traditionally translated: “Let us call the girl and ask for her reply.” Gen. 24:57] So, the text continues in great detail, they did went to call her – she wasn’t even there while all this was taking place – and asked her “would you go with that man?” (marriage ceremony, anyone?). Her beautiful answer, only one word in Hebrew, without any hesitation is “I will.” This is Sarah’s heritage. This is the true “life of Sarah.”