The Sidra of Chayye Sarah can be divided into three distinct sections. The first section deals with Sarah’s death. The second very long section tells us the interesting and detailed story of the search and process of selection of a wife for Isaac, which was entrusted to Abraham’s loyal servant. The third section of the Sidra deals with Abraham’s remarriage and his death at the age of 175.
Sarah died at the age of 127. She is the only biblical woman, whose age at the time she dies, is given to us in the Bible. This indicates that she was a woman of great distinction. Perhaps this also emphasises that, in addition to Isaac’s miraculous birth at the age of 90, Sarah also had the merit of living for another 37 years, to see him grow up into manhood. The only sad aspect is that she did not live to see his marriage to Rebecca, which occurred three years after the death when Isaac was 40.
The Torah tells us that when Abraham heard that Sarah had died in Chevron, he came to eulogise Sarah and to weep for her. According to Rashi he came from Be’er Sheva, where he was living at the time that she died. Nachmanides finds this explanation difficult because it implies that Abraham lived separately from his wife. He, therefore, maintains that the verb ‘he came’ has a different connotation. In fact, Abraham and Sarah were both living in Chebron. When the Torah says that Abram came, it means that he entered her private tent. From other passages in the book of Genesis, it is clear that in those days husband and wife each lived in their own personal tents. One of the reasons for this practice was that men had more than one wife. Each wife had her own tent and the husband came to one of his wives, for the night.
Our rabbis of the Talmud have observed that, generally, people weep for their loved ones for three days and eulogise them for seven days. Abraham changed the order. He first eulogised Sarah and then he wept for her. The Hebrew word VELIVKOTAH, which means ‘and to weep for her’ has an unusual spelling. The letter KAF is small. There are some other small letters in our biblical text and the commentators are often baffled about the reason for this. In this instance, our rabbis explain that it indicates that Abraham not only delayed weeping for Sarah, but also did not weep for her for very long. He was more anxious to eulogise her. Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin explains that Abraham did not want to dwell on his private grief. Rather, he wanted to emphasise her loss to the world. He had a great deal to say about her greatness and her virtues. Sarah was an outstanding prophetess. Indeed, our rabbis say that she was even greater than Abraham. On one occasion the Almighty specifically instructed Abraham to listen to his wife. Sarah had many other virtues. She was an extremely generous and hospitable woman. Throughout her life, she helped Abraham in his work, inspiring countless other women to come under the wings of the one and only God.
The second section of the Sidra begins with the verse: ”the Lord had blessed Abraham with everything”. God blessed him with everything, in the sense that despite his advanced age and the loss of his beloved wife, Abraham still felt that he had everything to live for. He still had ambitious plans. He continued to work hard. He was determined to see his son married and then to find another wife for himself and to have more children. If a person can do that at the age of 137, it is indeed a real blessing.
Abraham asks his most devoted servant to go to his family, to Aram Naharayim, to the city of Nachor in order to find a wife for his son. It is noteworthy that throughout this long account the servant’s name is never mentioned. From an earlier passage we know that this servant’s name was Eliezer. His name is omitted in order to emphasise his selfless dedication to the mission and that he had no other motives for carrying out this very difficult task, except to be kind to his master. The concept of CHESED, lovingkindness, lies at the heart of this story. It is mentioned several times at very significant moments. When the servant arrives at the well of the city of Nachor, he takes a rest and asks God to perform kindness for his master, by arranging that the right girl would appear. Then he devises a special test for the girl and again repeats the expression. He says to the Almighty: “When the girl will pass the test, I shall know that you have shown kindness to my master”. The test takes place. Rebecca succeeds in the test with flying colours. At the end, the servant expresses his gratitude to God by reciting a Berachah. He says: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Abraham who has not abandoned His loving kindness and faithfulness for my master”. Finally, when he speaks to Laban and Bethuel, Rebecca’s brother and father, asking them permission to take Rebecca with him back to the land of Canaan he says: “Now, if you wish to perform true kindness with my master, let me take her”. Rebecca was chosen to become Isaac’s wife because of her exceptional kindness and dignified conduct. Eliezer entered her life as a complete stranger. He was extremely thirsty and had no access to the well. His 10 camels were also extremely thirsty after a very long journey. Very few people would have paid attention to a stranger. But Rebecca chose to do so. As soon as Eliezer asked her for some water, she was willing to give it to him. She spoke with warmth and friendliness and offered to give water also to his camels. Giving water to 10 camels is extremely hard work. Camels needs a huge amount of water. Rebecca persevered. She did not become tired or fed up. That act of kindness made her a fitting wife for Isaac and a suitable second matriarch of our people. Kindness is the hallmark of our people. Every morning we say in our prayers: “Grant truth to Jacob, lovingkindness to Abraham, as you promised our ancestors in ancient times.”