Genesis 23:1-25:18 | 1 Kings 1:1-31 | Luke 3:1-17

This week's edition of The Set Table contains:

Questions and Commentary on Shabbat Chayyei Sara
Chayyei Yeshua - A Devotional Commentary on the Besora Reading
Looking Ahead

Questions & Commentary on Parashat Chayyei Sara

1. What relevance does the purchase of the Machpela Cave have for us today?

Seth Ben-Haim

Last week's portion, Vayyera ends with the binding of Yitzhak and Abraham's return to Be'er Sheva. This week's portion Chayyei Sara ("the Life of Sarah") begins with the numbering of a woman's life. 127 years! We then read that she died in Kiryat Arba, which is in Hebron in the Land of Canaan. The sages say that Sarah died upon hearing of the binding of Yitzhak. Abraham comes and mourns for the loss of his wife. He arises from his mourning and desires to purchase a burial plot for Sarah. Mysteriously the Torah, which often covers great distances of time or space in only a few verses, "wastes" a whole chapter of our parasha on the purchase of this plot.

Abraham, who had led a nomadic life in the Promised Land, had amassed much wealth but no inheritance of land (Ma‘aseh HaShluchim 7:5). This situation created a problem upon the death of his beloved wife. This first matriarch, in her death, opens the door in a mysterious way, to a lasting physical and spiritual claim to the land of Israel. Even though the LORD had told Abraham that his descendants would go out of the Land, he did not consider it too much to spend an exorbitant amount on the purchase of the field and the cave of Machpela, Maarat HaMakhpela

Rashi suggests that this cave was a double cave with an outer and inner or upper and lower room. The Talmud states in b. Eruvin 53 that it is the burial place of four couples starting with Adam and Eve and including all the Patriarchs and Matriarchs apart from Rachel who was buried in Bethlehem.

While one could question why Abraham needs to buy this plot for the burial of Sarah. After all he has been repeatedly promised by the LORD that the whole length and breadth of the Land will be given for his desendents. Abraham gives us an example of how we show respect and care for those who live and those that are to come, through the care for the deceased. Abraham exhibits faith once again, not allowing reality to stifle vision.

Though  offered  the land for free, he knows that he must purchase it so that the future generations will be able to lay claim to it. What is given without price, has the potential to be taken back, Abraham removes the possibility of argument.  The sages speak about the traditional purchases of the Machpela in Hebron, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and Joseph's Tomb in Shechem as sites that prove a legitamate eternal claim to the Land. The properties were purchased at high prices, to ensure that our heartland would never be able to be given up.

This Shabbat is one of the few times of year when Jews are allowed full access to the Machpela and many will travel there to pray at this first claim to the Land. Most Jews who attend will not go to pray for the dead, but to pray for the living and to thank the LORD for giving us this Land that flows with Milk and Honey.

Many people have found in our times that making aliya carries with it a high price tag, and yet these the descendents prepared for us the decendants sparing nothing to ensure that these central hills would be set apart as our inheritance for all generations. The Messiah, in John 9, speaks of the confusion related to the opening of the eyes of a blind man. We need to have open eyes of faith like Abraham who purchased this plot, investing in the future. We can learn from the investment of Abraham into things that last. Let's invest like Abraham for the next generations. Let's invest in faith, believing that the unseen, in no way limits God's fulfillment of our restoration as a people, the return of the Messiah and the restoration of the world.

2. The second clause of the opening verse of our parasha (Genesis 23:1; "Sarah lived 127 years; the years of Sarah's life") seems redundant. Rashi, however, holds that the Torah repeats the phrase, "the years of Sarah's life" in order to teach us that the years of her life "were equal in goodness." How can Rashi say that every year of Sarah's entire life was equally good when she experienced many difficulties such as barrenness and being held captive by Abimelech and Pharaoh? What then does Rashi's comment mean?  What should it teach us about our attitude and actions when we experience the joys and hardships of life?

Rabbi Jason Sobel

Commenting on this question one commentator remarks, "Although Sarah experienced difficult years during her lifetime, she paid them no attention but accepted everything graciously and with good cheer - the bad along with the good. This is what Rashi means by ‘equal in goodness' - even the bad she accepted lovingly" In line with this, our sages teach that it is incumbent upon us to bless God for both good and bad tidings (b. Berachot 60b). Thus according to Jewish, when Jewish people receive unusually good news we recite the beracha (blessing), "Blessed are you LORD our God, King of the universe, who is good and who bestows good." Upon receiving really bad news, like the death of loved one, we say, "Blessed are you LORD our God, King of the universe, who is the true Judge." It is easy to understand why we should bless God for the beneficent goodness bestowed upon us. Is this not what thanksgiving is all about? But it is much harder to understand why we should receive bad things with gladness and in turn respond by blessing God. On the surface this seems a little crazy! Our sages however hold that this is a biblical obligation derived from the life of Job, who after suffering much personal pain and loss said, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21). 

But this still does not answer the question how Sarah or Job could cultivate such a mature and godly attitude toward life? In the Talmud (b. Berachot 60b) there is a beautiful story that illustrates how such a perspective is possible.

R. Huna said in the name of Rab citing R. Meir, and so it was taught in the name of R. Akiba: A man should always accustom himself to say ‘Whatever the All-Merciful does is for good', [as exemplified in] the following incident. R. Akiba was once going along the road and he came to a certain town and looked for lodgings but was everywhere refused. He said ‘Whatever the All-Merciful does is for good', and he went and spent the night in the open field. He had with him a cock, an ass and a lamp. A gust of wind came and blew out the lamp, a weasel came and ate the cock, a lion came and ate the ass. He said: ‘Whatever the All-Merciful does is for good'. The same night some brigands came and carried off the inhabitants of the town. He said to them: Did I not say to you, ‘Whatever the All-Merciful does is all for good?'

Despite the fact that Sarah had a significant amount of difficulty in her life, she was able to accept everything that happened with joy because of her belief in God's goodness and sovereignty. Shaul, who suffered greatly for the sake of Messiah, also knew this secret; for true joy is based on the belief that "all things work together for good to those who love God, and who are the called according to God's purpose" (Romans 8:28). If we really believe this like Sarah and Shaul did, then we will also live a positive, joyous, faith-filled life worth emulating. Then it will be said of us like it was of Sarah, that all our years were equal in goodness. 

Luke 3:1-17

David Nichol

It seems, if one thinks about it, a bit strange that the story of Yeshua, as told in the four besorot, begins with another man, Yochanan. In each, Yochanan sets the stage, only to essentially disappear from it early on. In our passage he is introduced by a passage from Isaiah:

The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God."

Isaiah 40:3-5

Yochanan's specialty is, apparently, tough love. Crowds of people come to him to undergo his tevila, or immersion, of repentance (teshuva). Those who come, he chastises: "You brood of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance." He is portrayed as a man who pulls no punches, whose message is one of ethical purity, whose reproachful tone is unflinching. Indeed, if Isaiah is describing a day of God's salvation as one of radical upheaval - when valleys will be filled and mountains made low - Yochanan is an appropriate herald for it. 

Clearly Yochanan buys into this idea that the "salvation of God" will be accompanied by drama. When queried about the Messiah, he speaks of one whose "winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire" (v. 16). In his mind, the advent of Messiah and God's salvation of Israel will be fundamentally discontinuous from life as we know it and destruction is in store for those on the wrong side. To that end, he uses tevilia and teshuva as a ritual one-two punch to elicit forgiveness of sins - a way to get on the right side before the coming "wrath."

While Yochanan specifically identified Yeshua as the Messiah, as well as the one in whom his own work culminated, the two men are often seen as contrasting figures. Yochanan is often portrayed as the ascetic, apocalyptic, fundamentalist revolutionary. He is radical and unbending, preaching fire and brimstone. On the other hand, many see Yeshua as the conciliatory, bleeding-heart softy, who preaches love and peace. 

There may be nuggets of truth in these caricatures, but the distance between them is overstated. Yochanan does not advocate revolution by force of arms or violent measures. Rather, he is a moral subversive. He meets his death not because of political or military rebellion, but because he challenged the validity of Herod Antipas' marriage according to Jewish law (Matthew 14:1-12).

Yeshua, of course, was also killed because of his role as a subversive. His revolution is presented in the besorot as fundamentally continuo us with Yochanan's saw that Torah had been used to alienate the poor, the sick, and the powerless, precisely those it was meant to protect and enfranchise (Mark 7:10-13). He saw the powerful seek to maintain their power, so he bequeathed the earth to the meek (Matthew 5:5; 18:1-5). 

In the kingdom Yeshua promised to establish, the great ones are those who serve others, while those who seek power to coerce are humbled (Luke 1:48-55). The lives and righteous deaths of Yeshua and Yochanan remind us to disavow the will to power, take on the yoke of the kingdom of heaven, and imitate Yeshua in becoming a servant to all (Mark 10:42-45). 

NEXT WEEK'S READINGS - PARASHAT TOLEDOT

Genesis 25:19-28:9
Malachi 1:1-2:7
Matthew 3:13–4:11