In brief:
Ḥayyei Sarah translates to “Life of Sarah.” This section focuses on Sarah’s passing, the arrival of Rebekah, and Abraham’s passing and burial. It surprised me that the story of Sarah’s passing would be referred to as “life of Sarah.” A minute or two of searching around, and our old friend wikipedia offered up an answer:
“Each weekly Torah portion takes its name from the first distinctive word in the Hebrew text of the portion in question, often from the first verse.”
And in fact, the translation I’m using begins with “Sarah’s lifetime–the span of Sarah’s life–came to one hundred and twenty-seven years.” Perhaps this is just how things fell into place. But there’s some kindness about that naming nonetheless, death and life intermixed.
Things start off this week with an exceptionally respectful negotiation between Abraham and the Hittites for a burial spot. Abraham’s servant is then sent to find Isaac a wife among Abraham’s kinsmen, and another gracious encounter occurs by the well. A story I must have heard a dozen times growing up. Take care of the stranger. And his camel too! The section closes with the burial of Abraham, perhaps the most beautiful passage in Genesis thus far.
A few thoughts:
- This week’s portion was good for the soul. Or at least, my soul was appreciative. The Hittites and Abraham are remarkably kind to each other, even though Abraham is not from ’round these parts. (Which reminds me: why hasn’t anyone remade Genesis as a Western yet? Or maybe they have and I didn’t pick up on the rivers rising, the raven flying, and that durn snake?)
- Abraham’s servant goes looking for kindness, and I loved that while there’s a specific sentence he was asking God for, like some coded phrase between East Berlin spies, in the end Rebekah uses different words. And it doesn’t matter. The meaning matters. The kindness matters.
- In a brief respite from all this kindness, Rebekah’s family wishes for her:
“O sister!
May you grow
Into thousands of myriads
May your offspring seize
The gates of their foes.”But I get it — not everyone says goodbye well.
- And then there’s the burial of Abraham, an exceptionally gentle moment that I am still thinking about. Abraham dies:
“at a good ripe age [aside: what a wild image that is — our ripening–one we hear so much we forget its power.], old and contented, and he was gathered to his kin. His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah… there Abraham was buried, and Sarah his wife.”
The image that caught me was Isaac and Ishmael standing together. In all these years, all the times I’ve heard versions of this story, that essential detail never sunk in. Ishmael and Isaac, their family’s painful history behind them. Putting it aside to pay respects.
If you’d like to join in… this is the place for comments and commentary on Ḥayyei-Sarah (Gen 23.1 – 25.18)
Next up: Toledot (Gen 25.19 – 28.9)
-Cecil
I’m focusing on the marriage of Rebekah and Isaac this week and a couple of things I think are particularly interesting: 1) though typical of tribal communities to marry within the tribe that takes some extra effort here because Abraham left the vicinity of his ancestral home – it would have been easier to connect his son to someone local but instead he seeks someone from “his country and his kindred”. This feels reflective of the connection to God and finding a cultural fit that may be more inclined to this God rather than local gods and customs. We see then a very early example of the push-pull of being in the world but not becoming assimilated to customs if they take us away from our primary relationship with god. 2) in 24:52 we see a very typical marriage transaction – gifts exchanged, men agree, and then I instead of just deciding for Rebekah they invite her to have a voice: …and said to her, “will you go with this man.” She said, “I will.” So they sent away their sister.” But they sent her away with a degree of self-direction, choice and autonomy! Go girl!
I wonder if Abraham knew Gods name? The written accounts never let us know if that question was ever asked, but to everyone else living back then God was known as the God of Abraham-was to Abraham and his life that people would hear about and begin to know who God was. Interesting to think that Rebekah probably learned her religion from Sarah and Abraham- listening to all the stories told and re-told about that family-her family. The holy writings belonged to Abraham and Isaac-as did the ‘birthright’ which included Gods blessing, so it’s not as thought the writings of God were available to everyone.
Rebekah is interesting, a very beautiful woman though by our standards young-probably only 17 or 18 when she married Isaac. She actually doesn’t make a good impression according to the customs of her day behaving very immodestly by speaking to a stranger and actually continuing the conversation and offering to act like a servant. She was the daughter of a great house, so the task/sign that Abrahams servant was very specific and one meant to make sure the right woman was chosen for Isaac. Also, when Rebekah left her family, only a day after the servant arrived, it meant she would t be seeing her family ever again most likely- folks didn’t travel like that or that far from – even nomad families like Abraham and Bethuel.
Isaac was very close to his mother and I can’t help but wonder how it was between him and his father. Abraham was a very well known prince whose legend had most been heard all across the populated world. among those stories was the fact that he tried to kill his son and how would a son feel towards his father knowing he didn’t love him enough to say NO to killing him. Also, Isaac lived under the threat of Ishmael his whole life- and his father knew Isaac needed to be kept safe and under his fathers protection. Again, would that make Isaac seem weak in his fathers eyes as compared to his first son, who. I’m sure Abraham also loved?
I like the fact that Isaac took his mother, Sarah’s, tent away from his fathers camp out to where he lived. With Abraham getting another wife, it would not have been unusual for Keturah to claim that tent for her own as Abrahams wife. Isaac protected his mother’s dwelling place and gave it to his own wife. How full of inspiration and pride Rebekah must have felt,knowing she was the wife of the heir of Abraham and living in the Princess Sarah’s tent. It must have given her great courage to meet whatever she would face as Isaacs wife.