Chayei Sarah

Daniel Goldfarb is a Rabbi and Director of The Conservative Yeshiva, Jerusalem

The portion Chayei Sarah deals, in detail quite uncharacteristic of the Torah, with mundane family affairs: the death and burial of Sarah, Abraham's arranging a shiduch (marriage) for Isaac, his own marriage as an old man to Keturah and then his death and burial. It presents a much-deserved respite after the hair-raising events of parshat Vayera - the expulsion and near-death of Ishmael and the binding and near-death of Isaac.

It is not only the reader whom Vayera leaves breathless. The opening verses of Chayei Sarah tell that Sarah died at age 127 in Hebron and that "Abraham came to mourn for her..." Simple enough? Maybe not. The Midrash (traditional Rabbinic narrative) cited by Rashi (11th century commentator) says that the shock of the Akeda story (the binding of Isaac) was too much for Sarah, that upon hearing it "her soul flew from her." The text hints also at that event's impact on Abraham's relationship with Isaac. Twice as they approached the mountain, the Torah said that Abraham and Isaac "went together" (22:6 & 8), a phrase suggesting shared purpose and values. Yet when the Akeda drama ends Abraham returns to Beer Sheva without Isaac. Significantly, now it is the servant lads with whom Abraham "went together" (22:19). Isaac is not mentioned again with his father (or indeed with his half-brother Ishmael) until Abraham's death (25:9), when "Isaac and Ishamel his sons buried him in the cave" Abraham had bought for Sarah at the beginning of the parsha.

So Abraham's decision (24:1-4) to send his faithful servant to Haran, Abraham's native land, to seek a wife for his son Isaac does not happen in a vacuum. The family has been badly shaken; the divine promise is in doubt. "And Abraham came..." (Gen 23:2) was not just a prosaic detail, but an indication of purpose, determination to give Sarah a burial that would reunite the family and to find Isaac a wife who would restore his faith and confidence.

Abraham's servant returns at the end of Chapter 24 accompanied by Rivka, "mission accomplished". And whom do they encounter? Isaac "coming from the way of Be'er-lahai-roi" (v. 62). That's the well where the Lord had appeared years before to Hagar (Gen 16:14), after the barren Sarah had banished her for losing respect after she (Hagar) became pregnant from Abraham. This would explain the Midrash that Keturah, Abraham's new wife, was indeed Hagar, the mother of Ishmael. And it suggests that Isaac's "coming" here was no less purposeful than Abraham's "coming" at the opening of our parsha. Isaac had gone to that well "to bring Hagar back to Abraham his father to take her as his wife" (Rashi on v. 62).

Amazing - following Rashi it turns out that two events happened simultaneously. On the main stage Abraham sent his trusted servant to Haran to find a wife for Isaac, one worthy of Isaac's deceased mother, Sarah. And in the background, barely visible, Isaac goes off to persuade Hagar, after all these years, to return to Abraham, to fill the void left by the death of Abraham's wife, the self-same Sarah. We can imagine that Isaac's task was no easier, though the Torah gives no details. Ironically, though father and son were perhaps rent asunder by the Akeda, each acts at his own initiative to bring comfort to the other for the loss of Sarah, the matriarch of us all.