Chayei Sarah
From our next Torah portion, Chayei Sarah, we will learn about how the text itself points to Mashiach, how the relationship between Avraham and Sarah points to the connection between the spirit and the body, how Sarah’s tomb points to the resurrection, how Sarah herself points to the resurrection, and about how Rebekah’s arrival and marriage to Isaac allude to Jerusalem and the second coming. We will also learn about random and fun explanations to verses.
It says in Genesis 23:1:
“And Sarah was a hundred and seven and twenty years old; these were the years of the life of Sarah.”
The opening verse of Chayei Sarah literally means, “And the life of Sarah was one hundred years, and twenty years, and seven years. The years of the life of Sarah.” The way this is written is strange, as the Torah usually writes the age of people who died like this: “And Sarah lived a hundred and twenty seven years.”
- The Midrash explains that this is because when Sarah was a hundred years old, she was as beautiful and young as a twenty year old, and when she was twenty years old, she was as innocent as a seven year old.
- Another explanation is that it’s written this way so the first four words in the first verse of this Torah portion, in Hebrew, spell out the name of Mashiach, albeit the letters are not in order.
- One explanation as to why the verse says, “The life of Sarah” twice is to allude to the first life and the second life.
A part of Genesis 23:2-3 says:
“...Avraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. And Avraham stood up from before his dead...”
The mystics compare the union of Avraham and Sarah to the union of the spirit and the body. In this analogy, Avraham is compared to the spirit, and Sarah is compared to the body. Sarah brought on Avraham’s spiritual aspirations into the physical world through the birth of Isaac. When Sarah died, Avraham grieved over her for a time, but then he rose from aside her. The mystics say that when a person dies, the spirit lingers next to the body, to grieve it, but then it rises up to paradise.
Although God had promised the entire land of Canaan to Avraham and his descendants, at the time of Sarah’s death, Avraham didn’t own any part of Canaan. And so he negotiated with the local Canaanites to find a burial cave for his wife. He found a cave in Hevron, called Machpelah, and even today Jews regard this cave as a holy site.
Avraham bought this plot of land because he believed in the resurrection of the dead. Avraham believed that in the world to come, he would be reunited with Sarah, just as the soul is reunited with the body in the resurrection.
In addition to the resurrection, Jewish tradition also relates the cave of Machpelah to the Garden of Eden and eternal life. The rabbis believed that Avraham chose the cave because he discovered that the field which the cave was on was a portal to the Garden of Eden. One source even states that Avraham discovered Adam and Eve entombed inside the cave. Avraham recognized the spiritual presence of the Garden of Eden, but Ephraim the Hittite recognized no such thing. This explains why Avraham was willing to purchase the cave at any price.
Tradition says that the resurrection will begin with those who are buried in the cave of Machpelah. As it says in Pirkei Mashiach, Beit HaMidrash 3:73-74:
“In that hour, [Messiah] goes up and brings glad tidings to those who sleep in Machpelah, and says to them: ‘Avraham, Yitzhak and Ya’akov, rise! Enough you have slept!’ And they reply and say: ‘Who is this who removes the dust from over us?’ And he says to them: ‘I am the Messiah of the Lord. Salvation is near, the hour is near.’ And they answer: ‘If it really is so, go and bring the tidings to Adam the first man, so that he should rise first.’ In that hour they say to Adam the first man: ‘Enough you have slept!’”
Sarah is the mother of our faith, and in turn, Sarah is the mother of our reward for our faith: the resurrection. As it says in Safat Emet, in Yalkut Moshiach: Chayei Sarah 21, “Adam and Eve brought death to the world, but Avraham and Sarah brought the resurrection of the dead to the world.” Because Avraham and Sarah had no offspring at first, they were “as good as dead”, but when they believed that God was someone “who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.” As it says in Romans 4:17-19, God gave them the gift of a son, and in turn the Messiah, the opening of the gates of Eden, and eternal life.
In Genesis 24:67 it says:
“And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.”
Before Rebekah arrived, Isaac mourned over the loss of his mother, and Sarah’s tent stood empty and forgotten. According to the rabbis, Rebekah’s presence in Sarah’s tent rekindled the life and the miracles that had ceased after Sarah’s death. As it says in Genesis Rabbah 60:16, “And so Isaac saw her following in his mother’s footsteps.” Rebekah’s arrival comforted Isaac because she was worthy to carry on his mother’s legacy. It says in Ecclesiastes Rabbah 1:10, “Before He caused the sun of Sarah to set, he caused the sun of Rebekah to rise.”
Sarah’s tent points to Jerusalem. When the Messiah returns, and gathers everyone from exile, the miracles of God’s presence will be restored, and the sorrows of exile will be forgotten, as it says, “Thus Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.”
The text of Chayei Sarah points to Mashiach. The relationship between Avraham and Sarah points to the connection between the spirit and the body. Sarah’s tomb points to the resurrection. Sarah herself points to the resurrection. Rebekah’s arrival and marriage to Isaac alludes to Jerusalem and the second coming.
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