TORAH PORTION: CHAYIE SARAH
|
|
Parashat Chayie Sarah
October 30, 2021, 24 Cheshvan 5782
Torah: Genesis 23:1-25:18; Triennial 24:53-25:18
Haftarah: I Kings 1:1-1:31
|
|
In this week's Torah Sparks, you'll find a D'var Torah on the Parashah by Ilana Kurshan called "A Crown of Glory", Vered Hollander-Goldfarb poses questions titled "Inheritance or Gift?" and Bex Stern Rosenblatt writes about "Modifying Memories" in the Haftarah.
|
|
A Crown of Glory
Ilana Kurshan
Parashat Chayei Sarah describes the final years of Abraham’s life, following the death of his wife Sarah and culminating in Abraham’s own death. Towards the opening of the parashah, we are told that “Abraham was old, advanced in years, and God blessed Abraham with everything” (24:10). The rabbis of the Talmud and midrash note that this is the first time that anyone in the Bible is described as old. In reflecting on the significance of Abraham’s advanced age, they offer a surprising and valuable lesson about how we grow older, and the blessings that may come with age.
The Talmudic rabbis posit that the reason Abraham was the first Biblical figure to be described as old is because he was in fact the first person ever to age: “Until Abraham, there was no old age” (Bava Metzia 87a). And yet how could that be? Abraham died at the age of 175, which is far younger than many of the biblical figures whose lifespans were documented earlier in Genesis. Lemech lived 777 years, Metushelach—who had the longest lifespan in the Bible—died at 969, and even Noah lived to the ripe age of 950. Abraham seems like a spring chicken in comparison.
The rabbis go on to explain what they mean by relating an anecdote: It used to be that people were constantly confusing Abraham and Isaac; they so closely resembled one another that no one could tell them apart. Anyone who wanted to speak to Abraham would mistakenly speak to Isaac, and vice versa. Abraham was frustrated by this state of affairs, so he prayed to God for mercy; God answered his prayers by turning his hair gray and wrinkling his skin, so that everyone might know that he was the father and not the son. It seems, then, that although Abraham was not the first person to advance in years, he was the first person to bear the physical markings of age.
A parallel midrash in Genesis Rabbah (59:1) makes it clear that God was not punishing Abraham for his request; the signs of old age were a blessing bestowed upon the patriarch on account of his merits. After all, the verse that begins “And Abraham was old, advanced in years” continues with “and God blessed Abraham with everything.” The midrash relates a story about Rabbi Meir, who once visited the town of Mamla in the lower Galilee, where he saw that everyone was “black-haired” and no one had aged. He asks the residents if perhaps they are from the family of Eli the priest, who were cursed in the book of Samuel for their inappropriate behavior and told that “there shall never be an elder in your house” (I Samuel 2:33). The residents do not answer Rabbi Meir’s question, but simply plead with him, “Pray for us!” Rabbi Meir tells them that if they engage in righteousness, they will merit aging, citing a verse from Proverbs: “Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is attained by the way of righteousness” (16:31). He tells them that this is a lesson they may learn from Abraham, who merited aging because he “did what is just and what is right” (Genesis 18:19).
As this midrash suggests, anyone may live long, but it is only the righteous who merit showing signs of age. In the Talmud the phrase hadrat panim – literally “the glory of the face” is used to refer to a beard (e.g. Shabbat 152a), which was considered a hallmark of age, as evidenced by the semantic connection between the Hebrew words zaken (elder) and zakan (beard). An elder is someone whose face is glorified with a beard, based on the biblical injunction, “You shall rise before the aged and show deference to the elderly” (Leviticus 19:32). In this verse, the term for “aged” (שיבה) literally means “white-haired,” another indication that signs of age are an indicator of merit. No wonder, then, that when the eighteen-year-old Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya was offered to become the head of the Sanhedrin in a popular rabbinic story (Berakhot 28a), his wife told him it would be inappropriate because “you have no white hair.” The Talmud relates that a miracle transpired for him and he sprouted eighteen rows of white hair overnight, securing him the distinguished post.
The rabbinic focus on the outward signs of age seems to overlook many of the less appealing conditions that often accompany old age. It is all very well and good to glorify beards and white hair, but what about illness and suffering? The rabbis point out that illness afforded Jacob time to take proper leave of his family before he died, reminding us to number our days wisely (Bava Metzia 87a). They add that that until the time of the biblical prophet Elisha, everyone who fell ill went on to die; Elisha was the first person to fall ill and then heal. Thus illness in old age is not so much a signifier that death is in the wings as it is a reminder to use our time well.
In our own time we celebrate youth and vigor and fear aging as a curse. As people get older, they dye their hair to cover the gray, smooth their wrinkles with anti-aging cream, and sometimes resort to cosmetic surgery so that their faces look decades younger. And yet for the ancient rabbis, aging was a sign of blessing. The ultimate goal was not to look like one’s grandchildren, but to live long enough to meet that next generation. Ureh vanim l’vanecha – “May the Lord bless you from Zion, may you share the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life and live to see your children’s children” (Psalms 128:5-6).
|
|
Inheritance or Gift?
Vered Hollander-Goldfarb
Text: Bereshit 25:1-9
1And Avraham took another wife, and her name was Keturah. 2And she bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah… 5And Avraham gave all that he had to Yitzhak. 6And to the children of the concubines that Avraham had Avraham gave gifts and he sent them away from Yitzhak his son while he was still living, eastward, to the country of the east. 7And these are the days of the years of the life of Avraham which he lived: one hundred and seventy-five years. 8And Avraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, old and sated, and was gathered to his people. 9And his sons Yitzhak and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah…
- We rarely think of Avraham’s six children by Ketura. Why do you think that this list was included? Note that among them is Midian, the father of the nation of Zipporah, Moshe’s wife.
- The Torah states that Avraham gave all he had to Yitzhak, while giving gifts to the children of the concubines. What do you think that each of them received? What is the difference between “gifts” and “all he had”?
- Who buries Avraham? Why is this significant?
Commentary: Radak Bereshit 25:5
Avraham gave - he distributed his wealth during his lifetime to forestall quarrels about his inheritance after his death.
All that he had to Yitzhak - he had appointed Yitzhak as his heir… Anything the other sons received was in the nature of “gifts,” not “inheritance.”
- What is the difference between “gifts” and “inheritance”? Why is it significant that only Yitzhak becomes an heir?
- Besides wealth, what other inheritance might the children quarrel about after Avraham’s death? How does sending them away from the area impact our understanding of what Avraham might be leaving for Yitzhak?
Commentary: Rashi Bereshit 25:5
And Avraham gave – R. Nehemiah said, he gave him the blessings as a legacy. The Holy One, blessed be He, had said to Avraham (12:2) "Be a blessing" - the blessings are entrusted to you that you may bless whomsoever you please; and Avraham transferred them to Yitzhak (cf. Genesis Rabbah 61:6).
- According to Rashi’s reading, what is “all that he had” that Avraham gave Yitzhak? How do “gifts” differ from “inheritance”? What “inheritance” have you received from generations before you?
- In the midrash from which Rashi took this reading, R. Judah suggests that Avraham gave Yitzhak the “bechorah” – first born rights. Why do you think that Rashi did not opt for this reading? What light does the next parashah, along with this passage, shed on the dynamics of conflicts over the bechorah (first born rights) and berachah (blessing)?
|
|
Modifying Memories
Bex Stern Rosenblatt
Memory is unreliable. Current science claims that each time we think we are remembering something that has happened, we are in fact reconstructing the event - creating the story of what happened based on some details we remember and some details we unconsciously invent based on our current moods and situations. Each time we access a memory, we slightly rewrite it, creating an altered version of the past that seems totally true to us.
In this week’s parashah, we read the story of Abraham’s servant procuring Rebecca as a wife for Isaac. The servant will retell the story of why he was sent, what his plan was, and what happened between him and Rebecca at the well over and over again within Genesis 24. It’s the longest chapter in Genesis - we hear the story so many times we lose count. The servant tells it each time to a slightly different audience and the story itself is slightly different. Some details are emphasized, some disappear. His role, his relationship to God, and his purpose concerning Rebecca shift depending on the audience and the retelling. Perhaps he is incredibly savvy. But by the end of Genesis 24, we are hard pressed to recount what the actual truth of the original story is. We cannot say which of the tellings reflects reality. And having modified his memory so many times, it is likely that the servant cannot either.
Our haftarah, 1 Kings 1, also tells a story of the limits of memory. King David has grown old and feeble. He is no longer able to keep his own body warm, much less rule a country. The nation seems to be run by a group of nameless people taking care of the king. Already, we are presented with a picture of David that is incompatible with our memory of David from all the prior stories. He is strong and vibrant, a warrior and a poet, a lover and a king. But now we get a picture of a man who does not remember who he once was and feels no need to keep up the appearance of dignity for the sake of the nation. Naturally, potential heirs step into this power vacuum. Adonijah, one of David’s sons, begins to act as king. In response, Bathsheba, one of David’s wives, and Nathan the prophet conspire to put Bathsheba’s son, Solomon, on the throne.
What happens next is a challenge to our concept of memory. We hear a story in four tellings of how David had once promised the throne to Solomon. In each telling, the story is slightly different, depending on the teller and the audience. The first telling is as a scheme that Nathan relates to Bathsheba to convince David that he owes the throne to Solomon. The final telling is David proclaiming that he will do as he now thinks he remembers having once promised, and put Solomon on the throne after him. David even swears by God to do this.
The sticky bit is that we have no prior story of David ever having made such a promise. David hears this story first from Bathsheba and then from Nathan and incorporates it into himself such that he either is able to recall a forgotten memory or create a completely false memory of having made this promise. And as readers, it is easy to judge, to denounce Bathsheba and Nathan or Abraham’s servant as manipulative and cunning. We see how their stories change. We see how they choose to recast what we consider to be the truth. But it’s worth remembering that in terms of memory we are all like David at the end of his life. Our memories are not perfect or even particularly trustworthy. We can’t ever recover exactly what the original occurrence of an event was. But as we tell and retell our stories, rewriting our memories, we can do so with the humility that David displays, a willingness to believe that other people’s accounts of a past we remember differently may indeed be valid.
|
|
Support Torah Sparks
Do you love Torah Sparks? It's brought to you by The Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center and we rely on your contributions to keep the learning going. Support Torah Sparks by making a donation to FJC or by selecting a subscription below:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
