This week’s Parshah can seem a pleasant one. After the dramas of the last weeks, Sarah dies peacefully at a ripe old age, Abraham successfully marries off Isaac and dies a happy man, after the various parts of his family have been reconciled. Appearances however can be deceptive. While it appears that this week’s stories have no connection to the dramatic climax of the Akedah, or Binding of Isaac, tradition tells a different story. According to the Midrash, there is a direct connection between the Akedah and the death of Sarah. Sarah’s death was caused by the shock of hearing that her husband was prepared to sacrifice her beloved son. That is why the two sections are juxtaposed. For her there was no happy ending to the story. But the consequences of the Akedah reach further. The first time we meet Isaac as an independent personality, he is described as meditating in the field. Isaac, unlike his extrovert father, is a withdrawn, even timid character, in many ways traumatised by his experience on his father’s altar. This has great influence on his relationship with his sons; leading to the split in the family we see next week. Sarah, Isaac and even Rebecca and her sons are adversely affected by the consequences of the Akedah. The seemingly triumphant ending of blessing and future, hides a dark secret that only becomes apparent later. Isaac may not in the end be sacrificed, but his mother, wife and children bear the consequences of his trauma. That the tradition did not flinch from revealing this sinister undercurrent to a pivotal event in Jewish history, should teach us an important lesson. All our actions have consequences far beyond what we can imagine. We may think an event is over and done with; indeed forgotten. Yet years later we realise the importance of that incident in shaping history. This is especially important in inter-personal relationships. We may act without thinking, causing harm to others that cannot be easily fixed. A chance negative comment about someone, may cause others to alter their opinion of them to their lasting detriment. Even apologising or qualifying ones remarks is often not enough to repair the damage . We think that if we say sorry, we can fix matters. Our Parshah teaches us that sorry isn’t good enough. It is better to be more careful in the first place.

ALIYAH BY ALIYAH SYNOPSIS

Sidra Statistics

Parshat Chayei Sarah

·         has 105 verses ;

·         is the 5th in Genesis, 5th in the Torah

·         11th longest in Genesis, 33rd longest in the Torah ;

·         has no mitzvot