The first verses of our Parshah deal with the death of Sarah and Abraham’s reaction to it. They, however, present a bit of a conundrum. Sarah dies in Hebron and Abraham is presented as ‘coming’ to eulogise and weep for her. The verb seems to imply that he came from somewhere else and indeed, at the end of last week’s Parshah, we find Abraham in Bersheeba. This raises the question of why Sarah died in Hebron and where was Abraham at the time and why? Various answers are given from the prosaic to the profound. It is even, with modern sensibilities, possible to speculate that Abraham and Sarah were not living together at the time. Had they become estranged by the near sacrifice of Isaac by his father? Another, reading of the verse, however, suggests that Abraham was not away anywhere but that the verb ’to come’ is simply the expression used when going to eulogise someone. A combination of both these answers may emerge, however, if we contemplate another question. Why did Abraham eulogise Sarah before arranging the funeral? To weep immediately we understand but to give a eulogy when you haven’t yet arranged the burial seems rather strange. I would suggest that the answer lies precisely in the puzzling use of the verb ‘to come’. One ‘comes’ to eulogise because one arrives from your previous perception of the deceased to a new understanding of their worth. One sees the dead person in a new light, understanding all they meant to you, which you may not have before fully appreciated. Abraham, may indeed have been in Hebron with Sarah when she died. But as he contemplates her death he comes to the full realisation of what she meant to him. Abraham and Sarah had many disagreements and some fault him for not always taking her interests into account. Thus when she dies, Abraham not only weeps over her but ‘eulogises’ her; re-evaluates their relationship and realises how she was generally got things right, even when he thought otherwise. He thus only now comes to fully appreciate her importance. This section, then, teaches us an important lesson. We shouldn’t wait to someone close to us dies to understand what they mean to us. Rather let us appreciate them while they are with us, before it is too late.

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