Chayei Sarah

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Chayei Sarah, Chaye Sarah, or Hayye Sarah (חַיֵּי שָׂרָה — Hebrew for “life of Sarah,” the first words in the parshah) is the fifth weekly Torah portion (parshah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading. It constitutes Genesis 23:1–25:18. Jews in the Diaspora read it the fifth Sabbath after Simchat Torah, generally in November.

Burial of Sarah (illustration by Gustave Doré)

[edit] Summary

[edit] A burial place for Sarah

Sarah lived 127 years and died in Hebron, and Abraham mourned for her. (Gen. 23:1–2.) Abraham asked the Hittites to sell him a burial site, and the Hittites invited him to bury his dead in the choicest of their burial places. (Gen. 23:3–6.) Abraham asked the Hittites to intercede for him with Ephron son of Zohar to sell Abraham the cave of Machpelah at full price. (Gen. 23:7–9.) Before the Hittites at the town gate, Ephron offered to give Abraham the field and the cave that was in it, but Abraham insisted on paying the price of the land. (Gen. 23:10–13.) Ephron named the value of the land at 400 shekels of silver and Abraham accepted Ephron's terms, gave him the silver, and purchased the land. (Gen. 23:14–18.) Abraham buried Sarah in the cave. (Gen. 23:19.)

[edit] A wife for Isaac

Abraham was old, and instructed his senior servant to put his hand under Abraham’s thigh and swear by God that he would not take a wife for Isaac from the Canaanites, but would go to the land of Abraham’s birth to get Isaac a wife. (Gen. 24:1–4.) The servant asked if the woman did not consent to follow him to Canaan, should he take Isaac back to the land from which Abraham came? (Gen. 24:5–6.) Abraham told him on no account to take Isaac back there, for God — who took Abraham from there and promised Abraham the land of Canaan for his offspring — would send an angel before the servant and allow him successfully to get a wife for Isaac from there, and if the woman did not consent to follow him, he would then be clear of his oath. (Gen. 24:7–8.) So the servant put his hand under Abraham’s thigh and swore to him as Abraham had asked. (Gen. 24:9.)

Eliezer and Rebekah (illustration by Gustave Doré)

[edit] Rebekah by the well

The servant took Abraham’s bounty and ten of Abraham’s camels and traveled to Aram-Naharaim, the city of Nahor. (Gen. 24:9.) He made the camels kneel by the well outside the city at evening, when women come out to draw water. (Gen. 24:10.) The servant asked God to grant that the maiden whom he would ask to draw water for him and who replied by offering also to water his camels might be the one whom God had decreed for Isaac. (Gen. 24:11–14.) He had scarcely finished speaking when Rebekah, the beautiful virgin daughter of Abraham's nephew Bethuel, came out with her jar on her shoulder, went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up. (Gen. 24:15–16.) The servant ran toward her and asked to sip a little water from her jar, and she quickly let him drink and when he had drunk his fill, she offered to draw water for his camels until they finish drinking. (Gen. 24:17–19.) When the camels had finished drinking, the servant took a gold nose-ring and two gold bands for her arms, and asked her whose daughter she was and whether there was room in her father's house for him to spend the night. (Gen. 24:22–23.) She identified herself and told him that there was plenty of straw and feed and room at her home for him to spend the night. (Gen. 24:24–25.) The servant bowed low to God and blessed God for steadfast faithfulness to Abraham. (Gen. 24:26–27.)

[edit] Rebekah’s mother’s household

Rebekah ran and told everything to her mother's household. (Gen. 24:28.) Rebekah’s brother Laban ran out to the servant at the spring, and when he saw the nose-ring and the bands on Rebekah’s arms, and when he heard his sister tell the story, Laban invited the servant to their house, had the camels unloaded and fed, and had water brought to bathe the feet of the servant and his party. (Gen. 24:28–32.) But the servant would not eat before he had told his tale. (Gen. 24:33.) The servant told how God had greatly blessed Abraham with sheep and cattle, silver and gold, male and female slaves, camels and asses, and a son and sole heir. (Gen. 24:34–36.) The servant told how Abraham made him swear to go to Abraham’s kindred to get Isaac a wife, and that God would send an angel to make his errand successful. (Gen. 24:37–40.) And the servant told how he met Rebekah at the well. (Gen. 24:42–48.) The servant then asked whether or not they meant to treat Abraham with true kindness, and Laban and Bethuel answered that the matter had been decreed by God and Rebekah could go and be Isaac’s wife. (Gen. 24:49–51.) The servant bowed low to God and brought out silver, gold, and garments for Rebekah and presents for her brother and her mother. (Gen. 24:52–53.) Then the servant and his party ate, drank, and spent the night. (Gen. 24:54.) The next morning, the servant asked leave to return to Abraham, but Laban and her mother asked that Rebekah remain some 10 days. (Gen. 24:54–55.) The servant persisted, so they called Rebekah to ask for her reply, and she agreed to go. (Gen. 24:56–58.) So they blessed Rebekah — wishing that her children be thousands of myriads and seize the gates of their foes — and they sent off Rebekah and her nurse with the servant. (Gen. 24:59–60.)

Meeting of Isaac and Rebekah (illustration by Gustave Doré)

[edit] Isaac meets Rebekah

Isaac had just come back from the vicinity of Beer-lahai-roi to his home in the Negeb and was out walking in the field toward evening when he looked up and saw camels approaching. (Gen. 24:62–63.) Raising her eyes, Rebekah saw Isaac, alighted from the camel, and asked the servant who the man was. (Gen. 24:64–65.) The servant said that Isaac was his master, so she covered herself with her veil. (Gen. 24:65.) The servant told Isaac everything that had happened, and Isaac brought her into Sarah’s tent and took her as his wife. (Gen. 24:66–67.) Isaac loved Rebekah, and found comfort after his mother's death. (Gen. 24:67.)

[edit] Family matters

Abraham took another wife, named Keturah, who bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. (Gen. 25:1–2.) Abraham willed all that he owned to Isaac, but to his sons by concubines he gave gifts while he was still living, and he sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the East. (Gen. 25:5–6.)

Sons of Abraham by wife in order of birth

Hagar

Sarah

Keturah

Abraham lived 175 years and died old and contented. (Gen. 25:7–8.) Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah with Sarah. (Gen. 25:9–10.) After Abraham’s death, God blessed Isaac and he settled near Beer-lahai-roi. (Gen. 25:11.)

Ishmael had 12 sons, who became chieftains of 12 tribes. (Gen. 25:12–16.) Ishmael lived 137 years and then died. (Gen. 25:17.) Ishmael’s progeny dwelt in lands all the way from Havilah, near Egypt, to Asshur. (Gen. 25:17.)

Sons of Ishmael in order of birth (Genesis)

Mishma

Massa

Hadad

Tema

Jetur

Naphish

Kedemah

[edit] In classical rabbinic interpretation

Satan Inflicting Plagues on Job (painting by William Blake)

[edit] Genesis chapter 23

The Gemara expanded on the conversation between God and Satan in Job 1:6–8 to teach that Abraham’s patience in receiving the Promised Land even in the face of the need to buy land to bury his wife in Genesis 23:3–16 showed faith comparable to that of Job. Job 1:6–7 begins: “Now one day the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came among them. And the Lord said to Satan: ‘From where do you come?’ Then Satan answered. . . .” The Gemara taught that Satan then told God: “Sovereign of the Universe, I have traversed the whole world and found none so faithful as Your servant Abraham. For You said to him, ‘Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for to you will I give it’ (Gen. 13:17), and even so, when he was unable to find any place in which to bury Sarah until he bought one for 400 shekels of silver, he did not complain against Your ways.” Only then did God say to Satan the words of Job 1:8, “Have you considered my servant Job? For there is none like him in the earth . . . .” (Babylonian Talmud Bava Batra 15b.)

Rav and Samuel differed as to its meaning of “Machpelah” — meaning “double cave” — in Genesis 23:9. One held that the cave consisted of two chambers one within the other, and the other held that it consisted of a lower and upper chamber. According to one, the term “double cave” meant that it was the burial place of multiple couples — Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Leah. (Babylonian Talmud Eruvin 53a.)

The Gemara deduced from the use of the term “take” in Genesis 23:13 that “taking” means by monetary exchange. And thus the Gemara deduced that money effects betrothal by noting the common use of “take” in Genesis 23:13 and in Deuteronomy 22:13, in the words, “If any man take a wife.” (Babylonian Talmud Kiddushin 2a–b, 4b.)

[edit] Genesis chapter 24

The Mishnah and Tosefta deduced from Genesis 24:1 that God blessed Abraham in his old age because (as the Mishnah deduced from Genesis 26:5) he kept the entire Torah even before it was revealed. (Mishnah Kiddushin 4:14; Tosefta Kiddushin 5:17.) And the Tosefta deduced from the contrast between the plenty indicated in Genesis 24:1 and the famine indicated in Genesis 26:1 that God gave the people food and drink and a glimpse of the world to come while the righteous Abraham was alive, so that the people might understand what it had lost when he was gone. (Tosefta Sotah 10:5.)

The Tosefta reported that Jewish judicial proceedings adopted the oath that Abraham imposed in Genesis 24:3. (Tosefta Sotah 7:3.)

Rabbi Joshua ben Levi (according to the Jerusalem Talmud) or a Baraita in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yose the son of Rabbi Chanina (according to the Babylonian Talmud) said that the three daily prayers derived from the Patriarchs, and cited Genesis 24:63 for the proposition that Jews derived the afternoon prayer from Isaac, arguing that within the meaning of Genesis 24:63, “speak” meant “pray,” just as it did in Psalm 102:1. (Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 43a; Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 26b.)

[edit] Genesis chapter 25

Rabbi Judah said that Keturah was another name for Hagar. (Genesis Rabbah 61:4.)

[edit] Commandments

According to Maimonides and Sefer ha-Chinuch, there are no commandments in the parshah. (Maimonides. Mishneh Torah. Cairo, Egypt, 1170–1180. Reprinted in Maimonides. The Commandments: Sefer Ha-Mitzvoth of Maimonides. Translated by Charles B. Chavel, 2 vols. London: Soncino Press, 1967. ISBN 0-900689-71-4. Sefer HaHinnuch: The Book of [Mitzvah] Education. Translated by Charles Wengrov, 1:87. Jerusalem: Feldheim Pub., 1991. ISBN 0-87306-179-9.)

[edit] In the liturgy

The Sages deduced from Isaac’s “meditation . . . toward evening” in Genesis 24:63 that Isaac began the practice of the afternoon Mincha prayer service. (Reuven Hammer. Or Hadash: A Commentary on Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat and Festivals, 1. New York: The Rabbinical Assembly, 2003. ISBN 0916219208.)

[edit] Haftarah

The haftarah for the parshah is:

for Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardi Jews, and Dardai communities: 1 Kings 1:1–31
for Yemenite Jews: 1 Kings 1:1–31,46
for Karaite Jews: Isaiah 51:2–51:22
for Italian Jews: 1 Kings 1:1–34

[edit] The Weekly Maqam

In the Weekly Maqam, Sephardi Jews each week base the songs of the services on the content of that week's parasha. For parshah Chayei Sarah, Sephardi Jews apply Maqam Hijaz, the maqam that expresses mourning and sadness. This maqam is appropriate here, because it is the parshah that contains the deaths of both Sarah and Abraham.

[edit] Further reading

The parshah has parallels or is discussed in these sources:

[edit] Biblical

Genesis 29:1–12 (courtship at the well).
Exodus 2:15–21 (courtship at the well).

[edit] Classical rabbinic

Mishnah: Kiddushin 4:14; Avot 5:19. Land of Israel, circa 200 C.E. Reprinted in, e.g., The Mishnah: A New Translation. Translated by Jacob Neusner. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-300-05022-4.
Tosefta: Sotah 7:3, 10:5; Kiddushin 5:17. Land of Israel, circa 300 C.E. Reprinted in, e.g., The Tosefta: Translated from the Hebrew, with a New Introduction. Translated by Jacob Neusner. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Pub., 2002. ISBN 1-56563-642-2.
Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 43a. Land of Israel, circa 400 C.E. Reprinted in, e.g., Talmud Yerushalmi. Edited by Chaim Malinowitz, Yisroel Simcha Schorr, and Mordechai Marcus, vol. 1. Brooklyn: Mesorah Pubs., 2006.
Genesis Rabbah 8:13; 38:10; 42:5; 45:9; 48:16; 55:6; 58:1–62:5; 65:9; 66:4; 68:2–4, 9; 70:12; 79:7; 85:7; 96; 97. Land of Israel, 5th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Midrash Rabbah: Genesis. Translated by H. Freedman and Maurice Simon. London: Soncino Press, 1939. ISBN 0-900689-38-2.
Leviticus Rabbah 19:5; 20:11; 30:10; 37:4. Land of Israel, 5th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Midrash Rabbah: Leviticus. Translated by H. Freedman and Maurice Simon. London: Soncino Press, 1939. ISBN 0-900689-38-2.

Talmud

Babylonian Talmud: Berakhot 18a, 26b, 61a; Shabbat 62b, 77a; Eruvin 18b, 53a; Pesachim 3a; Yoma 28b; Taanit 4a; Megillah 17a; Moed Katan 18b; Yevamot 61b; Ketubot 57b; Nedarim 41b; Sotah 5a, 14a; Gittin 76a; Kiddushin 2a, 4b, 82a; Bava Kamma 92b; Bava Metzia 87a; Bava Batra 16b, 69b, 141a; Sanhedrin 46b, 59b, 91a, 95a, 107b; Shevuot 38b; Avodah Zarah 7b; Zevachim 62b; Chullin 95b, 120a; Bekhorot 50a. Babylonia, 6th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Talmud Bavli. Edited by Yisroel Simcha Schorr, Chaim Malinowitz, and Mordechai Marcus, 72 vols. Brooklyn: Mesorah Pubs., 2006.

[edit] Medieval

Deuteronomy Rabbah 2:11; 9:4; 11:1. Land of Israel, 9th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Midrash Rabbah: Deuteronomy. Translated by H. Freedman and Maurice Simon. London: Soncino Press, 1939. ISBN 0-900689-38-2.
Exodus Rabbah 1:32; 31:17; 32:9. 10th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Midrash Rabbah: Exodus. Translated by S. M. Lehrman. London: Soncino Press, 1939. ISBN 0-900689-38-2.
Song of Songs Rabbah 2:41; 3:8.
Ruth Rabbah 4:3; 7:12.
Lamentations Rabbah 1:19.
Ecclesiastes Rabbah 2:30.
Esther Rabbah 2:9.
Rashi. Commentary. Genesis 23–25. Troyes, France, late 11th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Rashi. The Torah: With Rashi’s Commentary Translated, Annotated, and Elucidated. Translated and annotated by Yisrael Isser Zvi Herczeg, 1:241–70. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1995. ISBN 0-89906-026-9.
Numbers Rabbah 2:1, 26; 10:5; 14:10–11; 15:12; 19:32; 21:20. 12th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Midrash Rabbah: Numbers. Translated by Judah J. Slotki. London: Soncino Press, 1939. ISBN 0-900689-38-2.
Zohar 1:21a, 50a, 100b, 103a, 121a–34a, 135b, 141a, 142a, 181b, 187a, 223a, 224a; 2:39b, 236a; 3:103a, 148b, 158a; Raya Mehemna 60a. Spain, late 13th Century. Reprinted in, e.g, The Zohar. Translated by Harry Sperling and Maurice Simon. 5 vols. London: Soncino Press, 1934.

Mann

[edit] Modern

Thomas Mann. Joseph and His Brothers. Translated by John E. Woods, 11, 58, 93–94, 100, 127–28, 130, 133–34, 173, 185, 187, 203, 339–43, 353–54, 394–95, 476–77, 492–93, 496–98, 623, 779, 806. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. ISBN 1-4000-4001-9. Originally published as Joseph und seine Brüder. Stockholm: Bermann-Fischer Verlag, 1943.
Martin Buber. On the Bible: Eighteen studies, 22–43. New York: Schocken Books, 1968.
R. David Freedman. “‘Put Your Hand Under My Thigh’—The Patriarchal Oath.” Biblical Archaeology Review 2 (2) (June 1976).