|
 |
|
|
Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Chaya Sarah Genesis 23:1-25:18
By Shlomo Riskin
Efrat, Israel – “And Sarah died in Kiryat Arba
which is Hebron in the land of Canaan. And Abraham came to mourn for Sarah
and to weep upon her…” (Genesis 23:2)
What was Sarah doing in Hebron? Abraham, Sarah and Isaac had been living
in Be’er Sheba, where the patriarch had made a treaty with Avimelekh
King of the Philistines: “And Abraham planted an eishel tree in Be’er
Sheba and he called out there in the name of the Eternal G-d of the world.
And Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines for a long period”
(21:33,34). The very next verse opens the following chapter with the story
of the akedah (binding of Isaac), after which the Bible logically reports,
“And Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together
to Be’er Sheba. And Abraham dwelt in Be’er Sheba” (22:19). So what
was Sarah doing in Hebron, to where Abraham had to travel in order to
eulogize and bury her?
I believe it necessary to revisit the difficult incident of “the binding”
(akedah) in order to understand. Rav Yosef Ibn Kaspi, the famed
philosopher of the 14th century, maintains that the real message of the
story is that our G-d – unlike Moloch, the bloodthirsty idol of the
ancient world – does not countenance human sacrifices. From Ibn Kaspi’s
perspective, it is quite possible that Abraham’s real test came with the
second command of the angel, “Do not cast your hand against the lad and
do not do anything at all to him:” perhaps the continuation of that
verse is to be translated, “Now I know that you fear G-d because you did
not remove (cause to be absent, to be taken away) your only son because of
My (initial command – 22:12).” Abraham was way ahead of his times, but
he could not help but be influenced in some way by his times. Perhaps he
even expected that his new-found G-d would also exact the heavy price of
his beloved son’s life as a test of his faith and commitment!
It is even possible that the Sages of the Talmud are proposing just such
an Abrahamic mind-set when they very boldly have G-d criticize Abraham’s
would-be sacrifice as having resulted from the Patriarch’s
misunderstanding (sic) of the initial Divine command. The Talmud (B.T.
Taanit 4a) puts Abraham in the category of other misguided Biblical
personalities who wrongly sacrificed their children: “(The prophet
chides Israel for having acted in accordance with words which) ‘I (G-d)
have not commanded, I have not spoken, and have not even entered My mind’
– ‘I have not commanded’ applies to Meisha the king of Moab; ‘I
have not spoken’ applies to Jephtha; ‘have not even entered My mind’
applies to Isaac, son of Abraham.”
And is this not the interpretation of Rashi (ad loc) when he maintains
that Abraham did not properly understand the Divine words: “I did not
say ‘slaughter him; I merely said ‘bring him up and then bring him
down…”?! The Hassidic Sfat Emet daringly suggests that the true
meaning of the word Makom in the verse “It was on the third day (of
their journey to Mt. Moriah for the binding) when Abraham lifted up his
eyes and he saw the place (ha’makon) from afar” (22:4) is to be taken
as G-d, as in our comfort greeting to a mourner (HaMakom menahem etchem…),
and not as place. Abraham saw G-d from afar if he did not realize that our
G-d could not possibly have commanded child sacrifice! And indeed, after
this incident there is not one single direct conversation between G-d and
Abraham recorded in the Bible – despite the fact that Abraham continues
to live in his full strength for 38 more years!
Given all of this, imagine Mother Sarah awakening during this fateful
night to the rustling and bustling noises of her husband and son preparing
for departure on a journey. She’s already suspicious, since Abraham had
apparently neglected to inform her of what he understood to have been G-d’s
command. When she finally extracts from him the purpose of their nocturnal
preparations, she must have pleaded, argued, remonstrated against the
proposed mission. “How can you begin to believe that G-d would demand
such a heinous act? Would the G-d who created every human being in His
Divine Image expect you to destroy your own beloved son?” And then she
might have even taken the offensive position, charging Abraham with always
having sacrificed his son for what he perceived to have been the Divine
charge, spending days and nights bringing idolaters closer to the Divine
Presence and His teachings while neglecting the questions and needs of his
own flesh and blood, the fruit of his loins. But all to no avail. Abraham
walks out the door with Isaac.
Sarah must feel desperate. So she too set out on an early morning journey
– but back to Hebron rather than Mt. Moriah. She must pray at the place
where her ancestors Adam and Eve had been buried, in the Cave of the
Couples; after all, they knew the pain of being left bereft of a beloved
son in the bloom of his youth, Abel. Perhaps they would intercede with G-d
for Isaac’s life.
And perhaps she felt she had to return to Hebron, the place where she and
Abraham had settled after their disappointing separation from Lot, when
G-d promised them seed as numerous as the dust of the earth and where
Abraham had established a Hurin thanksgiving for that promise. (Gen.
13:17,18); perhaps she felt she had to pray for Isaac’s life in Hebron,
where G-d entered into the Covenant between the Pieces with Abraham, which
guarantees progeny which will forge a nation (Gen. 15); and perhaps she
felt she had to pray for Isaac’s life in Hebron, where the three
Divinely sent messengers had promised that in one year’s time a male
child, heir and guarantor of the Divine covenant, would be born to Abraham
and Sarah (Gen. 18, with the oaks of Mamre being in Hebron, as we saw in
13:18). If Abraham hadn’t argued with G-d, Sarah felt she must do so, at
this fateful time and at the auspicious place of the Divine promise. The
anxiety is apparently too great for Sarah to bear, and she dies in Hebron
perhaps in the midst of her remonstrations with G-d. But in this instance
as well, Sarah emerges as having had arrived at a deeper understanding of
G-d’s true will than had Abraham!
Shabbat Shalom
Shlomo Riskin
Chancellor Ohr Torah Stone
Chief Rabbi - Efrat Israel
Return to Ohr Torah Stone
|
