BS"D
EXALTED EXPIRING EXPERIENCE: PARSHAT CHAYEI SARAH
Shira smiles shiur—2022/5783
Adapted by Channie Koplowitz Stein
Parshat Chayei Sarah begins
with the end of life details of Sarah Imeinu: "Sarah's lifetime was 100
years and 20 years and 7 years. She died in Kiryat Arba which is Hebron.. and
Avraham came לבכתה/to eulogize her..."
Rashi's comment on the breakdown of Sarah's years is
well known; her life is listed this way to indicate that all her years well
equally good. The juxtaposition of Sarah's death coming immediately after the
binding of Yitzchak implies that there is a relationship between the two. One
medrash notes that a messenger came to Sarah and told her that he had seen
Yitzchak bound on the altar. Before the messenger could complete the message
that Yitzchak was spared, Sarah died of the shock. A simple lesson the Tiferes
Shimshon teaches from this medrash is that when one must deliver a possibly
disturbing message, one must begin with the positive before passing on the
relevant reason for the call. [Any mother who has ever received a call from a
child's school can readily relate to this advice. CKS]
On the flip side, Rabbi
Wolfson cites the Tchernoble Rebbe as saying that one who is the messenger of
good news resembles Eliyahu Hanavi. He can channel the spark within him toward avodat
Hashem, God's service, and his spark could then ignite a spark in the
receiver of the good news.
However, this explanation
raises further questions. First, how could Sarah's entire life be deemed
equally good when she died of shock? As the Tosher Rebbe asks in Avodat
Avodah, how could Sarah Imenu, considered on an even higher level of ruach
hakodesh/Divine inspiration than Avraham Avinu not withstand the test of
the akeidah when Avraham Avinu passed the test so completely? The Ner
Uziel raises a further question. Wouldn't it be more appropriate to record this
Midrash in the first Passuk containing her death, and not when describing her
eulogy? What significance does Kiryat Arba-Chevron have?
A further question arises by
simply looking at the print. We notice that one of the letters in
"eulogize/cry about" is written smaller than the other letters. While
Rashi explains that Avraham Avinu minimized his eulogy and restrained his
weeping, how could he seem to mourn for his beloved Sarah so minimally? Rabbi
Uziel Milevsky offers a profound insight. Every morning we pray that Hashem
remove the Satan from before us and from behind us. As Rabbi Milevsky explains,
the Satan tries many ruses to prevent us from performing a mitzvah. But he will
not concede defeat even after the mitzvah has been performed. Then he will try
to get us to regret having performed the mitzvah. Just as regret, teshuvah,
can erase a sin, so can regret erase the mitzvah as well. If Avraham Avinu had
mourned Sarah's death to the degree that he would have regretted the binding of
Yitzchak, if he had said, "If only I hadn't fulfilled Hashem's command
just this once," the mitzvah and its subsequent protection for Bnei
Yisroel would have been annulled. As Rabbi Frand points out, citing the Nesivos
Shalom, if things don't turn out the way we expected, the Satan makes us
wonder if, in retrospect, we did the right thing. This is the Satan
behind us.
The Satan wanted Avraham to
feel responsible for Sarah's death and to regret having obeyed God's command.
If fact, Sarah was destined to live 127 years regardless of the akeidah.
The Satan just wanted to make Avraham think that the shock of the akeidah
caused her death so that he would regret having obeyed Hashem. The Torah
testifies that Avraham Avinu mourned her without the added grief of regret, of,
"If Only." As the Nesivos Shalom says, " we pray that
Hashem saves us from the power of the yetzer hora to dissuade us from
performing mitzvoth and from the yetzer horo trying to rob us of the benefits
of having performed the mitzvah (Tehillim 35). Don't second guess yourself for
having done the right thing.
Nevertheless, is it possible
that Sarah did not pass the test Hashem presented directly to Avraham? The Ohel
Moshe, Rav Moshe Scheinerman, quoting the Griz offers a very pragmatic
approach to this question. We know that Hashem tests us only with challenges He
knows we can overcome, and then He provides us with the strength to actually
overcome those challenges once we are ready to meet them head on. While Hashem
commanded Avraham Avinu to bind his son as an offering to Hashem, He had not
commanded Sarah Imeinu to do so. Therefore, adds Rabbi Shmulevits, Avraham was
given the physical, emotional and spiritual strength to pass the test, while
Sarah, who was not commanded, was not given that additional strength. Avraham
himself was given the challenge in small doses, "Take your son, your only
one, whom you love, Yitzchak...," so that he could strengthen himself
incrementally. It is for this reason that one should avoid challenging
situations; if you were not commanded, you were not given the added ability to
withstand the challenge, and you may indeed fail.
Rabbi Reiss explains that just
as each of us is different and unique physically, so are we each different in
every aspect of our being. Hashem has made us unique because each of us has a
unique mission to fulfill, and each of us needs individualized tools to fulfill
that mission and overcome the challenges associated with that mission. This was
why, when we were offered the Torah at Sinai we could respond with naaseh/we
will do before nishma/we will hear the details of what we are to do. We
understood that if Hashem commanded us to do, He would also give us all we
would need to fulfill His command. If I know that Hashem wants this of me, then
I also know that Hashem gives me strength to be successful, and I can bless
"He Who gives strength to the weary."
The area of Meorat
Hamachpelah, the burial site Avraham now buys to bury Sarah, is known by four
different names, each signifying a different way a person may die, writes the Ohel
Moshe, citing the Kli Yakar. One's death may be caused by his own
sin, a tzadik's death may be the result of the sin of others whom he did not
try to influence to do teshuvah, a third way would be the natural deterioration
of the body, while the fourth would be a neshikah/kiss from Hakodosh
Boruch Hu that draws the soul back to reconnect to its Source.
Each of the names for this
area alludes to one of these deaths. The name Mamre refers to those who die of
their own sin, those who rebel. Eshkol refers to those who were shakul,
who let others be lost for his lack of counseling them. Kiryat Arba, to the
decree of natural death when the four major organs of the body fail to function
properly. [Perhaps these refer to the brain, heart, lungs and kidneys. CKS]
Finally, Chevron is the death of tzadikim, of the righteous whose souls brush
off their physical enclosure and reunite with Hakodosh Boruch Hu through His
kiss. Sarah died the natural death decreed upon all mankind through the medium
of Hashem's kiss, she died in Kiryat Arba, in Chevron.
When one is completely
engrossed in connecting to Hashem, the Angel of Death has no power to take the
neshamah away from the body. It must create at least a momentary distraction.
This was the case later with King David who knew he was destined to die on a
Shabbat. Therefore, every Shabbat he spent every moment studying Torah. When
his time to die came, the Angel of Death created some distraction in the
rustling trees. At the moment David stopped to acknowledge the trees, the Angel
took his soul. Similarly, writes Rabbi Sorotskin in Oznaim Latorah,
Sarah Imeinu was completely engrossed in connecting to Hashem. But the time
Hashem had decreed for her death had arrived. Therefore, the Satan distracted Sarah
with images of Yitzchak's death, and was able to separate her holy soul from
its physical body.
In Neos Deshe, Rabbi
Schenuer gives a very satisfying perspective on Sarah's death that meshes
nicely with our earlier discussion. He explains that when Sarah Imeinu saw that
Yitzchak had reached such perfection that he could be an offering on the altar,
she realized she had successfully completed her mission on earth. Having
completed her purpose, she was not dying from shock, but rather from the joy of
having successfully completed her mission in her allotted time. Rabbi Zaidel
Epstein adds the nuance that Sarah died from the joy at having been gifted with
such a son and having raised him successfully to actualize his spiritual
potential.
The Tosher Rebbe quoting the
Koznitzer Maggid suggests that Sarah Imeinu was pained that she was not part of
this great elevation, of dying al kiddush Hashem/for the sanctity
of God's name as Yitzchak was now doing. For her sheer devotion, Hashem granted
her desire, and she died. She died in Chevron/Kiryat Arba, in connection with
the four lettered name of Hashem. That's why Avraham Avinu worked so hard to
have here buried in Meorat Hamachpelah where heaven and earth meet. As Rabbi
Asher Weiss says, Sarah Imeinu's soul had reached such spiritual heights that
it could not be contained in her body.
This same desire for deveikus,
for clinging to Hashem was found in each Jew at Sinai, writes Rabbi Wolbe. Our
medrash tells us that when Bnei Yisroel heard Hashem's voice, the connection
was so powerful that their souls left their bodies. But Hashem returned their
souls to them. We are each gifted, albeit less intensely, with this desire to
connect with Hakodosh Boruch Hu.
The Shvilei Pinchas
explains that Hashem protects the one who is commanded, but that protection is
not extended to one that is not commanded. Avraham was commanded, but Sarah was
not so commanded. Similarly, Nadav and Avihu brought their incense offering out
of great devotion to Hashem. But since they had not been commanded to do so,
their action was misplaced, and they died. So too did Sarah die in seeking that
intense closeness through the akeidah, for she was not commanded to
offer her son.
In Ohr Gedalyahu, Rabbi
Schorr delves into deep homiletical interpretations of the akeidah and
the death of Sarah Imeinu. Everything in creation exists on three levels, in
space, in time, and in self/spirit. Together the akeidah and the death
of Sarah Imeinu served to elevate each of these levels. The site of the altar
would be the permanent site for Hashem's presence in the Beit Hamikdosh and
thus in the world; Sarah consecrated the "subterranean sister city of
Yerushalayim," Chevron by her burial there; she elevated her soul by her
desire to be part of the binding of Yitzchak, although she was too far away to
be an actual participant as were Avraham and Yitzchak. We are therefore told
that all our prayers must pass through Chevron before they can go to
Yerushalayim and rise heavenward.
Rabbi Rivlin brings a very
mystical and awesome interpretation to what he refers to as akeidas Sarah,
the binding for sacrifice of Sarah as parallel to the binding of Yitzchak. He
notes that every time Hashem descends to reveal His presence on earth, a
righteous person dies. [As I think I understand this, a balance between
sanctity and non-sanctity, a stasis, must be maintained in the world. Therefore
when Sanctity descends to earth, sanctity must leave earth and ascend to
heaven. CKS] The greatest example is the deaths of Nadav and Avihu, Aharon's
son, the day the Mishkan/Sanctuary was dedicated in the desert and Hashem's
presence came down and entered it. As the Torah there states, "Bikrovai
Ekodesh/I will be sanctified through those close to Me (Vayikra 10:3).
Nadav and Avihu were deemed to be closer to Hakodosh Boruch Hu than even Moshe
and Aharon.
In our discussion of the akeidah,
Hashem's presence came down to the altar It was seen on the mountain., and
Avraham named the place, the Place where Hashem will be seen, Har Moriah
Neither Avraham nor Yitzchak died, but Sarah, who so much wanted to be close to
Hashem at that moment, connected her soul to Hashem and died.
We are gifted with a heart
wrenching interpretation of the death of Sarah Imeinu from Rabbi Kolonymus
Shapiro, the Rabbi of the Warsaw Ghetto, known by the name Aish Kodesh/Holy
Fire. He explains that both salt and suffering can be used as a means to seal a
covenant. [The salt is used with an offering on the altar, while the suffering
can atone for sins.] Either can be effective only when used judiciously. Too
much salt will ruin the meat, and too much suffering will cause death. The Aish
Kodesh suggests that Sarah was suffering with the imagined death of her beloved
son. She was sending a message to Hashem that He should temper the suffering He
sends her children through history, for too much suffering will be too
difficult for the nation to withstand.
Rabbi Rivlin adds another
level of poignancy to this interpretation that ties in with the previous
medrashim we've discussed. When the Satan saw he could not dissuade Avraham
Avinu from fulfilling Hashem's command, he approached Sarah. He told her about
the akeidah, and that Yitzchak cried to be spared, but was not.
Immediately, Sarah cried, three cries that parallel the three tekiyot of
the shofar and three cries for sobbing or wailing. Together with the reading of
the akeidah on Rosh Hashanah, the sacrifice of Avraham Avinu and
Yitzchak Avinu, we ask that Hashem also remember the akeidah of Sarah
Imeinu as He hears the sound blast from the ram's horn, the ram that was
offered in Yitzchak's stead, and the sounds that resemble the cries of Sarah
Imeinu.