Moving Forward (Parshas Chayei Sarah #4)

For a parsha that seems to focus on marriage and the continuation of the family of Avraham, it seems a bit odd that it opens with death. One might think that Chapter 23, the death and burial of Sarah, would be attached to the previous Parsha, which includes many of the travails of Avraham’s life. Indeed, if, as the Midrash tells us, Sarah’s death was directly connected to the binding of Yitzchak, should not those two narratives be studied at the same time?

 

Sarah’s death opening a new Parasha is a beautiful metaphor for the Jewish view on death and mourning.  Traditionally, while we mourn at the time of death, we celebrate a Yahrtzeit, the anniversary of the death. Inevitably, there is sadness to the day, but we take that sadness, and we try to transform it into a positive, forward going energy by elevating the neshama of the departed with prayers, with a special kiddush, with divrei Torah, and etc. The very fact that the death of Sarah is introduced by a statement of her life, “And the life of Sarah was…” (Bereshis 23:1), expresses a powerful reminder that when death comes, we must focus on the life that was.

 

Given that Judaism has a firm faith in the afterlife, death is just the beginning of the next stage. No, this is not stated anywhere in the Torah, but it is deeply rooted in our beliefs. Those of us in Olam Hazeh, this world, cannot know what Olam Habah, the world to come, is actually like, and since the Torah is a guidebook for Olam Hazeh, it is not mentioned in the Torah.

 

One might think that with her death, Sarah’s story is over. This is not so, and it could be understood that this is the reason that Sarah’s death is the lead into this parsha rather than the parsha beginning with the search for Yitzchak’s wife, which is the majority of this week’s portion. Sarah waited a very long time to have a child so that she and Avraham could continue their spiritual mission into the forthcoming generations. Her story does not end until those generations truly are forthcoming.

 

It appears, from the order of the verses, that Sarah’s death took a great toll on Avraham: “And Avraham was old, advanced in days, and the Lord had blessed Avraham with everything” (24:1). Without Sarah, Avraham was jarred into realizing that his own time was coming to an end. This spurred him on to find a wife for Yitzchak, who was already close to 40 when his father took him for the Akeidah.

 

Parshas Chayei Sarah is no less a parsha about movement than Parshas Lech Lecha, but it is a different type of movement. In their earlier years, the movement was physical and energetic. In Parshas Chayei Sarah, the movement is far more subtle. Death can seem like a drastic ending, like the end of hope and joy. And it is appropriate when such a drastic end occurs - indeed, whenever one faces a great loss - that one take the time to mourn and recover. But the placement of the death of Sarah as the introduction to Yitzchak’s eventual marriage reminds us that Olam Hazeh is forward moving, that life must carry on and that we must take care of the future as a means of honoring those who have passed.