Parshat Chayei Sarah – November 22, 2024 / 22 Cheshvan, 5785

This week’s Torah portion is called “Chayei Sarah,” or “The life of Sarah.” The strange thing about this title is that the portion begins with the death of Sarah at the age of 127 years old. We then hear of her husband Abraham’s purchase of a burial plot in the cave of Machpelah. Later, we hear of Abraham’s own death and burial next to his beloved. There is some strange phrasing at the beginning of this portion. We start with: “Sarah’s lifetime was one hundred years, twenty years, and seven years, the years of Sarah’s life.” Our great sage Rashi explains that Sarah’s life could be divided into unique and distinct phases, each meaningful and righteous; explaining the odd wording. Our text then goes on to simply say, “Sh’nei Chayei Sarah-The Years of Sarah’s life.” 

So, we find ourselves at a parsha explaining the death of Sarah, but named for her life. Why? The late great Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel once wrote in a collection of essays: “Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy.” Perhaps in Judaism, we are defined by our life, and not by our death. The ripples of the life that we live on this physical plane far exceed the transitional moment of death that we inevitably experience. When we go out into the social hall after the service this evening, the first thing that we do is say the kiddush. We hold up our cups of wine or juice, and we cheerfully exclaim what so many Jews around the world have exclaimed for generations. We do not say “cheers,” as many English speakers. Not “salud” as Spanish-speakers, “Skol,” a common Swedish phrase used in Scandinavian countries, or the French “a votre sante,” Salud means “health,” Skol, means “bowl,” and “a votre sante” is another wish for good health. In Hebrew, we as Jews say L’CHAIM…not just to health, but to LIFE. Judaism is a religion obsessed with the idea of living. 

We are sometimes known for our murky explanations regarding what happens “after you die,” which can be a bit troubling to some people looking for comfort. While there do exist ideas about life after death, Chayei Sarah teaches us that it is life that counts. That a life well-lived is never truly over. Sarah’s legacy continues into this very day, this very moment. I utter her name and she lives in this space with us. Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, or the Kotzker Rebbe, spoke of a rabbi’s duty: “There are rebbes who are so great that they can revive the dead. But reviving the dead is G‑d’s business. A rebbe needs to be able to revive the living.” With that in mind, let’s look at the utter miracle of your existence–your life, in some grand terms. This really struck me this week when reading an article in Forbes that explained the almost absurd nature of our chances of existing. In order for you to exist, a myriad of events were required to occur, and they are all highly unlikely. The particular sperm cell and egg cell needed to combine to create you with the DNA sequence that encoded you, and brought you into existence; a one-in-250 million chance for a sperm cell alone. After you were formed, You needed to be born successfully. That sequence needed to happen over and over time as an intact chain for myriad of generations of your forebears. Of course, other events needed to occur as well: life needed to exist here on Earth, Earth needed to form as a planet with suitable conditions for life out of the ashes of many dead stars, the laws of physics needed to be such that they permitted life, and the Universe itself must have existed or unfolded in a manner that would make this all come together. The odds of you existing as you are, are about 1 in 400 quadrillion. That is a 4 followed by 17 zeros. Things get even more complicated from there. The odds of us all being here together at the same time…essentially zero. The fact that we have time here at all is a blessing as Heschel reminded us, and we have a chance for legacy. 

Speaking of legacy, later in our parsha, when Abraham passes away at the age of 175 years, we read that he “died at a good old age, mature and content, and he was gathered to his people.” This is the same Abraham who was told by God that he would be the father of many nations, that his offspring would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Abraham did not physically live to see all of this happen, and many say that the promise made by God to Abraham has still not truly come to pass. How did he die so content with so much undone? He knew that he had set the groundwork for what was to come.

We are directly in the wake of some very troubling antisemitic incidents, both internationally, and in our own country. I talked briefly about the attacks on Jewish Israelis in Amsterdam after a soccer match. Supporters of Israeli squad Maccabi Tel Aviv were actually hunted down and beaten in the streets for being Jewish. A man was seen running from an angry mob yelling, “I’m not Jewish!” before he was caught and assaulted. Last week I read in the news of a production of the play “The Diary of Anne Frank,” which was being put on in Livingston County, Michigan. People carrying Nazi flags were demonstrating outside of the theater, intimidating patrons. Two competing Neo-Nazi groups marched with flags bearing swastikas in Columbus Ohio…in broad daylight. These scenes looked like they could have been pulled out of a book of photography from 1930’s Germany. 

Sarah and Abraham teach us that no matter what the world is throwing our way, or the anxiety of the moment, we must continue to live. We must continue not only to live, but to ensure that our legacy is being passed down from generation-to-generation. The ancient Hittites, the Hivvites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Canaanites and others have come and gone, but we, the Israelites, have continued to find a way to overcome against so many infinitesimal odds; much of that is due to our steadfast protection of our traditions, but I also attribute it to our love for life; to our focus on improving the moment as opposed to living primarily for what comes after. We say Shehecheyanu so many times throughout our year just to thank God for making us alive, for keeping us that way, and giving us the privilege of the moment. Perhaps the moment is our life, and when the final breath does leave our body, we simply transition from potential to kinetic legacy. 

Chayei Sarah teaches us that Sarah’s death was but a moment. It is her life that continues to impact us…isn’t that impact what being alive is all about? So, let us all be blessed on this Holy Shabbat to continue to lift our glasses and say “L’Chaim,” and when we do, let us feel the breath, the ruach of God flow through us, and know that when breath leaves our body, whether it be our first, our last, or any in between, it is holy, and it is purpose. It is wind, soul and ruach. It is God.

Shabbat Shalom.

– Rabbi Josh Gray