Israel At War 5785: Chayei Sarah – The Lives of Sarah

“And they were, the lives of Sarah, one hundred years and twenty years and seven years, the years of the lives of Sarah.” Why does this week’s Torah portion, Chayei Sarah, refer to Sarah’s lives, not her life? Sarah was not reincarnated. She had only one life.

Moreover, this Torah portion begins with Sarah’s death and ends with the deaths of Abraham and his son, Ishmael. Yet its name is “Lives of,” not “Deaths of.”

Life has always been more important in Judaism than death. Where the religion of ancient Egypt focused morbidly on death, and Christianity and Islam have much to say about what awaits us after we die, Judaism says little about an afterlife. It focuses on what we do while we are alive.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks spoke about purpose in life. Lives full of meaning, of missions achieved and hardships overcome, are, he said, what define us.

Sarah had a long life, as did Abraham (175 years) and Ishmael (137 years), but length of life by itself is meaningless. What we do with our lives is what gives them meaning. And these people did a lot.

Sarah achieved her greatest wish: to become a mother and so continue the Jewish people. After years of barrenness and having to give her maid, Hagar, to her husband to father a child, she conceived and bore Isaac at an impossibly old age. She then protected him from the danger posed by his half-brother, Ishmael, speaking up strongly to demand that Abraham expel his beloved first son, and prevailed.

But Sarah did not carry only Isaac in her womb. She carried myriads, for through Isaac and his descendants, she was the mother of every Jew who has ever lived. Hence, “the lives of Sarah.” We, every one of us today, and our ancestors, comprise the lives of Sarah.

Ishmael and Abraham, too, achieved great things in their lifetimes. Ishmael, although expelled to the wilderness, survived to father many sons. He is the father of today’s Arabs, fulfilling G-d’s word that he would make of Ishmael a great nation. Indeed, Islam’s Golden Age saw science and culture flourish throughout a vast empire. Today, the Arab world, which includes the Palestinians, has the potential to be great again, if its radicals can abandon their dream of a worldwide caliphate, the destruction of Israel, and hatred of not only Jews, but all non-Muslims.

And Abraham risked everything, leaving his home and family, founding a new religion, and having faith in Hashem’s fulfillment of His promises, despite all appearances to the contrary. He followed G-d’s command to expel Ishmael and sacrifice Isaac, yet trusted that the divine promise of numerous descendants would be kept. He lived as an alien in the land of Canaan, albeit a wealthy and respected one, paying a vastly inflated price for a burial plot that was a tiny fraction of the land he was promised. Yet he never doubted that eventually his descendants would inherit the entire Promised Land, forbidding his servant to take Isaac back to his family’s country to find a wife. No, Isaac was to remain in the land bequeathed to him by Hashem.

So, too, have we Jews showed faith in G-d’s covenant with us. Through millennia of expulsions, persecution, and massacres we still believe. On the strength of faith we, like Abraham, paid vastly inflated prices to acquire property in our ancestral homeland, even before the state of Israel was reborn. Through wars and terror attacks we stayed and thrived.

When Hamas attacked on October 7th, joined by Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran in the following days and weeks, they hoped to ignite a regional war, break the spirit of Israelis, and drive them from the land.

They have failed. Israelis are not fleeing their country. Survivors and released hostages are slowly and painfully rebuilding their lives. Refugees from the Gaza envelope are rebuilding devastated kibbutzim or creating new ones for their members in a different location. Israel has taken the fight to Gaza and Lebanon. October 7th was a huge blow, but Israelis are not broken.

In August, hostage Romi Gonen, still in captivity, turned 24. Her family could have given in to despair, but instead celebrated with cake, music, and guests to, they said, “spread light.”

Avida Bachar, who lost his wife, his son, and a leg on October 7th, returned to Kibbutz Be’eri six months later to resume farming. He says, “…the greatest lesson of my life is seeing the half of the glass of life that is full.”

Irit Lahav of Kibbutz Nir Oz, whom I had the honor of hearing from during a visit to Israel in September, is not broken. Despite what she endured on October 7th, she does not hate the people who invaded her kibbutz to murder and loot. She says she would drive sick Gazans to Israeli hospitals again, as she did before that day. Since then, she has led countless tours of the kibbutz and recounted the story of that day. She believes that doing so could help make the world a better place. It is her therapy, she told us, with a smile.

Irit has chosen life, not only of the body but of the soul. Hatred kills the soul of the hater. The savage acts committed by barbarians on October 7th are proof of that.

And countless others, from the Tribe of Nova Foundation to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum to volunteers who donate time, shelter, food, money, and therapy to Israelis bereft and traumatized by this war, are choosing life and hope.

In the wake of October 7th, in the face of hideous loss, Israel continues to choose life. We Jews will continue to choose life. We will bring honor and meaning to the lives we have been given, the lives of Sarah.