‘Shnei Chayey Sarah’ – the two lives of Sarah

Does this Torah portion hint at a possible solution to our current challenges? Some might suggest just so…

We would have expected a Torah potion that’s called “The Life of Sarah” to tell us about Sarah’s life, but the name of the portion stands in direct dissonance with its content: “and Sarah died in Kiriath-Arba—now Hebron—in the land of Canaan” (Genesis 23:2).

In contrast to Rashi who explains, according to the midrash, that “Sarah’s death was adjacent to the Binding of Yitzchak, for by hearing about the Binding, that her son was subject to being slaughtered and barely didn’t, her soul flew away and she died”, a commentary I don’t like because, in my opinion, it describes Sarah as a weak person, detached from her surroundings, whose husband does things behind her back… a description that does not match the rest of the story, the Sforno (Ovadia Sforno 1468-1549 Italy) explains that Sarah died after Rebekka was born because “no tzaddik dies from the world unless a tzaddik like him is born, as it is said, ‘the sun rose and the sun came’ (Ecclesiastes 1:5).

This interpretation strengthens Sarah’s righteousness. Indeed, in the first verse of this Torah portion we’re told: “and Sarah’s lifetime came to be one hundred and twenty years and seven years, the span of Sarah’s life” (literally, Shnei Chayey Sarah). What does the latter part mean?

Of course, it is possible to explain that these are the years Sarah was alive. But it is possible that the words Shnei Chayey Sarah translated as “the span of Sarah’s life”, plays on the word – shnei, which can mean the number 2, that is, the Torah wants to tell us that Sarah had two lives: one before her death, and the other – with and/or after her death. This does not mean here necessarily reincarnation, but that she herself was able to do certain things in her life, and other things she was only able to do with her death.

Last week we heard her angry ““Cast out that slave-woman and her son, for the son of that slave shall not share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.” (Genesis 21:10). We were almost tempted to see in front of us an old, bitter, jealous woman, angry at the younger woman who “stole” her husband… Oops, that’s probably the influence from some TV series… but not our story.

For it was Sarah who gave Hagar, her maid-servant, to Abraham, in the hope that they would have a child, a child that would be theirs just like all of Jacob’s sons, whether they were from Rachel and Leah (his wives) or from Zilpah and Bilha (the maid-servants), all of them together were considered “the Children of Israel” “. But Hagar did not allow Abraham and Sarah to raise the child in the ways of Hashem. If anything, it was Hagar who was jealous of Sarah for her status, and wanted to usurp him (Abraham) from Sarah, using the child to try and achieve her goal (and perhaps even returning to him after Sarah’s death, according to the Midrash).

Either way, throughout the story, Ishmael remains the “son of the maid-servant” and she remains the “Egyptian Hagar”, and also, interestingly, the “son” of Abraham. When G-d told Abraham about the birth of Isaac, Abraham said to him: “If only Ishmael would live before you” (Genesis 17:18)! As if saying, what do I need now another child with Sarah?? It’s enough for me that I have Ishmael! With him I do what You asked of me, telling people about the belief in one God, making souls in the world… that’s good, isn’t it? Yes, God tells him, that’s a good start, but “all that Sarah tells you, listen to her voice” (21:12). Sarah has a slightly different plan, and without her, your plan will not come to fruition.

Because Sarah and “her son” Yitzchak are the ones who take care of the bond that will not be severed between the people of Israel and the Land of Israel.

Yitzchak is the one of the three fathers who never left the Land (unlike Abraham and Jacob), which he received from his mother, who upon her death – in her burial – “forced” our forefather Abraham to look for a piece of land that would be completely his and the family’s – in the Land of Israel. At her death, the physical connection to the Land was strengthened, and these are “Sarah’s two lives.” The unceasing connection with the Cave of the Patriarchs, her burial place and later the burial place of the forefathers and foremothers, has remained throughout the generations as a symbol of the connection with the Land of Israel.

But… why hold on to the Land davka by a plot of a gravesite? Wouldn’t it be better to buy a field or a vineyard? Maybe a small garden? Plant flowers and trees? Except then, we might have understood from this that our right to the Land depends on tilling the soil, and if one day, someone comes along who is more diligent, one who grows more trees, maybe God forbid our right to the Land will be lost… but holding on to the Land began with a grave, a place where the person does nothing, perhaps to teach us that our right to the Land is an independent right that does not depend on anything. It is true, incorrect actions may distance us from it, as we experienced during the destruction of the Temple, but despite the distance, the right itself – is never lost.

At the end of this Torah portion, “Sarah’s Life”, Abraham also dies and is buried in the same place, in the Cave of the Patriarchs, not with Hagar, perhaps Ketura, to which he returns, perhaps, at the end of his life, but with Sarah, in the family’s eternal estate.

His two sons are present at his burial, as it is written: “And they will bury him, Isaac, and Ishmael, his sons in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, facing Mamre” (Genesis 25:9). Rashi claims, in the name of the midrash, that Isaac is mentioned here first because Ishmael repented. Therefore, in the previous verse, it is said of Abraham that he died in “a good ripe age, old and contented”, because here Abraham saw his sons, who according to the Torah had not exchanged a single word until now, making peace with each other. How does this happen? As the Gashashim said (in a famous skit “Kreker vs. Kreker), ‘we’ll divide it, half by half’: Ishmael will take the whole world where he can spread the teachings of their father as he teaches the people of the nations about the one and only God and doing kindness, and he’ll do that everywhere, except for one and only one place where Isaac can develop and build the vision of their father – here, in the Land of Israel. Is this also the prescription for peace in our region? That each of the son understands his role and fulfills it? If nothing else, it might give us us some food for thought…

Shabbat Shalom.