Chayei Sarah

This Torah portion is the 5^th in the cycle it is called Chayei Sarah meaning  “the life of Sarah.” In the previous Parashas, we learn about the binding of Isaac. This Midrash tells us that  Abraham did not tell Sarah that he was going to sacrifice Isaac. When Sarah learned that Abraham was about to sacrifice their son, she died of grief.

This however does not make any spiritual sense. Someone of Sarah’s spiritual maturity would have obviously understand that her husband would never do anything that the CREATOR did not ordained. She would have understood that that something beyond the physical event was taking place, something of great spiritual significance.

The is Parashas tell us not to interpret this and other stories in Torah in a literal way. In fact, Sarah might have known that Isaac was not going to die, since he was the promise seed. She knew that a tremendous Light was about to be revealed at Mount Moriah, the site where the Temple would eventually be built.

As Sarah represent the flesh, the flesh had to die, and we learn that she did die in this Parasha. In order for the Spirit to prosper, the flesh have to die, Abraham the spirit prosper by sacrificing the Soul “Isaac” the product of both the Spirit and the flesh. It was this Sacrifice by the Spirit that the CREATOR find great favor in.

The binding of Isaac by Abraham, is the binding of the Soul by the Spirit, with the exclusion of the flesh, Sarah. There is a reason why Torah  says that Sarah died in Kiryat Arba, which literally mens the Town of the Four. She died with a complete connection to the Name of YAHVEH “יהוה”. Sarah the flesh achieved total connection by relinquishing all selfish attachments in her relationship with other people, she freed herself of the desire to receive for the self alone.

Sarah is the only matriarch whose death, funeral, and burial place spark the kind of debate we see in this Parashas, underscoring her spiritual significance. This Parashas also goes into considerable length to describe the process by which Isaa’s wife Rebecca, was selected. The man who conducted that process on behalf of Abraham the Spirit was his closest and most brilliant student. According to the Parashas, his name is Dammeseq Eliezer, which means Eliezar from Damascus.

Not only was Eliezer able to understand the wisdom of Kabbalah, he was also capable of conveying it to other people. Many students throughout history have had this ability, such student such a those of the Greatest Kabbalah of them all Messiyah Yahushua. I the case of Eliezer, we finf someone who attained a level of wisdom far beyond what we can ever imagine today.

The Torah says that Eliezer travelled to a city of Nahor, where Rebecca lived, and asked the ABBA YAHVEH to give him a sign to identify a future wife for Abraham’s son, Issac. The Torah devote many words to this narrative, but it repeats them when Eliezer recounts the event in detail for Rebecca’s family.

Since we knew that the Torah is very intentional in its use of words, there is no wastage of words in it. In reply to this statement, greater are the words of the stories of the servants of the patriarchs than is the study of their children.

When Eliezer went to Nahor to find a wife for Isaac, he carried a signifant amount of wealth to redeemed a wife, but when Eliezer introduced himself to Rebrcca and her family, he did so saying ‘Eved Avraham anochi’ I am the servant of Abraham. He could have introduced himself as Abraham’s closest friend or as his most promising student, which would have been equally true. He chose to describe himself as eved Avraham, the servant of Abraham.

WE know that the purpose of life is to transform our Desire to Receive to the Desire to Share. We can share by helping another person, or we can share at an even higher spiritual level by sharing as a servant. When the Torah describe the great heights that Moses achieved spiritually, the words used to are “Moshe Avdi” or Moses MY serant.

When we no longer feel that we have a choice about whether to give or not to give, our consciousness become that of a servant, not in the sense of lowering ourselves, but in the sense of elevating ourselves spiritually.

As we strive to understand how this works in everyday life, we need to differentiate between being a servant and being a victim. There are many people who give to their children, spouse, or friends, because they feel obligated to do so, even when they do not like; these are victims of sharing. There is no need for them to be servants, yet they choose to take on the role. This is the way to the highest level of the soul. In order to grew this  consciousness in our Egi, we have to use it every day, which in this case meant the effort to give regardless of the feeling.

      

Many of us share, but how many of us share with the Ego of a servant? I believe that if we are truly honest with ourselves, our answer would be almost never. It is possible that anyone of us will attain this level of Spiritual maturity today, but by awakening a desire for it, we are taking an all important first or even second step, depending on what day of Creation we are experiencing.

Like  Eliezer an Rebecca in the Parasha of Chayei Sarah, we can achieved continuous growth in our connection to the Light of the CREATOR. We can achieve the elevated spirit of Sarah, the flesh, the women who chose to leave the influence of her body, that selfish desire, when she wanted something more important. The attend the unveiling of the Messiyan, the Lamb slaying from the foundation of the world at Mount Moriah.

This Parashas is the fifth portion of the Torah Cycle. In this Parashas we should pray for the development of the servant attitude.

Parashas Sarah is a narrative on the life of Sarah, the mother of a nation, a type of people who strive for perfection “”Yisrael. An essential concept of Judaism, it does not reject the past like Christianity, nor does it forget what is to come. The narrative up for discussion, begins with the death of Sarah and her husband‘s intense desire to give her a proper burial, one worthy of her greatness. We see Abraham looking ahead, turning to the responsibility of finding a suitable wife for his son Isaac.

Here is, 

I. Abraham a mourner for the death of Sarah verse 1, 2.

II. Abraham a purchaser of a burying-place for Sarah.

1. The purchase humbly proposed by Abraham verse 3, 4.  

2. Fairly treated of, and agreed to, with a great deal of mutual civility and respect verse 5–16.

3. The purchase-money paid verse 16. 

4. The premises conveyed and secured to Abraham verse 17, 18, 20.

5. Sarah’s funeral verse 19.

Genesis 23:¹ Sarah lived one hundred and twenty-seven years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. - The number of cycle she endures before accomplishing all that she had to accomplish was 127 years or cycle. These cycles span three periods in her life, as it does for us today. Ur of the Caldeese where she start her journey, Param Haram the mid way journey to perfection, and finally Canaan the promise land.

Genesis 23:² So Sarah died in Kirjath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. - She died in the land that she was destined to posses. Abraham came to eulogize his beloved wife by emphasizing the noble traits that had become associated with her name. Sarah represent her as the princess of all mankind, she fulfilled her name prophetically.

Genesis 23:³ Then Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spoke to the sons of Heth, saying, -   At this most painful time in Abrahams live, in his deep sadness, he asks a fovor from the world, he hardly knows; Abraham speaks from the deepest part of his godself, the god-within because this is where his greatest godlike grace and compassion reside.

Genesis 23:⁴ “I am a foreigner and a visitor among you. Give me property for a burial place among you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. - A Hebrew is always a foreigner and a visitor in this life. We are created in the image of our Creator, therefore this world is not our home just a temporary dwelling place.

Abraham had to plead and negotiate with the Hittites to sell him a burial place plot after some many promise that he would be given this land. When someone is promise that something will be given to them it does not mean it will be free. It mean that he will posses it one day weather by working for it, conquering it, or inheriting it. Here is a principle worth our obedient; freeness is never a good idea. It will never be appreciated.

Abraham emphasized the dual role that ever Hebrew or believer must play. On one hand, he is a resident of his country, and as such he must work and pray for its welfare, as Jeremiyah 29:7 urges his people on the threshold to do. On the other hand, the Hebrew in this world is always an alien, for his allegiance is to the Kingdom of Heavens, whose goal is set forth by the Torah.

A believer must always be ready to be a lonely alien, resisting the carnal culture that surrounds him, maintaining his set apart responsibility.

Genesis 23:⁵ And the sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him, - 

Genesis 23:⁶ “Hear us, my lord: You are a mighty prince among us; bury your dead in the choicest of our burial places. None of us will withhold from you his burial place, that you may bury your dead.” -  The Hittites the world will always treat the believers with the utmost respect. Compare to Abraham modest description of himself as only an alien and a resident, they address him as prince among men. So respectful will we be, that they will offered to surrender to us even personal real estate for burial purposes.