Two Minute Torah Podcast

Haye Sarah 5771 by Rabbi Ed Romm

Shalom, my name is Rabbi Ed Romm, Director of Education and Campus Programs of the United Synagogue Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center For Conservative Judaism.

Welcome to KOACH's Two Minute Torah, a project of the? College Dept of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

I would like to share some thoughts with you about Parshat Haye Sarah. The Parasha starts off on a sad note. We learn of the death of Sarah. Many commentaries connect the death of Sarah with the previous chapter of the story of the binding of Isaac. According to some Midrashim, when Sarah heard that her husband was going to slaughter Isaac on an alter, Sarah died of shock.

After the trauma of "the binding of Isaac" episode which would have put an end to God's promise to Abraham if indeed Isaac was slain, Parshat Haye Sarah leaves us with a message of hope and continuity. Abraham buys outright a burial plot in Hebron, the Cave of Machpelah, establishing ownership of a piece of Eretz Yisrael and complimenting God's earlier promise to Abraham, "I will assign this land to your offspring".

The second major episode involves the successful task of finding of a wife for Isaac from the "old country", insuring the future of the next generation, "Jewish Continuity".

When it came time for Abraham to breathe his last breath, the Torah tells us "dying at a good ripe age, old and contented, he was gathered to his kin". His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried their father in the Cave of Machpelah next to his wife Sarah. Then the Torah goes on to tell us, "God blessed his son Isaac", clearly establishing once again the lineage of the Jewish people and the connection to the Land of Israel.

Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem.