Genesis Cycle Three Chayay Sarah 23:1 to 25:18

Chayay Sarah

It is said in the mishnah (4:13) that Abraham embodies Torah before it is given to Moses. In Chayay Sarah we see how. First, he learns from Sarah at her death. Two people so inter-rooted will soul-reflect each other beyond all impediments. As Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook says: When love is challenged by impediments (emanating from nature) it goes through a refining period until it ascends to the very essence of divine love which created all beings and sustains them in life at all times. Next, Abraham allows this love to penetrate into the core of his being. As the Sfaas Emes says he becomes rooted upward. Next, he embodies that transformation by becoming rooted to the earth. And finally, he transmits this knowingness to the community.

None of this comes easy though. It’s painful. Each step in this process has to be placed into four parcels (in my opinion three revealed and one concealed) simply because the whole is too powerful as one. Talmud states that oaths (for example) are subdivided into four. And the Zohar speaks of four worlds, the rungs to enlightenment.

So let’s begin with Sarah’s death. Here Abraham learns to let go…not only of his beloved wife…but of the idea of human wholeness as synonymous with supernal wholeness. The Torah reads that Sarah’s lives (or beings) are 100 years, 20 and 7. The Zohar says that 100 symbolizes Keter. The number 20 symbolizes both Chochmah and Binah, 10 for each. And the 7 represents the lower sefirot. The fact that her parcels of life fit perfectly into the sefirotic construct attests to the fact that she is whole as a human (Zohar).

Still though, she dies. Her wholeness does not, in other words, protect her from physical death. Therefore, I personally believe that there’s a fourth concealed parcel of being here, one that infers her beyond-body essence. As Rabbi Kook also says the activating thrust of the truly higher life does not cease…it moves “forward and backward as the appearance of a flash of lightning” (Ezek. 1:14).

This leads us to this fourth concealed parcel. It is clearly transferred to Abraham. Look at his actions. Reflecting the parcels of Sarah's being, they are also subdivided into four. For example, his grieving. He comes to her. He eulogizes her. And he weeps for her. He does something else. He receives her transmission. The physical (body of Abraham) ascends and is ennobled by the holy (Abraham Isaac Kook). He roots himself to God while chasing the soul-being of Sarah. Similarly we read in the Zohar that he chases a lamb into the cave of Makhpelah and sees where Adam is buried. Same idea
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Next he sets out to bury her. This action shows that he is rooting himself into himself and to the earth. The dead is the obligation undone(Berakhot 18a). This means that Abraham here has an awareness of the mitzvoth even before they are given to us by God. Three times he asks the people of Heth and then three times he has dialogue with Ephraim, owner of the desired cave. The light from the cave, the Garden of Eden, is in itself the fourth silent request.

Next, he transmits the supernal light (received through the channel of Sarah’s essence) to the world through his servant. First, we read the narration of the servant’s story. Next, the story from the servant himself. And finally it is repeated to Abraham. Connecting all three (in my opinion) is the oath of the servant as he places his hand under Abraham’s thigh. Silently, through a simple action, the story is sealed there (the fourth time) and transmitted to the world in the undercurrents of human consciousness.

But to repeat, it’s slow-going. Patience is necessary. Prayer is necessary. The Zohar points to Jonah. He gets thrown into the sea several times before the sea truly takes him. Each throw hurts. Each parcel hurts. They serve as a constant reminder not only of our losses but of the almost-satisfaction, the near-to-God-but-not-near-enough feeling try after try.

Finally, the guttural, heart wrenching cry of loss becomes overwhelmed by the pining yearning rush we all experience as we look towards a fourth level of radiance barely visible to our human eye. If Torah is that visibility, Abraham, as a living being, embodies as much of Torah as humanely possible.

So, may we be patient, compassionate, and strong like Abraham. May we accept our state of being with the knowledge that it includes continual transformation to a place and time beyond the physical realm. May we love the dead, feel the loss, feel the pain. They are our guides and our radiant escorts as we brave the deepest caves and enter the loving arms of the Shechinah. And may the dead be patient with us.