Genesis Cycle Five Chayay Sarah

Chayay Sarah

The Miracle of the Veil

From time to time we fall off the camel.  No matter how clumsy, if we touch the ground or slide, there is a way to get back on. We’ve all done it. We’ve flunked the driving test, tripped down the stairs, run out of gas, forgotten our tickets, exposed ourselves to the love of our life.

Often our "falling" has nothing to do with us.

Here’s an example:  We "fall" into a danger-zone far from our control. We get caught in a major storm.  It’s an overwhelming moment. Frightening.  One that demands clarity, focus, humility, determination, presence, self-forgiveness, release and a certain submission to the shock of it all. It demands awe which is beyond fear.  That extended storm-moment is crucial.  It creates a new reality. There's new-found modesty as we transform and try to re-find our balance again and again. It demands compassion for others and for ourselves. It helps therefore to be both public and private, in our own personal space and reaching to others, showing faith and hope, making new friends, making old friends,  keeping our human hesitation/doubt/negativity concealed under our inner veil. It helps to know we are all doing the best we can.

This is the way of Rivkah in 24:63-64. Rivkah falls off the camel and moves back under her veil with seamless grace.

Why is this moment so important?

First let’s look at the metaphor of the veil.  Life is a veil. There are veils within veils, lives within lives, names within names, our prayers to God, our various perspectives, all billowing in the breeze of our essence.  They include our thoughts, dreams. Our clothing is a veil, our tallith. There are our stories, our experiences, even places, words, letters. There are millions of veils of memory. At times of absolute fear or grinding discomfort even faith is a veil. 

To lose the veil…to be raw and aware...we need to first have one, know it, feel it, understand how to be within it.  In Chayay Sarah we are fine-tuning these veils, touching them gently, making sure they are there. We are facing and discerning those we use every day. This is a time of care to fine detail. We must, in the anticipation of our un-veiling, make sure the veil is even there. We must know how it is attached to us, how it works, its thickness and porosity, how it hangs, how it protects, how it gives us strength,  how to bless it, how it divides one world from the next, one emotion from the next, one being from the next. We must see that the veils can be replaced. After all we may lose touch with our bearings.

Avraham understands this. Sarah dies at the beginning of this parasha and is described as his Dead. Sarah’s veil…her body…can no longer conceal her soul.  Therefore the body needs to be buried. In mystical circles, this burial allows the soul to rise to Hashem. In any case, this is Avraham’s obligation. There’s important work to do. Avraham acquires the land to bury Sarah. After all, it’s as if his wife is suddenly exposed, naked.

In terms of Rivkah, she is traveling to the home of Yitzhak. He goes out into the field, lifts his eyes and she lifts hers. Their heart-vision joins at the nexus. She falls from her camel and then, without a word sits back on, veil over her face.

Who is covering her? God. Who covers Sarah? God.Who covers us with protection mid-storm? God.

Obviously, nobody mocks the women, reminds them of their clumsiness, tries to dwell on their losses. Nobody needs to see them as having fallen.  Nobody points out her exposed face. Nobody blames. This is not about ego or knowing more or less. This is about living spiritually. In order for healing therefore there must be trust that God loves Rivkah enough to conceal her. In order for redemption there must be trust that God-within-Avraham will bury Sarah. With that trust and faith we can survive our sadness. We can survive all shock, devastation and tragedy. We can love. We can continue to love.

From the mystical therefore to the mundane, it is God’s wish that we continually get back on the camel and conceal ourselves in our transformation. However we use the veil, see it, imagine it, know it, borrow it, love it, glow within it…it’s important that we have gratitude for it and realize the miracle of it. In every single moment  that we lose balance and fall, get pushed down, trip or struggle... for whatever reason... the veil enables us to rise even higher with peace, grace, respect, beauty, dignity and gratitude. This is not yet who we are but who we strive to be. It is the remaking of myth after myth, the cycle of our ancestry and our existence, the manifestation of the covenant, the human path.

As Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook says: Let us raise ourselves higher…we raise ourselves above the flesh…we rise above falsehood and hypocrisy…we cling in truth to truth and the light grows stronger and life ascends to a higher state.