Genesis Cycle 7 Chayai Sarah

 Chayai Sarah

It has been said that the Jewish people do not believe in reincarnation.  With the growing attention to Jewish mysticism however what many of us have found is that there is a recurrent historical theme of an after-life in important writings.  In fact, it is so recurrent that it shocks me when someone…anyone...insists that Judaism supports ashes to ashes.  First, this person just might be forgetting that Judaism is a rabbinic tradition. While Torah trumps all, the teachings of the rabbis create the defining boundaries of our life and death behavior. Next, this person might not be fully grasping the huge influence that many other religious and philosophic teachings have had on our present rabbinical teachings.

In my opinion, just as both Isaac and Ishmael bury their father in an act of Divine Healing,  we as people of all cultures and all religions raise up our dead also in an act of Divine Healing. Joseph Karo of the Schulchan Aruch emphasizes the importance of such raising-up. As does Rabbi Luria. As does Rabbi Johanon ben Zakai. As does Rabbi Akiva.  And yes, as does Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. In fact, I don’t know many rabbis who don’t. I'm sure they exist. Somewhere. I just don't know them.

Therefore the only way to be Jewish and to ignore the existence of gilgul (recycling of the souls) is to take away both the foundation (the ancient teachings) and the ceiling (the modern teachings) of our holy temple. The refusal to recognize a spiritual intertextuality today in this era leaves one comfortable in a place of childhood perhaps…in a rather bygone manifestation of Reform Judaism…. But it also leaves one exposed to the Divine anti- elements, in other words, fear, dread, doubt, ego, arrogance.  By intertextuality I mean the metaphysical expression of flow of the white space between the letters,  beyond words, a flow from life to death to life,  a flow of change from present to past (as inferred by TS Eliot), from mind to mind, from earth to God, from being to being. This flow, this shefa, is not some made up stuff imposed on Torah. It is right there, right in today’s parsha.

How is this parsha named? Chayai Sarah. The life of Sarah. What would we therefore expect? A recording of the events of her life.  What do we immediately experience though? Her death.  Already, with this immediate proximity, we see the life/death dialogue and intimacy of which we are all painfully familiar. For, as Abraham shows with his very masculine sobbing at his wife’s death, the passing is not an easy experience. It’s shocking whatever the season. It’s sad. It’s also like God has slammed us into a solid wall.   While Sarah has become ephemeral, Abraham must be more practical and yes, grounded. He does after all have to bury her, his dead. Their connection has now split their tasks just as a Being is split in order to create a covenant.  Who will walk between them? God.

Because you see, the physical dead don’t leave us. They are here. From our mourner’s kaddish we easily see that how we envision life is how we envision the dead. Of course, our vision is not all that does create but it helps in the process.  Do you think really that Sarah has nothing to do with the fast and easy search for Isaac’s wife, Rebecca? Does she have nothing to do with the beautiful meeting between Isaac and Rebecca, out in the field?  My friends, Sarah is there the whole time.  Who is Isaac communing with out in the field that evening before the arrival of Rebecca? His mother. I am sure. If you squint a bit, he sees her into existence.

And while it feels like all of our friends are gone for good, for she is no longer a part of this world from our great big huge all encompassing all universal holier than holy all bloated and materialist  human perspective now,  it is on us….aleynu….to raise ourselves to a place of the abstract so we can see her, our fathers and mothers, our friends. Death in this way is an opportunity to enter new mirrors of enlightenment.  It’s almost an insane Job-like task, to honor and sustain life above all and then to cry and scream and die inside with pain…and then to thank God for the beautiful amazing dead before us, but it is our task.

Think, for a second, who is with you now? Who can lead you to an amazing kiss with God? Someone is here with you. This moment.

  

Imagine piles of tracing paper reaching for eternity.  On one piece is us the billions living, all cultures and faiths. On the other is the billions dead, all cultures and faiths. On a third is the billions to be born, all cultures and faiths.  Don’t ask me what’s on the others because I don’t know. I do know however that if we look closely enough we can see the likeness of one known piece of tracing paper within the other. If we look really close it’s all one. This is a world in which even states of consciousness are not hierarchical.  This is the world we live in really, a world defined by Love.