Parshat Chayei Sarah
Rabbi Simcha Krauss
Young Israel of Hillcrest, NY

27 Chesvan 5761
November 25, 2000
Daf Yomi: Nazir 39

The Sidra of this week describes two unrelated events. It begins with the death of Sarah and Abraham’s efforts to provide her with an appropriate burial place. It continues with Abraham’s sending his messenger to find a suitable wife for his son, Isaac, and Eliezer’s success in this endeavor as Rivkah returned with Eliezer to marry Isaac.

These two events - the death of Sarah and Isaac’s marriage to Rivkah - are not only chronologically related. They are also logically related. The point that the Torah wants to make here is that despite Sarah’s death, she continues to live. The Midrash comments on the verse - “And Isaac brought her (Rivkah) into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rivkah and she became his wife; and he loved her. And Isaac was comforted for his mother” (Genesis 24:57) as follows: “The candles remained lit from Erev Shabbat to Erev Shabbat, the blessing reigned in her dough and the cloud of glory returned to her tent.” In other words Sarah’s legacy continued. Sarah’s spirit - her teachings remained dominant and greatly influenced the lives of Isaac and Rivkah.

Indeed commentators note an interesting linguistic phenomenon. The Sidra begins with “And the life of Sarah” though the subject is Sarah’s death. Likewise, at the end of Genesis where the theme is the death of Jacob, the Sidra begins with “And Jacob lived.” The point is that the righteousness, the goodness, the heroic deeds of Jacob live on despite Jacob’s physical absence. Sarah died. But “Vayhi Chaye Sarah” and the life of Sarah, her life’s work, her having established Abraham’s household out of which emerges the people of Israel, that remains. Sarah’s life goes on.

The point has to be carried further. The Torah teaches us a lesson on how to deal with misfortune and with tragedy.

At times a person reacts to tragedy with total and utter nihility. In the face of tragedy one’s faith in G-d is tested. When the righteous suffer and when evil prospers, how does one react? In truth, this test of faith, when faced by adversity, is difficult to pass. How a just G-d can allow the reign of evil, or to put it in a contemporary context “Why bad things happen to good people” is not a question that can be easily answered.

In fact our tradition tells us that the struggle to understand G-d’s ways goes back to Job and, indeed, to Moses. When Moses asked G-d “Show me Your glory” it refers to, according to Maimonides, exactly this problem of Theodicy - justifying G-d’s inscrutable ways to man.

However, and this is the point in this week’s Sidra - man ought not become paralyzed by the problem. Sarah died and Sarah was buried. But had Abraham remained forever in mourning, had he become forever paralyzed by his personal tragedy, Isaac would not have continued to build the household of Israel. In order for Sarah’s vision to continue, Abraham had to get up and take an active part and make certain that the tragedy of Sarah’s death not paralyze him.

We, of course, observe Tisha B’av. We cry and we weep. We fast, we behave as mourners and we lament for a commonwealth that was destroyed and a Temple that is still not rebuilt. But after Tisha B’av we wash, we get up from mourning and we cast off the despair. In fact, on the fifteenth of Av - Chamisha Asar B’av - we observe a holiday whose quintessential character consists of Jewish men and women finding their mates and thus rebuilding Jewish life. And thus, the Mishna in Taanis informs us, was one of the great holidays in ancient Israel.

The message is clear. Tisha B’av commemorates tragic events. In fact it commemorates a cataclysmic event. But with it all we are here. We continue - Am Yisrael Chai - despite prosecution, despite destruction, despite tragedy.

Next week, Jews the world over will observe and remember Kristallnacht. We will remember, and we ought to remember, what the Germans did to us. Indeed, we can never forget and we ought never forget the fury unleashed by Kristallnacht. Specifically these days as revisionist “historians” try to misinterpret and falsify what happened during the Shoa, we must not only remember, we must not allow the world to forget. However, our remembrance cannot exhaust itself in just rejecting what happened in the past. Our remembrance must consist of positive action. We must live Jewishly, a more intensive Jewish life, a more intensive Jewish life style. More Jews and more Jewishness. For, as Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovitz Z”TL, former Chief Rabbi of Great Britian, said, Vayizkor HaShem Et Rachel, “And G-d remembered Rachel,” does not end with the mere remembrance. After G-d having remembered, He opened Rachel’s womb. The best remembrance is through Jewish living.