B"H

Thursday, Mar-Cheshvan 23, 5776 / November 5, 2015

The name of this week’s Parsha, Chayei Sarah literally means, The life of Sarah.

Yet, the Parsha begins with the passing of Sarah and how Abraham went about to purchase a burial plot for her. Although, they wanted to give him the land as a gift, Abraham insists that he wants to purchase it.

Later in the Parsha, the Torah relates in great length how Abraham’s servant, Eliezer, travelled to find a wife for Abraham and Sarah’s son, Yitzchak. He chose Rivkah based on her extraordinary qualities of caring and kindness. Yitzchak also recognized her great virtues of kindness. He married her and was comforted on the loss of his mother. The void which Sarah left by her passing, was filled by Rivkah.

Q.  Why did Abraham insist on purchasing the plot of land and not accepting it as a gift?

A. Abraham wanted to buy it and paid more than it’s value so that no one can ever argue that it doesn’t belong to his descendants (as many unfortunately claim today).

Q,   Parshat Chayei Sarah literally means, "the life of Sarah," How can the Parsha be called, “life of Sarah,” when we read about her physical death and burial?

A.  The Torah tells us that when Yitzchak brought Rivkah into his mother's tent, "He was comforted after his mother."  For it was as if Sarah was still alive. Sarah continued living through the good deeds and kindness of Rivkah.

The following was told by a survivor of Auschwitz:“I was a kid, just a teenager at the time. We were on the train, in a boxcar, being taken to Auschwitz.

“Night came and it was freezing, deathly cold, in that boxcar. The Germans would leave the cars on the side of the tracks overnight, sometimes for days on end without any food, and of course, no blankets to keep us warm. Sitting next to me was an older Jew from my hometown. He was shivering from head to toe, and looked terrible. So I wrapped my arms around him and began rubbing him, to warm him up. I rubbed his arms, his legs, his face, his neck. I begged him to hang on.

“All night long I kept the man warm this way. I was tired, I was freezing cold myself, my fingers were numb, but I didn’t stop rubbing the heat on to this man’s body. Hours and hours went by this way. Finally, night passed, morning came, and the sun began to shine. There was some warmth in the cabin, and then I looked around the car to see some of the other Jews in the car. To my horror, all I could see were frozen bodies, and all I could hear was a deathly silence.

Nobody else in that boxcar made it through the night - they died from the frost. Only two people survived: the old man and me. The old man survived because I kept him warm; I lived because I was busy keeping him alive.”  

HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL DAY