Parashat Chayei Sarah

Chayei Sarah (“The Life of Sarah”) opens as Sarah dies and Abraham buys the Cave of Machpelah to bury her. Abraham sends his servant to find a wife for Isaac. The servant meets Rebecca at a well, and Rebecca returns with the servant to marry Isaac. Abraham remarries, has more children, and dies at age 175.

Read the PortionRead the Portion

Get the Free Study Companion

Sources

let the maiden to whom I say, ‘Please, lower your jar that I may drink,’ and who replies, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels’—let her be the one whom You have decreed for Your servant Isaac. Thereby shall I know that You have dealt graciously with my master.” He had scarcely finished speaking, when Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel, the son of Milcah the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor, came out with her jar on her shoulder. The maiden was very beautiful—[and] a virgin, no man having known her. She went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up…

Genesis 24:14-25:18

Sarah’s lifetime—the span of Sarah’s life—came to one hundred and twenty-seven years. Sarah died in Kiriath-arba—now Hebron—in the land of Canaan; and Abraham proceeded to mourn for Sarah and to bewail her.

Then Abraham rose from beside his dead, and spoke to the Hittites, saying, “I am a resident alien among you; sell me a burial site among you, that I may remove my dead for burial.”

“Rebecca and her maids rose, and rode upon the camels, and followed the man. The servant took Rebecca and went” (Genesis 24:61).
“Rebecca and her maids rose, [and rode upon the camels]…” [Why did they ride on camels?] Rabbi Levi said: It is the nature of camels that they grow in the East. The Rabbis say: [Camels were used for a symbolic reason.] Just as a camel has one sign of purity and one sign of impurity, so Rebecca produced one righteous person and one wicked person.
“And followed the man” – as it is unbefitting for a man to walk behind a woman…

Bereshit Rabbah 60:14-16

Let him sell me the cave of Machpelah that he owns, which is at the edge of his land. Let him sell it to me, at the full price, for a burial site in your midst.” Ephron was present among the Hittites; so Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites, the assembly in his town’s gate, saying, “No, my lord, hear me: I give you the field and I give you the cave that is in it; I give it to you in the presence of my people. Bury your dead.” Then Abraham bowed low before the landowning citizens,…

Genesis 23:9-15

Abraham accepted Ephron’s terms. Abraham paid out to Ephron the money that he had named in the hearing of the Hittites—four hundred shekels of silver at the going merchants’ rate. So Ephron’s land in Machpelah, near Mamre—the field with its cave and all the trees anywhere within the confines of that field—passed to Abraham as his possession, in the presence of the Hittites, of the assembly in his town’s gate. And then Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field of Machpelah, facing Mamre—now Hebron—in the land of Canaan…

Genesis 23:16-24:11

האהלה שרה אמו INTO HIS MOTHER SARAH’S TENT — He brought her into the tent and she became exactly like his mother Sarah — that is to say, the words signify as much as, [And he brought her into the tent] and, behold, she was Sarah, his mother). For whilst Sarah was living, a light had been burning in the tent from one Sabbath eve to the next, there was always a blessing in the dough (a miraculous increase) and a cloud was always hanging over the tent (as a divine protection), but since her death all these had stopped. However, when Rebecca came, they reappeared” (Genesis Rabbah 60:16).

Rashi on Genesis 24:67:1

Sarah died. She did not die until a fitting successor was born and Avraham was apprised of the fact.

Sforno on Genesis 23:2:1

לשוח TO MEDITATE — this means “to pray” (Genesis Rabbah 60:14), as we find (Psalms 102:1) “[A prayer of the afflicted …] when he poureth forth his plaint.

Rashi on Genesis 24:63:1

AND ISAAC WENT OUT TO MEDITATE. The word la-su’ach (to meditate) means to walk among the trees.

Ibn Ezra on Genesis 24:63:1

Isaac instituted the afternoon prayer, as it is stated: “And Isaac went out to converse [lasuaḥ] in the field toward evening” (Genesis 24:63), and conversation means nothing other than prayer, as it is stated: “A prayer of the afflicted when he is faint and pours out his complaint [siḥo] before the Lord” (Psalms 102:1). Obviously, Isaac was the first to pray as evening approached, at the time of the afternoon prayer.

AND ISAAC BROUGHT HER INTO HIS MOTHER SARAH’s TENT. The construct is missing here [for the noun ohel (tent) appears with the definite article, and in this form it cannot be used in construct with “his mother Sarah.” The verse then should be understood as if it were written, “and Isaac brought her into the tent which was the tent of his mother Sarah.”] There are many cases like this.
The purport of the verse is to tell of the honor that Isaac bestowed upon his mother for from the time that Sarah died they did not take down her tent because they said…

Ramban on Genesis 24:67:1

From where do we derive this principle that the wicked say much and do not do even a little? We derive it from Ephron. Initially, it is written that Ephron said to Abraham: “A piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that between me and you?” (Genesis 23:15). And ultimately it is written: “And Abraham listened to Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the hearing of the children of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant” (Genesis 23:16), i.e…

Bava Metzia 87a:3

“The servant ran toward her, and he said: Please allow me to sip a little water from your jug” (Genesis 24:17).
“The servant ran toward her” – toward her good deeds.
“Please allow me to sip a little water from your jug” – [just] one sip.
“She said: Drink, my lord, and she hastened to lower her pitcher into her hand, and she gave him to drink” (Genesis 24:18).
“When she had finished giving him to drink, she said: I will draw for your camels also, until they have finished drinking” (Genesis 24:19)…

Bereshit Rabbah 60:6

ויהיו חיי שרה מאה שנה ועשרים שנה ושבע שנים AND THE LIFE OF SARAH WAS 127 YEARS (literally, 100 years, 20 years and 7 years) — The reason the word שנה is written at every term is to tell you that each term must be explained by itself as a complete number: at the age of one hundred she was as a woman of twenty as regards sin — for just as at the age of twenty one may regard her as having never sinned, since she had not then reached the age when she was subject to punishment, so, too, when she was one hundred years old she was sinless — and when she was twenty she was as beautiful as when she was…

Rashi on Genesis 23:1:1-2

אחזת קבר A POSSESSION OF A BURYING PLACE — means possession of land to serve as a burying place.

Rashi on Genesis 23:4:2

ויהיו חיי שרה, “The years of Sarah’s life amounted to etc.” People fond of dabbling in the allusions found through the numerical value of words or whole sentences, will note that the numerical value of the word ויהיו equals the “life of Sarah,” in other words, Sarah’s real life commenced with the birth of Yitzchok, at which time she was 90 years old, whereas she died on the day of the binding of Yitzchok 37 years later. This is the numerical value of the word: ויהיו. As long as a person has no child he or she is considered as dead. (Talmud Nedarim, 64)

Chizkuni, Genesis 23:1:1

ויצא יצחק לשוח בשדה, the word לשוח is basically the same as שיח השדה, “the plants that grow in the field,” (Genesis 2,5). Yitzchok went out to plant useful vegetation, trees, etc., and to check the work of his employees. While he was thus occupied he happened to espy גמלים באים, camels approaching. He came closer to see if per chance they were the camels belonging to his father which the servant Eliezer had been leading.

Rashbam on Genesis 24:63:1

I AM A STRANGER AND SOJOURNER WITH YOU. It was customary for them to have separate burial grounds for each family and one burial ground for the internment of all strangers. Now Abraham said to the children of Heth: “I am a stranger from another land and have not inherited a burial ground in this land from my ancestors. Now I am a sojourner with you since I have desired to dwell in this land. Therefore give me a burying-place for an everlasting possession just as one of you.” However, since Abraham used the word “t’nu (give), [which has the same root as matanah,” (gift)]…

Ramban on Genesis 23:4:1

King David was now old, advanced in years; and though they covered him with bedclothes, he never felt warm. His courtiers said to him, “Let a young virgin be sought for my lord the king, to wait upon Your Majesty and be his attendant; and let her lie in your bosom, and my lord the king will be warm.” So they looked for a beautiful young woman throughout the territory of Israel. They found Abishag the Shunammite and brought her to the king. This young woman was exceedingly beautiful. She became the king’s attendant and waited upon him; but the king was not intimate with her…

Cave of Machpelah, 1919-20 photo by Silas and Anna Weaver Hertzler.

Cave of Machpelah, 1919-20 photo by Silas and Anna Weaver Hertzler.

Readings

November 15, 202524th of Cheshvan, 5786

Torah

Genesis 23:1-25:18

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 M

Haftarah

Relatedראו גם

Cave of the Patriarchs

Sheetsדפי מקורות

We use cookies to give you the best experience possible on our site. Click OK to continue using Sefaria. Learn More.OKאנחנו משתמשים ב"עוגיות" כדי לתת למשתמשים את חוויית השימוש הטובה ביותר.קראו עוד בנושאלחצו כאן לאישור