The death of Sarah Imenu
Why did the Torah find it necessary to testify that she remained righteous throughout her life, from beginning to end? And why did her end come after the Akeidah?
Our Parasha, although called ‘The LIFE of Sarah’, actually relates her passing
We read:( 23:1-2 ): ’Sarah’s lifetime was one hundred years, twenty years, and seven years; the years of Sarah’s life. Sarah died in Kiryat Arba which is Hebron in the land of Canaan; and Avraham came to eulogize Sarah and to bewail her
Rashi comments:’And Avraham came’: From Be’er Sheva, ‘to eulogize Sarah and to bewail her’: The account of Sarah’s demise was juxtaposed to the binding of Yitzchak because as a result of the news of the ‘binding’, that her son was prepared for slaughter and was almost slaughtered, her soul flew out of her, and she died.’
The Ktav Sofer, on these verses, psukim, brings the Midrash: ’Hashem reckons the days of the pure, and their legacy’, and expounds: ’Rashi comments as to the reason of the juxtaposition of the death of Sarah, to the ‘binding’, is that when she was informed that her son was prepared for slaughter, and was not slaughtered, her soul departed.
‘This is surprising, that the soul of Sarah - who was greater in prophecy than Avraham - should depart in sorrow, because her son was offered before Hashem.
Heaven forfend to think so!
The Chatam Sofer similarly comments, that to think that Sarah - who was greater than Avraham in prophecy - died because of hearing of the events at Har Moriah, that Yitzchak was sacrificed as an offering to Hashem, could not be the case.
He comments: ’Sarah certainly did not die due to a lack of righteousness; rather, it was as a result of the cleaving of the eternal G-dly part of her - her soul - to its source, this being the way of the righteous departing this life, ‘by divine kiss’.
‘When Sarah heard that her son, as an unblemished offering, had ascended, out of her great joy, her soul also ascended to be reunited with its source - and she died.’
Rav Dovid Hofstedter, on the other hand, brings the Pirkei deRabbi Eliezer, that she did, in fact, die on hearing the news of the ‘binding’: ’When Avraham returned from Har Moriah, the ire of Satan was aroused, on seeing that his wish that Avraham’s offering be nullified.
‘What did he do? He went and said to Sarah: Have you heard what occurred? She answered: No; He said: Avraham took his son Yitzchak and slaughtered him, and offered him up on the altar.
‘Sarah began to cry and call out, and her soul departed, and she died - and Avraham came, and found that she had died.’
The Netivot Shalom prefaces his commentary, by laying down: ‘It cannot be that Sarah’s death resulted because of ‘the binding’, , as our Sages say:’No harm shall come from the observance of Mitzvot’, so how could any harm result from this holy event?
‘Further, as Sarah was greater in prophecy than Avraham, how could it be that Avraham and Yitzchak successfully stood this test, and Sarah did not?
The Arizal provides the answer: The objective of the ‘binding’ was to bind the Attribute of Yitzchak to Avraham, and that of Avraham, to Yitzchak - Avraham’s Attribute being love, which was now bound with Yitzchak’s Attribute of Awe and Gevura, and likewise Yitzchak bound himself to Avraham.
‘Thus - as the Torah relates - initially Avraham took the fire and the knife, and the two of them went together’; at this point, only Avraham knew of the objective.
‘Avraham sensed that the Attribute of Love would not suffice for him to stand the test, and this is why the Torah then relates ‘the two of them went together’,that Avraham bound himself to the Attribute of Yitzchak.
This is why it is then said:’Now I know that you are Fearful of Hashem’ - when we might have expected it to say:’Have love of Hashem’ - to teach that Avraham was only able to stand the test, because he now had the Attribute of Awe, together with his Attribute of Love.
Had we not been bound by the expositions of our Sages - in the Midrashim - we could have expounded in the following way: After Satan saw that Avraham had overcome his wiles, he contrived a new trick to fault Avraham: knowing that the time for Sarah to leave this life had arrived, Satan informed her of the events at Har Moriah, so that Avraham - and all the world - should err to think that Avraham regretted what had occurred.
‘This is why the Torah specifies in such detail the number of Sarah’s years, to teach that this was the decreed length of her days, to the minute.
‘However, Avraham also withstood this test, as is alluded to by the little letter כ׳ף, in the word ולבכתה: and to cry for her, as befits mourning one who has lived a full life, unlike the manner we mourn someone cut down in mid-life.’
Rav Pinchas Friedman, brings a ‘new face’ to our subject.
He brings the explanation of the Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh, on the seemingly superfluous ending of our psukim - after detailing the years of Sarah’s life - ‘the years of Sarah’s life’: to teach that she indeed completed her allotted life span.
‘Here the Rav asks: ’As Sarah had completed her allotted days, why did Hashem cause that her soul should seemingly depart by learning of the ‘binding of Yitzchak’?
‘Answer: Let us preface our exposition, by what is brought in the Zohar: ’Sarah did not die by the Angel of Death, but proclaiming: Hear O Israel, Hashem our G-d is One, Blessed is the glory of his Kingship forever’
How can this be reconciled with the Midrashic teaching, that hearing of the ‘binding’ , led to Sarah’s soul departing?
‘To answer this, let us recall Hashem asking Avraham, at the outset, to please withstand this test, ‘so that people should not say that the previous nine tests were of no significance’.
‘The reason they might say so, is that the first nine tests were all in line with Avraham’s natural Attribute of Chessed - the ‘binding of Yitzchak’, on the other hand, required ‘cruelty’ - to offer up his beloved son, which was totally against his Attribute of Chessed.
‘Ifhe performed it, it could only be due to his Awe of Hashem, and it would retrospectively prove that the previous nine tests that Avraham performed, were also to fulfill the Will of Hashem.
The test that Avraham’s servant, Eliezer, set for Rivkah - as related later in our Parasha - was, as Rashi comments, to determine if she was a doer of Chessed, and the right mate for Yitzchak.
‘The Tiferet Shlomo expounds: Since Yitzchak’s Attribute was Awe and strict din, the mate that Eliezer sought for him, had to complement him, by her Attribute being Chessed.
‘The necessity for the combination of Chessed and Din can be found in the parasha of Breishit, where our Sages relate that, though the world was created in the Attribute of Din, Hashem ‘saw’ that it could not exist solely by this Attribute, and united it together with the Attribute of Chessed.
‘We find this same message in Avraham’s union with Sarah, Avraham serving Hashem in his Attribute of Chessed, and - as we read in the expulsion of Ishmael - Sarah acting in the Attribute of Din, thereby fulfilling her role of ‘עזר כנגדו ‘: ‘complementary mate’.
‘Now to our query: Sarah had already completed her allotted life span, but remained in this life to merit seeing that Avraham - the pillar of Chessed - could also serve Hashem in the Attribute of Din.
‘When this was proven by the ‘binding of Yitzchak’, she could now go to her reward in the eternal life.
‘This is the purport of the Zohar, that she died pronouncing the Shema - and not because of the Satan relating the events of the ‘binding’ of Yitzchak - as that event proved that Avraham also served Hashem in the Attribute of Din, and she could now depart this life, with the traditional proclamation of the Shema.’
לרפואת כל חיילי צהל וכן נועם עליזה בת זהבה רבקה ונחום אלימלך רפאל בן זהבה רבקה, בתוך שאר חולי עמנו.
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