Questions — Parshah Hayyei Sarah
Haye Sarah Questions
Bereshit Chapter 23
Are there other women whose life-spans are noted other than Sarah?
What are the circumstances of Sarah’s death and when does it occur? It is placed right after the Akedah which is the source of Midrashic commentary. How close to that moment does her death occur? It is sometimes thought to occur before Abraham returns from Mount Moriah. One midrash places her death at the moment that Sarah hears (falsely) that Isaac has died. Does she die with her husband and son gone, or could she have died on Abraham’s return or afterwards? The way that her death is placed in the order of the parshiyot just kind of floats on its own which makes it more mysterious. Is that the rabbi’s intent? If so, how should we understand that intent?
What is the quality of Abraham’s grief? We are told that Abraham “proceeded to mourn for Sarah and to bewail her.” This seems like an intense expression of grief overall, but the verb SFD implies the formal aspects of mourning like making a funerary address. Abraham does this first and only then bewails her. Does this make his extreme emotion, as following formal grieving, appear more formal and less spontaneous than it might have if the two steps of mourning were reversed. The formality seems to show through even more when “he gets up from his mourning to acquire a grave” for her: I could be reading this wrong, of course. In our actual experience we are best not to judge the mourners for the quality of their mourning. Grief is a chaotic emotion and it defies simple characterization (All of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross stages of grief aside),
Abraham has a;ready almost taken the life of his son and done so with no great emotional expression. What is the quality of a loving relationship for Abraham? Has it changed over the course of his life? The way that he mourns asks us to reconsider what we know about the relationship that he had with Sarah. What was his affect like? Was he a warm person or was he distant? Sarah’s question, “shall I have pleasure again with my husband in our old age?” might be a clue about Abraham and Sarah, but it might be more a comment on Sarah…?
Abraham describes himself to the Hittites as a “Ger ve-Toshav,” which is veryclose to the formulaic way that strangers residing among the Israelites are referred to, “Ger Toshav.” We are often told that we were strangers in a strange land when we were in the Land of Egypt, but here Abraham refers to himself as a stranger in the land that God had promised to him. Why do we not hear about Abraham’s experience when we are told to care for the stranger, widow and orphan as we are so often in the other books of the Torah?
How do the Hittites know that Abraham is “the elect of God?” Are they speaking straightforwardly or is that some irony in their address?
Abraham refers to Ephron as Ephron, son of Zohar. Ets Hayim notes that this is an unusual mention of a non-Israelites paternal name and takes this to mean that Ephron was an important person. He does seem important, but we have recently gone through various genealogies of non-Israelites (or pre-Israelites). It doesn’t seem so outstanding to me. The name Zohar is more worthy of notice. Zohar goes on to have a great deal of significance as a word. Is there something deeper here to be considered as part of Ephron’s character?
How does Abraham know about the Cave of Machpelah and when did it occur to him that it would be a good place to bury Sarah? What does “Machpelah” imply? Who else is buried there (and according to which sources) and who isn’t?
Why does Abraham need the Hittites to intercede with Ephron for him? Why can’t he approach him directly?
Why does Abraham feel that he needs to buy the cave when God has promised the whole Land of Israel to him? Is this an depression of a lack of faith that God will provide for Abraham? Is this a doubt that lingers from the Akedah?
Ephron was there all along? Was he holding himself back or was Abraham just unfamiliar with Ephron except by reputation before that?
The negotiation over the cave can be written as a kind of formula for how to carry on a negotiation in this society. Why does the Torah feel the need to describe the negotiations at the length that they do?
Does Ephron really want to part with the cave?
The cave comes with the land around it. We are told that it becomes a burial site. It never seems to have any further use beyond that. Is this what we would have expected?
The cave of Machelah is Abraham’s ahuzah, a foothold in the Land of Israel. We have heard of the wells that he dug and the pasture land that he negotiated over the use of. Was this as much of an ahuzah as a nomad would have wanted at the time? As a pastoralist, does Abraham fully comprehend what God’s promises amount to?
Chapter 24
What does it mean that Abraham was blessed in all things? Is this the conventional idea that he has a full life or is there a specific list that needs to be fulfilled?
Abraham has been old by our standards for some time. What are the Torah’s markers of age?
Abraham is blessed in all things, but he realizes that his son lacks something. Do we ever feel that we are blessed in all things? When we desire good things for others can we feel blessed in all things? Do we really want to be blessed in all things? How does Abraham in his old age compare with Isaac and all the more so, Jacob?
Eleazar seems to have the authority in Abraham’s household that Joseph will have later in Potiphar’s house. His conduct always seems beyond reproach and he seems almost completely selfless. Who is he? Is he a servant or a slave? In certain ways he seems like an NPC. Where did he come from and what happens to him in the end? Do he express a will of his own at all?
What is it that makes Abraham so firm in forbidding Eleazar from taking Isaac back to “the old country” to find a wife? This overrides so much of what we know about the ways that immigrants seek out marriage partners. They desire the benefits of the new land, but don’t trust the type of marriage partners that they find there for their children. Abraham is somewhere in between. He refers to God’s promise of the land, but is he worried that he might anger God or that he might be the cause of God’s promise going off track?
What is so bad about finding a wife for Isaac among the Canaanites? Abraham forbids it, not God, who is silent as to who Isaac should marry, Some of the patriarchs find their own spouses and others don’t. What can we make of this inconsistency? Was this true to ancient morays?
Eleazar is right to ask what he should do if the woman that he is going in search of won’t return with him. Why should she? Is it an issue of trust in his word or his conduct as a strange man? How can he count on the father of the woman letting her go? Why is it so clear to both Abraham and Eleazar that there is only one woman out there, and with that sensibility active, how do they not already know who that will be. It all seems like fate, but Abraham is able to admit to himself and Eleazar that the mission might fail. What is plan B?
Is Eleazar’s prayer a real prayer of a kind of spell-casting? How close to Abraham is he in his belief in Abraham’s God?
The Biblical association of women with wells is, at least, based on the real practical association that women had as the primary water carriers for their family. However, the importance of wells starts off as an issue between Abimelech and Abraham. Eleazar and Rachel take it into the realm of women. Miriam is associated with the well that travelled with her in the desert. Rabbinically water stands for Torah. Does the female association with wells point to a tradition of female Torah teaching?
Why does Eleazar take ten camels?
Abraham does not “discover” that Sarah is beautiful until he sees her through the eyes of other men who might desire her. Rebekah is immediately described as beautiful, but virginity is the limit to how she is described. Is beauty in Torah the male gaze or the Divine gaze? Does beauty have an objective reality?
Rebekah’s alacrity to offer hospitality is strongly reminiscent of Abraham’s alacrity in greeting the three men/angels/ God? What is this not raised by the commentators? Is this a commonality with Eleazar’s master that he might have recognized as a check on his judgement? Eleazar pushes her on her hospitality and the hospitality of her family? Was this part of the intended test of suitability or just a fortunate accident? Why, as well as things have gone so far, does Elazar still doubt his success at this point?
Why does Elazar have to say Blessed be the Lord, the God of my Master Abraham… ? Does Eleazar feel that he cannot speak to God with the full authority that Abraham has?
Laban does not wait for Eleazar to reach him, but goes out to collect him at the well? Is this a virtue or is the kind of suspicious behavior that we come to expect from him?
Why does Eleazar reveal everything that was discussed with Abraham? That wan;t anything that Abraham told him to do. Is he canny or naive? He adds the bit about an angel guiding him. Can we consider him a prophet?
Why does Eleazar concern himself only with the happiness of Abraham and not express any concern from Isaac?
When it comes to eating suddenly there are men with Eleazar? Why haven’t we heard about them before this point?
Laban wants to delay the departure of Eleazar and Rebekah? Is this part of some trackery or is it just a way to point out that he lacks the alacrity of Abraham and Rebekah?
Does the prayer “O, Sister!” seem like it is at all likely as a composition of the moment? Is it more in the line of a prophecy put into the mouth of Rebekah’s familY? Could it have been an existing standard prayer that was not as personal or relevant as it might seem?
Isaac is just settling into the area of Beer-lahai-roi. Where has he been up to that time?
Why does Eleazar refer to Isaac as his “Master” only at this point and not “my Master’s son?”
Why do we hear so much from Eleazar but not a word from Isaac? Even Rebekah has plenty to say.
Rebekah brings Isaac comfort after his mother’s death. What has been he been doing in the interim in order to find comfort?
Chapter 25
Abraham takes another wife after the death of Sarah. Some commentators claim that Keturah is in fact Hagar. There is something mysterious about Keturah. Ets Hayim makes the connection with Ketoret - spices - and derives from this an explanation of this marriage as an etiology for the listed tribes. It can also refer to the liveliness that a younger wife and many children would have brought to the life of a widowed old man whose children had departed from his home. The Torah makes clear that Abraham maintains his commitment to Isaac and his line as the fulfillment of the promise of nationhood from God. It also makes clear that Abraham wanted to provide some lasting benefit to these children. He gives them gifts in his lifetime. Is this an implication that Abraham’s gifts to Abraham and Ishmael came only after he died?
The marriage, children and the list of the descendants of Midian push the narrative off-center and when Abraham sends them off it is clear that Abraham senses that what he has done distracts from the Divine narrative. It is his last noted action before we hear about his death. Is he doing this because he knows that his life is ending? Did he give these sons of his oldest age gifts right before his death or earlier? If Hagar is only a concubine then the implication is that Ishmael received a gift from Abraham in his lifetime. Is that so?
How does being “at a good ripe age, old and contented,” compare with being “blessed in all things?”
Isaac and Ishmael bury Isaac together. This is the sum of what we know of the event. Both of them have reasons to have conflicted emotions about Abraham. This moment is so pregnant with drama. Why does Torah enforce such silence?
We hear where Abraham is buried, but we hear nothing of Keturah? What happened to her? Where is she buried? We can ask the same of Hagar. What has happened to her after she left Abraham’s camp? Did Ishmael care for her? It is said that Ishamel “was gathered to his kin.: Does this imply that the Ishmaelites had the same type of burial practices as the Israelites?
The parshah ends with the descendants of Ishmael and his death. His death also has the qualities of a life of fulfillment ending in old age (beyond 120 years). This makes for an appropriate mood at the end of a parshah. Nevertheless, is this end point a rabbinic emphasis on the division of lines between Isaac and Ishmael. Or does the parshah end here because it is the end of the way that the Torah dispatches with the”distractions” from the blessed lineage that moves on through Isaac?
