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Chayei Sarah 5768

Well, this week's offering is probably about as far from Pshat as one might imagine. I'd like to share with you an aggadah that I find astonishing and beautiful, both suggestive and incomprehensible at once. Perhaps you'll help me with your ideas, but I'll accept nothing short of a mind-blowing interpretation.

The run-up: Let's note that, despite Sarah's absence, or perhaps because of it - this parashah is a woman's parashah. It is dominated by female figures who impose their presence even as they remain elusively behind the scenes. The parashah opens with the intolerable limbo of Sarah's presence/absence as Avraham seeks to acquire her final resting place. Afterwards, we are told that, though Avraham has been blessed in everything, he still needs to find a wife for Yitzchak. The tanna'im dispute the midrashic implications of "blessed with everything": One says, it means that Avraham was blessed by NOT having fathered a daughter; Another says that he was blessed DAVKA by also fathering a daughter. A third confirmed that a daughter was born to Avraham, and "In Everything" was her name. Notwithstanding the presence/absence of a daughter, Eliezer sets out for Aram Naharaim to find a wife for Yitzchak, he "asks inappropriately", the Talmud tells us, when he asks that the first girl who pours water both for him and his camels be the one marked for Yitzchak (who knows, she could have been a mamzer, a hag, who knows!). Nevertheless, Rivka, beautiful of inner and outer features, appears and boldly goes where no three-year-old has gone before. Upon her arrival, Yitzchak loves and marries her, and is consoled by her over his loss of his mother. Avraham, however, marries AGAIN - is Keturah yet a third wife, or a penitant Hagar? The parashah closes with the death of Avraham, buried next to Sarah by Yishmael and Yitzchak (after which Yishmael lineage is given).

Ever wish you could peek at our progenitors there in the cave? Here's the story of one who did just that:

Bava Batra 58a:

Rabbi Bana'a would mark [burial] caves. (A public service which helped people,especially Kohanim, avoid becoming impure via corpse-impurity which, under certain circumstances, penetrates from underground chambers).

When he came to the cave of Avraham, he found Eliezer the servant of Avraham standing at the entrance.

(As he needed to go in to measure the cave in order to mark it from the outside), He asked Eliezer: What is Avraham doing?

Eleizer replied: He is sleeping on Sarah's lap (literally, in the corners of her garments) and she is examining his head (the term used her usually means: examining for lice).

Rabbi Bana'a asked: Go and announce, "Bana'a is at the door!". (You don't just walk into a couple's bedroom!)

Eliezer said, "Go on in; you certainly know that there is no yetzer in that world".

Rabbi Bana'a entered, inspected, and left.

When he reached the cave of Adam, a Voice came forth from Heaven and proclaimed:
You've gazed upon the likeness of the Image; upon the Image itself you may not gaze.

"But I need to mark the cave!", protested Rabbi Bana'a.

"The measure of the inner chamber is the same as the measure of the outer the chamber", the Voice informed himi


Rabbi Bana's informs us of the striking beauty of Sarah, yet how it pales before the beauty of Chavah and Adam. But how did he know - he couldn't go in!!



I can't tell you why, but I love this midrash. No yetzer in the world, but loving delousing, sleeping beauty, and the image of the image defying decay. Marital bliss for eternity.

Ken Yhi Ratzon!!

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