From TorahVort.com
Chayei Sarah
This weeks Torah reading starts off with eulogising the life of Sara, she passed away at the age of 127 years old. Avraham had the task of burying Sara, he knew the ideal place where she was to be buried, the Cave of Machpeale. Already Adam and Chava were buried their and Avraham wanted to purchase the burial plot of land so that Sara and later on he could be buried there.
Despite Avraham had already been told the whole of the land of Israel would be his, he still purchased the plot of land, he bought it off a man named, Ephron the Hittie. In fact, prior to purchasing the land, Ephron had been promising and boasting that he will give the plot for free and as a generous gift, however his greedy character prevailed and almost sarcastically said to Avraham in front of many people you can have the entire plot of land for ‘400 silver sheckels,’ which many of the sages say was an enormous sum of money, however Avraham knew he had to buy the plot for whatever sum of money was required.
Much of the rest of the parshah is dedicated to the task of Eliezer (Avraham’s faithful servant) in finding Yitzchak a wife. The first ever accounted so called ‘shidduch’ was being set up in biblical history. After Avraham made Eliezer swear to find the girl from Avraham’s family. Eliezer traveled to Aram Naharaim and prayed for a sign to find the right girl at a ‘well.’ Providentially, Rivka appeared. Eliezer asked her for water. Not only did she give him water, but she drew water for all 10 of his thirsty camels. (Some 140 gallons!) This extreme act of kindness marked her as the suitable wife for Yitzchak and a suitable Mother of the Jewish People. We learn from this that the power of praying is huge, when one prays they are capable of elevating themselves to supreme levels and prayer may or may not be accepted or granted, however one needs to pray ideally from the heart and not see prayers as a regular chore.
Whenever prayers have been expressed sincerely we see all through out the Tanach they were granted and accepted, examples of few includes the prayers of Chana (through the birth of Samual), Moshe (punishment of Korach), Joshua (the halting of the sun in the war against the Caananite kings).
Once Eliezer realised Rivka was the right girl, he showered her with gifts and went to her fathers house, Betuel, in order to finalize the marriage negotiations. Betuel and his son, Lavan, accepted the marriage arrangements realizing as Eliezer told them what happened at the ‘well’ that the potential marriage was made from Hashem.
Eliezer brought Rivka to Yitzchak (he had just finished davening Mincha prayers at the time Rivka appeared), and the two of them got married. Eliezer shortly after went in to ‘Gan Eden’ alive due to the fantastic job he did in bringing the couple together, he was seen to be one of the most faithful servants of any of the leaders ever had throughout biblical history.
The Torah reading concludes as Avraham remarries a woman named Keturah (many say this was his former wife, Hager) and the death of Ishmael at the age of 137 years old.
The Haftorah this week is from the first chapter in the first book of Kings, which narrates how Shlomo was the successor to King David, after King David’s death at the age of 70 years.
Have a great Shabbat, Shabbat Shalom!
