Chaye Sarah 2024
There is a comment in our Etz Hayim Chumash on this week’s Torah reading, Chaye Sarah, that perhaps might provide some insight for us this Shabbat following two telltale events that took place this week. The first took place in the United States Senate where a vote was taken to limit which weaponry the United States should provide to Israel during this current war. The second event that took place was the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant with accusations of war crimes against humanity.
Articles this week penned in Israel speak of the marriages of Israeli reservist soldiers taking their own toll. It has been reported that several wives have demanded that their husbands refuse to accept the call to return to the battlefield, after having been called up several times before. The stress on marriages and family life in Israel has created a new kind of problem that has never been experienced on this level in Jewish and Israeli life.
The cost of this war is, therefore, not only to those who live in Gaza. It is a compounded cost upon what it means to live in Israel as well. And while our hope is that Hamas itself is routed out and that the hostages are freed, the question of what is the cost to this war, versus a cease fire, is one that is truly on everyone’s mind. The vote in the Senate simply brings it more to the forefront.
Bringing the hostages home now is paramount.
So too is the security of Israel, both at its borders and within them.
Needless to say, the safety of Jews and Israelis around the world, should also be on the minds of the leadership in Israel and politicians around the globe.
In our Torah reading we learn that “Abraham breathed his last breath, dying at a ripe old age, old and contented; and he was gathered to his kin. His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him the cave of Machpelah.” (Genesis 25:8-9)
And here is the comment from the Etz Hayim on this verse that I ask you to ponder:
“Isaac and Ishmael are reunited at their father’s funeral, as sign that Ishmael changed his ways as he matured (BT BB 16b). Although he could not have forgotten how his father treated him and how his brother supplanted him, he seems to have forgiven Abraham for having been a less-than-perfect father. Isaac too seems to have come to terms with his father’s nearly killing him on Mount Moriah.
Might these reconciliations have occurred in Abraham’s lifetime be the reason for the Torah’s describing him as “contented” in his old age (Gen. R. 38:12)? Can we see this as a model for family reconciliations, forgiving old hurts? And can it be a model, for the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac, contemporary Israeli Jews, to find grounds for forgiveness and reconciliation? (EH page 140)
Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving in advance.
Am Yisrael Chai
Bring them home now!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi K
