November 13, 2020
You can now watch a YOUTUBE recording of Rabbi Herzfeld’s D'var Torah:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJIsr_l3Fg4
A Blessing For All
Chayei Sarah 5781
This week the Torah lost one of its most eloquent spokesperson as our world sits shiva for Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.
The verse states that about Avraham that he was, “Veavraham zakan bah bayamim va-Hashem berakh et Avraham bakol, and Avraham grew old in his days, and Hashem blessed Avraham with everything” (24:1). Regarding the words “he grew old in his days,” the Midrash explains that this means that he used all of his days to the fullest. Every single day was a fulfillment of his life’s mission to serve Hashem. So too, when we look at Rabbi Sacks’ contributions to the world we see a person who lived his life to the fullest and served Hashem every day.
The portion begins by telling us about the death of Sarah and that Avraham came to Chevron to eulogize her and to cry for her. The word to cry is livkotah. The tradition is that the kaf of that word is an ot ketanah, a small letter. When there is a letter written small it is to diminish some aspect of the subject matter. In our case, the message is that while Abraham was crying for Sarah, the crying was not as great as we would expect because even though Sarah’s body had departed, the good deeds that she had done and the many teachings that she had offered still permeated the world.
While Rabbi Sacks’ guf has departed, his neshama is still present in our world through the many, many inspirational words of Torah that he has shared and that will continue to inspire us for many years to come.
Here is a beautiful thought from Rabbi Sacks on Chayei Sarah.
Rabbi Sacks notes that the verse tells us that after Avraham died, both Yitzchak and Yishmael united to bury Avraham (25:9). The fact that Yishmael joined Yitzchak to bury Avraham is strange because the last we heard of Yishmael was when he was banished by Avraham into the wilderness (21:14).
Rabbi Sacks argues that chazal understood that Yitzchak and Avraham went to extraordinary efforts to reunite the family after Sarah’s death.
One support for this theory is that Yitzchak first meets Rebekah in Beer Lahai Roi (24:62). The only other reference to this place is when Hagar flees to Beer Lahai Roi and is told by an angel that she will have a son named, Yishmael (16:11). Rabbi Sacks thus suggests that Yitzchak had traveled to Beer Lahai Roi in order to reconcile with Yishmael.
A second piece of evidence is that the Torah tells us that after Sarah died Avraham married a woman named Keturah. Rashi tells us that Keturah is just another name for Hagar (25:1). Avraham never wanted to send Hagar away. He only did it out of honor for Sarah. Now that Sarah died he reunited with Hagar.
Third, Rabbi Sacks cites a text from Pirkei de-Rebbe Eliezer that discusses the great lengths Abraham went to in order to reunite with Yishmael. Abraham twice showed up at Yishmael’s tent disguised as an old man seeking food and shelter. The first time he appeared Yishmael’s wife sent Avraham away. When Yishmael heard about her ungracious hospitality he divorced her. Then Avraham showed up a second time. This time, Yishmael’s new wife, Fatimah, welcomed in Avraham and thus enabled the reconciliation between Avraham and Yishmael. Rabbi Sacks points out that Fatimah is also the name of an important figure in Islam as she is the daughter of Mohammed.
True to form, Rabbi Sacks draws an inspiring lesson for our times from the midrashic reconciliation of Yitzchak and Yishmael:
There is a story here of immense consequence for our time. Jews and Muslims both trace their descent from Abraham – Jews though Isaac, Muslims through Ishmael…. Beneath the surface of the narrative in Chayei Sarah, the sages read the clues and pieced together a moving story of reconciliation between Abraham and Isaac on the one hand, Hagar and Ishmael on the other. Yes, there was conflict and separation; but that was the beginning, not the end. Between Judaism and Islam there can be friendship and mutual respect. Abraham loved both his sons, and was laid to rest by both. There is hope for the future in this story of the past (https://rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation-5769-chayei-sarah-on-judaism-and-islam/)
Unfortunately, there is a clear contrast with this story of reconciliation as portrayed by chazal and Rabbi Sacks. The contrast comes from the passage selected by our tradition as the Haftorah for Chayei Sarah (I Kings 1-37).
The Haftorah tells us of the last days of King David’s life and the jockeying that occurred over who gets to be his heir to the throne.
King David was old and feeble. Echoing the Avraham narrative, we are also told that David was zaken bah bayamim (verse 1). When the text uses those words about Avraham it goes on to tell us that Avraham was blessed bakol. It also tells us that Avraham reacted to his advanced age by arranging for his son Yitzchak to get married. Yet, as it relates to David, these words introduce us to a man who is feeble and no longer in control. The text tells us about Davd, “ve-lo yicham lo, and he was not warm” (verse 1). This is not just a physical description. It also demonstrates the turmoil that existed in David’s kingdom. David’s son Adoniyahu was maneuvering to be king and acting as the presumptive king. He attracted several important advisors to his camp. On the other hand, the prophet, Natan, and David’s wife Batsheva, wanted Shlomo to be appointed king. Shlomo was at this point a very young boy so the assumption is that Natan and possibly Batsheva were the ones who would really assume power.
The story of the Haftorah foreshadows the violence that would occur as Shlomo would soon order Adoniyahu to be put to death (2:13-25). The Talmud tells that the prophet Jeremiah is the author of the book of Kings (Bava Batra, 15a). This indicates that the rabbis view the Book of Kings as a retrospective history intended to teach us how the Temple was destroyed and the reason the Jewish people were exiled from the land. Jeremiah looks back on the history of the Jewish people and tells us where it all went wrong. Based on this opening chapter, his answer is that it went wrong right at the very beginning. Right at the end of David’s life we see the problems as evidenced by the fighting between the camp of Adoniyahu and the camp of Shlomo.
The end of Avraham’s life heralded a harmonious reconciliation between his sons, Yitzchak and Yishmael, while the end of David’s life was a harbinger for the infighting and fratricide that would eventually destroy the Temple.
Our responsibility is to continue in the ways of Avraham and Yishmael and not the ways of Adoniyahu and Shlomo. In this sense, the Book of Kings should be read as a prophecy of Jeremiah telling us what will happen to all of us if we continue down the path of family fighting.
This is an especially relevant message in the days after a deeply disturbing and acrimonious election. We must all find it within ourselves to build bridges even –and especially--with people who don’t vote like we do or share our politics.
How do we build such bridges?
We can start to do so simply by being kind.
Rabbi Sacks taught us that this idea of chesed is so powerful that it caused there to be an additional word in the English language.
In 1535 Myles Coverdale published the first-ever translation of the Hebrew Bible into English (the work had been begun by William Tyndale who paid for it with his life, burnt at the stake in 1536). It was when he came to the word chesed that he realised that there was no English word which captured its meaning. It was then that, to translate it, he coined the word “loving-kindness
(https://rabbisacks.org/kindness-strangers-chayei-sarah-5775/#_ftn2).
The most important character trait in choosing a matriarch for our nation is not intelligence, but kindness.
The Torah tells us that when Avraham’s assistant came to find a wife for Yitzchak his main criteria was looking for a girl who demonstrated the noble quality of chesed. He said that if I will stand by the well of water and ask for a drink, then the girl who will give me to drink and also my camels to drink, she will be the one who is appropriate to be a wife for Yitzchak (24:13-14).
The concept of chesed, simply being kind, is a very simple idea. But as simple as it is it also has the power to change the world.
In one of his divrei torah, Rabbi Sacks refers to a simple story that took place in Washington, DC.
Back in 1966 there ware many neighborhoods in Washington, DC that were segregated. There were white neighborhoods and black neighborhoods. (Baruch Hashem, our neighborhood in Shepherd Park is not like that.)
That year an eleven-year-old black boy named, Stephen, moved with his family to a white neighborhood in Washington. The boy remembers that first day when he moved to the neighborhood. He was sitting on the front steps of his Cleveland Park neighborhood with his two brothers and two sisters as white person after white person walked past him without even looking at him. No one smiled at him and no one welcomed him to town. He remembers feeling like he definitely did not belong in the neighborhood. He had been warned by his friends in Harlem that it would be really hard to move to a white neighborhood and all his fears were now coming true.
Years later, writing about those first days in their new home, he says, “I knew we were not welcome here. I knew we would not be liked here. I knew we would have no friends here. I knew we should not have moved here . . .”
As he was thinking these sad thoughts, suddenly a white woman coming home from work passed his house. She saw him and his siblings and she said, “Wait right here. Don’t go anywhere.” She ran into her house and brought them out a tray of sandwiches and drinks.
Years later Stephen said that that moment changed his life forever. He wrote that when she brought him the sandwich her actions told him that he belonged in the neighborhood. It gave him the confidence and strength he needed to succeed.
Young Stephen grew up to be one of the most influential law professors in the country—Stephen Carter.
He later wrote a book called, Civility, in which he spoke about this moment and the woman, Sarah Kestenbaum, z”l, who brought him the sandwiches. He wrote that Sarah was motivated by the Jewish concept of chesed:
“In the Jewish tradition,” he notes, such civility is called “chesed – the doing of acts of kindness – which is in turn derived from the understanding that human beings are made in the image of God.” Civility, he adds, “itself may be seen as part of chesed: it does indeed require kindnesses toward our fellow citizens, including the ones who are strangers, and even when it is hard.” To this day, he adds, “I can close my eyes and feel on my tongue the smooth, slick sweetness of the cream cheese and jelly sandwiches that I gobbled on that summer afternoon when I discovered how a single act of genuine and unassuming civility can change a life forever”
(https://rabbisacks.org/kindness-strangers-chayei-sarah-5775/#_ftn2).
Many people from our congregation remember Sarah Kestenbaum. She was a member of Tifereth Israel, across the street from our congregation.
“Hashem berakh et Avraham bakol, Gd blessed Avraham with everything” (24:1).
What does it mean to be blessed with everything? One interpretation in the Talmud is that it means that Yishmael repented. To be blessed everything means to be blessed with a harmonious relationship.
A second interpretation is offered by Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev (cited in Vekarata Leshabbat Oneg, vol. 1, 29). He says that the true tzaddik does not want a blessing for himself unless others are also blessed. And so in order to bless Avraham, Hashem had to bless everyone in the world.
To be “blessed with all,” means that all must be blessed. We must work together to find a blessing for all!
We can’t end all the divisiveness that exists in the world. But through simple everyday acts of chesed we can change the world one act at a time by remembering that the world is made up of all of us and that it is our responsibility to bring a blessing to all.
Shmuel Herzfeld
