Chayei Sarah (Genesis 23:1-25:18) 
 
  Days Like These

From the Weekly Parsha Devar Torah column on www.KabbalaOnline.org, Ascent Lights, Contemporary illuminations from the director of Ascent-of-Safed.

By Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter 

This week's  Torah reading, Chayei Sarah - "The Life of Sarah", has some very dramatic and romantic sections, particularly about the arranged marriage and first meeting of Isaac and  Rebecca.

After opening with Sarah's passing and burial, the reading continues with Abraham's preoccupation with finding a mate for his son. The section begins: "And Abraham was old, his days had arrived." (Gen. 24:1) So Abraham was old - what has that to do with his days? Rabbi Abraham  Azulai writes that it was specifically Abraham's age that pushed him to start thinking about his life in terms of days instead of years. He therefore was anxious to marry off his son during his lifetime.

" These garments allow a soul to experience the rays of the Divine Presence...." 
 
The  Zohar, Judaism's primary text of Kabbalah, says that the word "days" refers to the garments for our soul that we create when we perform the commandments. These garments allow a soul to experience the rays of the Divine Presence in Paradise, our reward for our perseverance in This World. Therefore, "His days had arrived" means that all of his garments were complete, he wasn't missing any at all. The Zohar's explanation of complete garments is connected to the word "days" to tell us that each of the days of our lives has to be filled with doing  mitzvot so that the particular garments available to us will be created on that day. This means we have to have full days, full of mitzvot, no wasted time. You could say, "I will take it easy today and do two mitzvot tomorrow." The answer to that is, " Maybe you will, but maybe you won't!"

" Every Jew should see him or herself as a messenger and emissary for G-d to create a dwelling place for Him in This World...." 
 
Given the mission to find his master's son a wife, Abraham's servant Eliezer goes on his search. The verse relates, "And the servant ... went; and all the wealth of his master was in his hand; and he went to Aram Naharayim, to the city of Nachor." This is the first instance of an emissary in the Torah. Since every Jew should see him or herself as a messenger and emissary for G-d to create a dwelling place for Him in This World, we have to examine this episode carefully. What was this mission? To find a marriage partner for Isaac. The entire idea and purpose of marriage is to bring children into the world. In a similar way, every Jewish person has to push himself to bring people to life spiritually, to arouse those who are not informed to walk on the Jewish path.

Aram Naharayim was not a very pleasant place. It was also called "Haron", which can be translated as "anger", as in the anger of G-d. This is to teach us that to accomplish our task, we will sometimes have to go to difficult places, put ourselves in difficult positions. "But," we may say, "it is dangerous; I am putting my spiritual level, my health, at risk. How much can G-d expect from me?" The answer is in the preceding words: "...and all the good of his master was in his hand" - that each Jew receives from the sender (G-d) all the strength and more, that we require in order to fulfill our task.

The two previous weekly readings reminded us that we are still in exile, as the Torah recounts the travels and travails of Abraham from country to country. In contrast, Chayei Sarah speaks about the beginning of the redemption, as it speaks about Abraham buying a piece of the land of Israel with all of the local residents as witnesses. As the first sign of the coming redemption, it is appropriate for all of us to begin actively to remove all of the obstacles and concealments that are hiding this new world order of  Mashiach, and help allow the revelation to shine through.

Shabbat Shalom, Shaul

Reprinted with permission www.KabbalaOnline.org and www.AscentofSafed.com. To learn more about Chasidic and Kabbalistic perspectives on the Torah, please visit their sites.