The portion begins with the words “Sarah’s lifetime was one hundred years, twenty years, and seven years; the years of Sarah’s life” (Genesis 23:1). The concluding phrase “the years of Sarah’s life” can also be read as “the two lifetimes of Sarah,” alluding to an additional meaning in the verse, an additional lifetime.
In the subsequent story of how and where Sarah is buried is revealed much about Jewish burial practices through the ages including our own times and deep secrets of life and death itself.
The “two lifetimes of Sarah” is connected to a teaching of the sages: “The righteous in death are called alive, evil ones in life are called dead.” After life in this world ends there is life in the World to Come, which explains the “two lives of Sarah.” Another statement of the sages in Pirkei Avot (4:21) addresses the connection between these two worlds: “This world is like a lobby before the World to come; prepare yourself in the lobby so that you may enter the banquet hall.”
Sarah as the Matriarch of the Jewish people in a sense paved the way to connecting these two worlds. The Torah relates that she was buried in Hebron, whose root in Hebrew means “to connect.” Although she was no longer present in this world she remained connected to Abraham from a new dimension of life. And Abraham remained connected to her.
Many of the customs and practices taught by Judaism emphasize a paradoxical attitude towards those who have passed away. On one hand they keep the memory and connection with the deceased very much alive, while simultaneously they prepare us to realize that life goes on and so must we. Both attitudes are important and need to be honored.
It is taught that after a righteous person leaves this world their spiritual influence in this world actually increases. Free from the physical restraints of this world they are free to permeate reality in an easier fashion. We see this quite often with great men and woman whose ideas, books, or initiatives are only fully appreciated after they die, when suddenly their influence becomes far greater.
The Talmud further states that when we say over words of Torah in the name of the one whom originally said them that their lips move in the grave. Our connection transcends time and the curtain between this world and the World to Come.
Sarah was buried in the cave of Machpela in Hebron. Rashi gives two reasons for this name based on the Hebrew root meaning “double:” that the cave had an upper and lower chamber and that it housed/would house couples, the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of the Jewish people. An additional understanding is that the double nature of the cave is derived from the two lives of Sarah – in this world and the world to come.
Perhaps the most obvious allusion to the teaching of life beyond death is in the simple fact that the portion is called Chayei Sarah, the lifetimes of Sarah, yet it speaks exclusively of her death. Paradoxically though it is through the death of Sarah that Abraham makes his first purchase of the land of Israel, which symbolizes his descendents eventual inheritance of all the land of Israel. He bought the cave of Machpela and all the land surrounding the cave for 400 silver pieces and the sages teach that the borders of the land of Israel are 400 parsah by 400 parsah. What Abraham had not done till then was only accomplished through the death of Sarah.
As soon as Sarah is buried the Torah states that the field with its cave “arose” (Genesis 23:20). Rashi comments that this rising of the land was due to its leaving the hand of a common person to the hand of a king. The elevation of the land was accomplished through the soul of Sarah elevating to a higher level of life, which although it is in a different dimension, is still connected to this world and to the land itself.
