Chayei Sarah
How can we return to the sense of chesed?
Reflection by Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg:
"Chayei Sarah begins with the death and burial of our mother, Sarah. It ends with the death and burial of our father, Abraham. Isaac and his rival half-brother, Ishmael, join to bury their father in the `cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, son of Zoar, the Hittite` (Gen 25:9). This is the cave that Abraham bought to bury Sarah.
Many classic Jewish and human themes are present in this parsha, such as the relationship to the land, the continuity of the covenant, rivalry, favoritism and reconciliation. Underlying it all is the towering figure of Abraham, father, founder, and man of intense faith. Our tradition associates Abraham with the quality of chesed, lovingkindness, symbolized by his extraordinary kindness to the strangers that appear at his tent in last week’s text.
Abraham is our first patriarch, the founder of all that is to come.
Judaism is at its root a path of loving-kindness. Why else offer hospitality to the stranger, the widow and the orphan? Why else allow the needy to glean the corners of the field? Why else visit the sick, comfort the bereaved, bury the dead with dignity and attention? Why else pray for peace at the conclusion of every section of prayer? Why else even care for the well-being and education of the next generation?
Our path is a path of loving-kindness. It is a path that sees the absolute dignity within each being. It seeks to navigate, like Abraham, the transitions of life and death, change, vulnerability, and the conflicts and vagaries of this human journey, with a sense of connection to the greater unity that holds and sustains us all. Of course, there are many forces that pull us apart, that tempt us and confuse us in this world. Our human, Jewish task is to return to the sense of chesed, to welcome the stranger both within ourselves and outside ourselves.
It is our practice to ask ourselves: Where do we find chesed in our lives and in our world? Where do we find chesed in our bodies and minds? Where do we find chesed in times of loss, confusion, disruption and insecurity?
As we welcome the light and the dark, in this very moment, may we see ourselves as children of Abraham, ever expanding our capacity to trust and deepen into chesed."