By Rabbi Lewis Warshauer, Provided by the Jewish Theological Seminary, a Conservative rabbinical seminary and university of Jewish studies.
Memories of Mother
After Sarah's death, Isaac sees his mother live on in the values and person of his wife, Rebekkah.
A newspaper reader knows from the headline what the topic of the article will be. Not so with the Torah. The title of each parashah is its first significant word; whether that word tells what will follow is somewhat up to chance. In Parashat Noah, the title does tells us who will be the central focus of the narrative. In this week's parashah, the title Haye Sarah seems to be irrelevant, misleading and yet, perhaps, fraught with meaning.
Haye Sarah means "the life of Sarah." It is thus a strange introduction for a series of events that begins with her death. The opening verse of the parashah reads, literally, "Sarah's life was one hundred twenty-seven years" (Genesis 23:1). It then goes on to tell of her death and burial. The rest of the parashah describes the recruitment of Rebekah (Rivkah) to be Isaac's wife, her return to Canaan with Abraham's servant and her marriage to Isaac. If parshiyot [Torah portions] were given a title corresponding to their central character, this one would be Haye Rivkah ("the life of Rebekah"), not Haye Sarah.
Toward the end of the parashah, Sarah does reappear--not in person, but as a memory. We are told that after Isaac meets Rebekah, he:
"... brought her into his mother Sarah's tent and took Rebekah and she became his wife and he loved her. And Isaac was comforted after his mother's death" (Genesis 24:67).
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