Genesis 23:1-20 The Burial of Sarah Chavurah Shalom Sat 2/20/16 This Sidrah shows respect for the dead and concern for the future. The Sages teach that Sarah died as a result of the Akedah of Isaac – that Satan told her that Abraham had actually slaughtered Isaac, which caused her death. This is why neither Abraham nor Isaac attended her death. ...In addition, the Torah records the birth of Rebecca before the death of Sarah in line with the traditions that a righteous person is not taken from the world until his or her successor has been born, as implied by the verse (Ecclesiastes 1:5), The sun rises and the sun sets (Sforno, Baal HaTurim).--Chumash, p. 116. This is the first actual burial mentioned in the Scripture. Perhaps due to the fact that how Israel treats the dead was different than the other nations, and this is the first recorded death of the Hebrew people. Interestingly enough in v. 1 the Scripture mentions the life of Sarah twice, her death once. We believe as Messianics, that it is appointed for a person once to die, but that we will live twice. First in the birth, second in the Resurrection. A belief in the resurrection pervaded the Hebrew concept of death and the proper respect shown to the body. The fact that Abraham “rose up from before his dead” in v. 3 gives rise to the concept in Hebrew customs for the dead of sitting on the ground, or sitting Shiva. The body is considered to be the vessel of the Spirit that is given by God, Proverbs 20:27. Therefore proper care and honor was accorded the body and the burial. Today, for a truly Jewish burial, internment must be completed as soon as possible after death, within 24 hours, Deuteronomy 21:23. No autopsies are permitted unless another life might be saved by it, or unless absolutely demanded by civil law. There is a respect for the creative work of God reflected in the body of the deceased. It is a return of the body to God as outlined in Scripture, Genesis 3:19, the famous from dust to dust passage. Tim Hegg suggested that the belief in the resurrection itself is enough to demand a bodily burial, leaving the body intact as much as possible. Since we shall be resurrected as a whole, the body should be buried in the same way. Hegg suggested that cremation is at the opposite end of the scale, stating that this is the end, there is no more existence! He further stated the need to remember the - 1 - ones who have passed on, with the yearly Yarzeit reinforcing this memory and the hope of the resurrection of the body interned. He then stated categorically that cremation attempts to blot out the memory of the one who has passed, and to remove any physical proof of their existence. I personally believe that this is a leap of logic that cannot be imposed on everyone who cremates. It would, in my opinion, make the Holocaust Remembrance of those burned up in the furnaces less than what it has come to represent. Yarzeit is conducted for these yearly as well. He also mentioned the practice in Yeshua's day of gathering the bones of those who had passed away, who after a year in a limestone sarcophagus, would be nothing more than bones. These were gathered an put into a much smaller ossuary, just long enough for the longest bone, and deep enough to stack them together. This is just as much a moving away from keeping the body as together as possible as the cremation. Yet he regarded this as the forerunner to the Yarzeit practice, and it may be. His focus is that Torah teaches a resurrection, and that the way we bury the dead must reflect this belief as much as possible.-- Parahsah Twenty, p. 2. The preparation of the body is considered one of the more important mitzvoth. There is a cleansing and washing of the body in preparation for burial. The garment or wrappings of the body were modeled after the clothing of the priests in the temple. There are no pockets which are to symbolize that once one leaves this world, they carry no worldly possessions. There is to be a simplicity in both the burial dress and the casket, to symbolize the equality in death. Sarah died in Kiriath-Arba, which is Hebron. The first name means literally, the city of Four. This is due to the 4 giants who originally lived there when Israel came into the land, Numbers 13:22, 33. Hebron was later granted to Caleb, the Kenizzite, and at 85 he drove out the giants that remained in that place, Joshua 14:6-15; 15:13-14. This passage in Joshua 15:13 also identifies Arba as Anak, the progenitor of the Anakim, the giants whom Israelites later encountered as they entered into the Land of Promise, Deuteronomy 2:10-11, 21; 9:2. Sarah is the only woman whose age is mentioned in the Scriptures, because as the mother of the promised seed she became the mother of all believers (1 Pet. 3:6)....The place still exists, as a small town on the road from Jerusalem to Beersheba, in a valley surrounded by several mountains, and is called by the Arabs, with allusion to Abraham’s stay there, el Khalil, i.e., the friend (of God), - 2 - which is the title given to Abraham by the Mohammedans.--Keil & Delitzsch. Sarah died at 127, 3 years before Isaac's marriage to Rivkah at age 40, Genesis 25:20. Genesis 24:67 tells us that in this marriage, Isaac found comfort after Sarah's death. First, Abraham spent some time mourning and weeping over the loss of Sarah. Our text literally says, "Avraham rose up from upon the face of his dead." This is the picture of a true love, doting over the wife who has passed away. Avraham was a man, then, that had no problem expressing his sorrow with tears. Furthermore, we are told that Avraham came to Sarah to mourn and to weep towards her. This is a most normal, and cathartic expression of the pain we feel in our hearts over the loss of someone we truly love. The use of both terms together suggests that Abraham did not just weep aloud but carried out other traditional mourning customs, such as rending his garments, disheveling his hair, cutting his beard, scattering dust on his head, - 3 - and fasting (Lev 21:5, 10; 2 Sam 1:11, 12; 13:31; Job 1:20; 2:12.--Word Biblical Commentary, p. 126. We don’t know how long Avraham mourned, the scripture does not tell us. Then we have the deliberations over Machpelah, the cave and burial site of the patriarchs. Machpelah means “double.” It was so named it is believed either because there were two chambers, an upper and a lower level, or because of the couples who would be buried there. Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rivka, Jacob and Leah were all buried there. Some assert this is also the burial place of Adam and Chava. This becomes important in the Jewish thought regarding the afterlife. Later Jewish literature, non-biblical, have it that the choice of this cave was due to the entrance to Gan Eden. Gan Eden in turn is the Jewish term for Paradise. Thus from this Paradise was spoken of as Abraham’s Bosom. The Jewish thought of Resurrection thus begins with the Cave of Machpelah and the Patriarchs of the Faith. Judaism anticipates that the resurrection from the dead will begin here at Machpelah.--FFOZ, Torah Club Volume 5, p. 110. The purchase of this cave figures into three distinct places purchased by Israel, and chronicled to prove the Israeli ownership of the land. There was a deed which granted Abraham, and thus all of Israel, the rights to this land. Second, was the purchase of the Temple Mount by King David, 2 Samuel 24:18-25. Third, was the purchase of land in Shechem by Jacob, Genesis 33:19, which became the place of Joseph’s sepulcher, Joshua 24:32. None of these locations are under Jewish control today, and to a large extent the Jews are excluded from these sights. Herod the Great, 37-4 BCE, built a massive structure over the cave, making it a place of prayer. It has been used as a Christian Church, and then a mosque. The presence of a synagogue has been maintained since antiquity. This cave today is contested, and Jewish worshippers at times banned from the area.--Tim Hegg, Parashah Twenty, p. 3. Hebron is in the hill country of Judah, some 20 miles south-west of Jerusalem, and the first seat of David's kingship, 2 Samuel 2:1-4; 5:1-5. It's principal claim upon the Jewish imagination over the centuries is owing to the biblical reports that not only Sarah, but also Abraham, Isaac and Rebecah, and Jacob and Leah, are buried there, Genesis 23:19; 35:27; 49:29-32; 50:13....The description of the purchasing of the land provides a contrast concerning Abraham that is ongoing throughout the Scripture: on the one hand he is but a resident alien without - 4 - hereditary land-rights or a secure place in the social and legal order. On the other, he is the elect of God, to whom the whole land has been promised. Else- where in the Tanakh, the entire people Israel is described as resident aliens, living on land owned by God (Leviticus 25:23), and the same terms are used to describe the transience of human life and the unworthiness of human beings in the face of God's bounty (1 Chronicles 29:15).--The Jewish Study Bible, p.