Parashat Chayei Sarah begins with one very simple line: And the life of Sarah was a hundred and seven
and twenty years; these were the life of Sarah.
And Sarah died in Kiriath –arba- the same is Hebron- in the land of
Canaan.
The commentary by Rashi speaks about the fact that in the
Hebrew, each number denoting her age is followed by the word years. The impact of this formulation is to state
that when she was twenty it was as if
she were seven and when she was one hundred it was as if she were twenty.
You might ask how this commentary could
possibly make sense. Let’s look at it in
the following way. How many of you
remember being seven or raising a seven year old? Seven is a wonderful age of innocence and
exploration. The world is full of wonder
to a typical seven year old. What if you
could be turning twenty and maintain that same sense of wonder about the world
around you without becoming jaded or cynical?
What would you be like at twenty if you were maturing but still
maintained your inquisitive nature, your willingness to explore the world and
its possibilities? What would it be like
to be one hundred and still hold onto your sense that your life has purpose
just as it did when you were twenty?
What would it be like to have a body that is facing death but a spirit
that continues to shine?
If you think about this one very simple sentence in Hayei
Sarah, perhaps you can think of individuals in your own life who have managed
to hang onto the best qualities of their earlier days even as they are advancing
in age. If one were to only think about
the death and dying process while aging, and not integrate all the past stages
of one’s life into a complete whole, the end result would be an individual who
had not lived life to the fullest.
Sarah was mourned because at age 127 she was an
extraordinary woman. She integrated the
various stages of her life into a complete whole. She held onto the building blocks of each age
that were positive and used them to create a life that was truly
remarkable. My wish for each of you
celebrating a birthday within the month of November is that you too will build
your coming year upon the positive qualities and experiences you have gained in
each of your former years. No matter how
old you are, may you integrate the past into a wonderful present and future.
Now for a small political statement. Last week UNESCO declared that the Cave of
Machpela in Hebron is a Muslim site. The
first mention of the Cave of Machpela is found in today’s Torah portion. After Sarah dies, Avraham purchases the cave
from Ephron the Hittite so that he could bury his dead out of his sight. According to the Torah portion, the sale was
witnessed so it could be used as a burying place for Avraham’s family. Today that same sight is known as the Cave of
the Patriarchs. If you go there today,
it is true that you will see a mosque over part of the tombs and an entrance
leading to a synagogue over the other part of the tombs. Although it is the site of the burial of
Avraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekkah, Jacob and Leah, the site has been under
the control of various conquering groups over the centuries. The Arab Muslims took control over it in the
year 637 and built a mosque over the burial site after the control was
relinquished by the Byzantine Empire.
The crusaders captured the area in 1100 and took away the Moslems’ access
to enter the area. In 1188, Saladin
conquered the area and reconverted the church into a mosque. Fast forward to 1967, and the Six Day War,
when Jews began resettling in Hebron. At that time the Chief Rabbi of Israel
became the first Jew to reenter the structure after a 700 year ban against Jews
entering their holy site. Today, Jews
are permitted to enter their side of the structure while Moslems pray in their
part. The existence of the mosque does
not preclude the fact that this is a Jewish religious site and has been for at
least 4 thousand years. UNESCO’s
declaration does not change Jewish history.
When I visited Hebron two summers ago, I went in an armored bus with my
Pardes class. I must say I was worried
because I had always heard about violent clashes surrounding entrance into the
site. My experience was radically
different. It was the first day of
Ramadan, Moslems were called to prayer and entering their side of the holy site
that was covered by a mosque, while we Jews were eating a picnic lunch in the
park across from the holy site and then entering the synagogue to view the
tombs on our side of the structure. It
felt as if on that day, those present understood that each group shared a
connection to the holiness of the site through their own eyes. UNESCO’s ludicrous declaration of trying to
sever Jewish ties to the Cave of Machpela discounts our own understanding of
our own history. It also is counterproductive
to promoting peace which could be accomplished at the site by the sharing of
the space as it currently exists. Such
attempts to rewrite history are counterproductive and blatantly false. I have
seen that it is possible to co-exist without either side doing harm to the
other. That is as it should be. May we
live to see a time when it will be a daily reality.
Shabbat Shalom.
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