GENESIS XXIII-XXV:18

HOW TO CHOOSE A PHILOSOPHY FOR LIFE

The study of the life and individual characteristics of the patriarchs is fundamental to understanding the foundations of Judaism. The history of Judaism begins with Avraham (Abraham) and continues

with their descendants including the moment when nation-building begins with the exodus from Egypt.

Judaism makes its appearance on the stage with God’s call to Avraham, Lech Lecha: go from the home of your fathers to a land that I will indicate to you and gradually discover what are the elements that distinguish this new philosophy of life with the potential to become a theology.

Our chapters report on the death of Sarah, the first matriarch. The absence of details of his death is supplemented by the Oral Torah, with the Midrash revealing that Sarah died upon hearing that her only son Yitschak(Isaac) would be sacrificed as an offering to God, in a hardly comprehensible demonstration of boundless love for God. 

Did Avraham feel guilty about his wife’s death and as a result went into a state of acute depression? Avraham weeps for his wife and reflects on her virtues and then faces the reality: a suitable place must be found to bury Sarah. Avraham acquires a large plot of land where the mortal remains of the patriarchs will rest and according to an ancient tradition, Adam and Chava (Eve) are also buried there. Me’arat Hamachpelah is the name of the place, the mausoleum of the patriarchs, located in the city of Chevron,a reason for the current dispute between Israel and the Palestinians.

Sarah’s death  may have provoked a reaction of asceticism, Professor Dov Schwartz observes. There are primitive customs according to which survivors lacerate their bodies upon the death of a bereaved. An ascetic view probably implies the denial of family and communal life, because the concentration on the deity must be total. Perhaps the Christian priesthood, which demands celibacy, shares that notion. It is a behavior that denies the value of the material world to enthrone the spiritual universe as the only alternative.

The biblical idea of the Nazir, the person who promises to abstain from certain pleasures such as the consumption of the product of the vine, to avoid contact with a dead person, and not to cut his hair, points to a life of material deprivation and an exclusive dedication to the heavenly.

There are those who rightly point out that the Torah (Pentateuch) requires a sacrifice at the end of the Nezirut period, thus pointing out that the Nazirshould not be considered a spiritual hero, an optimal condition for the Jew. Unlike Shimshon (Samson) who remained all his life under the sign of Nezirut, the Talmud (Oral Law) postulates that, when not specified, the period of Nezirut lasts for one month. So, according to the Talmud, being  a Nazir must be a temporary choice.

Avraham does not choose to make  Sarah an icon, he weeps for her, but he also buries her; he does not forget her, but he does not venerate her either. The death of his wife does not imply the end of his family history. Now he must devote himself to Yitschak, to the search for a suitable wife for his son, he must think about the future of the people he is fathering. The difficulty of having a child with Sarah has sensitized him to value Isaac even more, who through Akedah demonstrated his willingness to offer his life in the service of God.

At the same time, the Creator showed that He did not desire human sacrifice. Judaism will have to choose between several alternatives, leaning towards one more than the other without discarding any; between asceticism and a path that seeks a middle ground, and that accentuates the spiritual model but does not deny the value of the material world. The conflict and dichotomy caused by having to choose between good and evil, the secular world and the spiritual environment, self-interest and altruism, and cowardice and courage, is the catalytic ferment that compels us to think and reflect, to continually search for and identify the path that should serve for the spiritual growth and development that began with Avraham and that continues to the present. To live is to seek. In the Hereafter is a contemplation of the radiant Presence of God.