By Nina Pressman

This week's portion is Chayei Sarah- you can find a summary HERE. Basically, the portion starts with Sarah dying at age 127 and Abraham buying a cave (which is thought to be located in modern day Hebron) where he ends up burying her. Then, Abraham asks his slave to find a wife for his son Isaac, and ends up finding Rebecca (Isaac’s future wife) when he asks her for water. The parshah continues with Abraham remarrying, fathering more children, and in the end he dies and is buried in the same cave as Sarah. Before he dies, Abraham endows Isaac with the vast majority of his possessions. At the very end of the parsha Ishmael’s death is mentioned.

This is the first time in the Torah that we are introduced to Hebron. Some commentaries suggest that Abraham wanted his family to be buried there because it is also thought to be the burial site of Adam and Eve. Hebron goes on to host other important events in Jewish history, and is considered by some to be one of four “Holy Cities of Israel. ” It is interesting to trace the biblical roots of the Jewish connection to specific places, and to think about how that lead us to the current situation in the Middle East

I wanted to touch on some other interesting commentaries of this parsha, which are based on small, partially semantic parts of the story. One reason that I find this so interesting is that it shows us how the Jewish people are able to draw so many lessons about every day life from the most minute details and interpretations of ancient words.

One commentary (from aish.com) notices that when Rebecca is offering water to Eliezer’s (Abraham’s slave) camels she says “I will draw water even for your camels until they have finished drinking.” This is unique because Rebecca is allowing the amount of time she spends doing this good deed be determined by others, instead of determining it herself. It is important to think about doing acts of kindness completely on the terms of the people you are helping, and giving up the

feeling we often have that we have the right to decide when and how we will do tzedakah or Tikkun Olam. Tikkun Olam and helping others is a big part of what this movement talks about and does, and it's important to stop and ask ourselves to what extent we are setting the terms and to what extent we're allowing those we're working with to set them based on their needs, instead of us assuming we know their needs and how best to serve them.

Another lesson we can draw from a small part of the text is that when Eliezer asks Rebecca’s father and brother if Rebecca will be allowed to marry Isaac, they defer to her for consent. Rebecca’s consent on her betrothal is the passage on which some scholars base the rule that women cannot be married against their will. This passage can be used to show the necessity of women’s voices in matters that affect them and their loved ones. For me it's interesting to contrast this view of women's voices with contemporary views of feminism. I think that sometimes in the movement our discourse about oppression based on gender, race, sexuality, ability, economic status and more is lacking, and I wonder how we can make sure these varied voices are a part of movement sichot.

I teach a seventh grade Hebrew school class that focuses on mitzvoth, in which I try to explain to my students the ways in which Jewish laws can be a guide book to living your life in a moral way. It’s cool for me to draw these lessons straight from the Torah portion this week. The question of where we get our morality from, and the role that Judaism plays in that is one that has come up a lot in my movement life. Though the jury is still out on that question for me (though I’m sure my morality comes from myriad different parts of my life and history) it’s fun to know how much meaning we can draw from traditional Jewish texts.