Chayei Sarah 2023: Jewish Pain and Unity in War
This week, I am traveling to Israel with a group of 15 rabbis through the Rabbinical Council of America and Yeshiva University. I go as a representative of our community and, along with the other rabbis, as messengers of the Jewish people in the diaspora. We are going in order to express, through our presence, our people’s collective deep feelings of pain for and responsibility to, our brethren in Israel, to be present with them because the Jewish people are one family.
I am sure that over the past few weeks, you have tried, as have I, to explain to non-Jewish colleagues and friends that what is happening in Israel, 6000 miles away, deeply impacts each of us here. That everyone in our community has loved ones in israel. Though we are here, our home is far away. This is often foreign to them. Additionally, the antisemitic responses we are encountering in the diaspora unmistakably impress upon us that though, at times, we Jews may see ourselves as divided into denominations, political camps or ideological factions, the world does not. We are all Jews and we will live and die as one.
Our time is reminiscent of Megilat Esther which states: “V’nahafoch hu,” or “everything turned upside down.” In the blink of an eye the world has utterly changed for us. About a month ago, it seemed that Jewish life was secure and wonderful. Israel had a burgeoning peace with more countries than ever before, the United Arab Emirates had become the new Jewish vacation spot bursting with kosher restaurants, Israel occupied a spot on all the good the top ten lists—per-capita income, venture capital funding, technological innovation, etc. A month ago Israel was on the verge of an historic peace with Saudi Arabia, the pilgrim’s pride of Islam.
But as the megillah says, v'nahafoch hu, everything in a moment is turned around. Suddenly it feels that we are the target of hatred and persecution, that Israel is not as strong as we were so sure it was. Things feel toddering, unstable, and we wake up each day with existential whiplash asking ourselves if this is the end of something or just the beginning.
Our parsha is Chayeh Sarah, “The Life of Sarah,” but it actually begins with her death and its aftermath. What caused her death? Rashi quotes the Midrash as follows: “The death of Sarah follows the Akeidah, the Binding of Isaac, because in hearing about the Akeidah, that her son was prepared for slaughter and almost killed, her soul left her and she died.”
Just the idea that Isaac almost died caused Sarah to cry out, like the sound of the shofar, the Midrash says, and with that her soul left her. The idea that her beloved child—her future, the child of her old age—almost died, caused her such shock, such devastation, that her soul left her. In the blink of an eye, the image of her progeny, her people, blew away like a Zen sand painting. So promising, so intricate, so blessed, and yet, with one gust, one sharp blade, all was turned to naught. She was so righteous, no doubt her faith in God and in the future of the Jewish people, in God's plan, was as solid as Gibraltar, and yet, in a moment, all was turned upside down, v’nahafoch hu.
This is the life and history of the Jewish people, v'nahafoch hu, but of course, just as things turn from strong to weak, from solid to precarious, so too for the Jewish people, as in the time of Queen Esther, in the blink of an eye, the ball rolls over “ma’avel l’yom tov,” from mourning to joy, from weakness to strength, from oblivion to presence. And just as the Jewish people caused this great positive transformation at the time of Queen Esther through their unity and prayer, so too today, in the blink of an eye, have our people become unified and laser- focused together on Israel, on Jewish welfare, and on the future, one of salvation that too will take place in the blink of a Divine eye.
