וַיִּהְיוּ חַיֵּי שָׂרָה מֵאָה שָׁנָה וְעֶשְׂרִים שָׁנָה וְשֶׁבַע שָׁנִים שְׁנֵי חַיֵּי שָׂרָה׃
And so this was the life of Sarah: One hundred years, and twenty years, and seven years; two lives of Sarah.
These are the opening words from this week’s Parasha, Chayei Sarah, in which we bury our mother, Sarah. This is such a difficult moment in so many ways. Sarah, a woman who would have done anything to have a child, nearly had Isaac ripped away from her by the hands of the one who gave him to her. The Akedah is a pivotal moment both in Jewish memory, and more immediately in the story of our Avot v’Imahot.
Given the juxtaposition with the binding of Isaac, which occurs in the chapter before, I can’t help but think it was the shock that killed her. The shock of learning that Abraham had nearly sacrificed their one and only son, the one they loved.
After burying his wife, Abraham sends his most senior servant to find Isaac a wife. Rebecca is described as beautiful and generous and, while Abraham’s servant tests her generosity, she is already destined to be Isaac’s bride, as they are bound together in the previous chapter. The only thing that separates the binding of Isaac from the death of Sarah is the birth of Rebecca. In the final verses of Parashat Vayeira, in the moments before Sarah’s death, Rebecca is born — a beautiful display of the Torah’s literary mastery of foreshadowing.
Isaac and Rebecca are the perfect compliment to each other. Isaac is a broken man, passive; merely the connective tissue between Abraham and Jacob. Rebecca, however, is a woman of action. She offered the camels water before she was asked, she chose to return with Abraham’s servant of her own free will, and she arranged for Jacob to win the birthright and the blessing from Isaac. Rebecca loved Isaac, and she gave Isaac comfort after his mother’s death. If Isaac is the most passive character in the Torah, Rebecca is an activist — a heroine.
Rebecca teaches us that, while faith might be integral to finding strength and purpose, acts of loving-kindness beyond the call of duty are essential in the pursuit of our potential and the work of creating a better world.