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Chayei Sarah, Chaye Sarah, Ḥayye Sarah, or Ḥayyei Sara (—
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
for "life of Sarah
Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch, prophet, and major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a pious woma ...
," the first words in the parashah), is the fifth weekly Torah portion
The weekly Torah portion refers to a lectionary custom in Judaism in which a portion of the Torah (or Pentateuch) is read during Jewish prayer services on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. The full name, ''Parashat HaShavua'' (), is popularly abbre ...
(, ''parashah'') in the annual Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
cycle of Torah reading
Torah reading (; ') is a Jewish religious tradition that involves the public reading of a set of passages from a Torah scroll. The term often refers to the entire ceremony of removing the scroll (or scrolls) from the Torah ark, chanting the ap ...
. It constitutes Genesis
Genesis may refer to:
Religion
* Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of humankind
* Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Bo ...
23:1–25:18. The parashah tells the stories of Abraham
Abraham (originally Abram) is the common Hebrews, Hebrew Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father who began the Covenant (biblical), covenanta ...
's negotiations to purchase a burial place for his wife Sarah and his servant's mission to find a wife for Abraham's son Isaac
Isaac ( ; ; ; ; ; ) is one of the three patriarchs (Bible), patriarchs of the Israelites and an important figure in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Baháʼí Faith. Isaac first appears in the Torah, in wh ...
.
The parashah is made up of 5,314 Hebrew letters, 1,402 Hebrew words, 105 verses, and 171 lines in a Torah Scroll (, ''Sefer Torah
file:SeferTorah.jpg, A Sephardic Torah scroll rolled to the first paragraph of the Shema
file:Köln-Tora-und-Innenansicht-Synagoge-Glockengasse-040.JPG, An Ashkenazi Torah scroll rolled to the Decalogue
file:Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue, Inte ...
''). Jews
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
read it on the fifth Sabbath
In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, Ten Commandments, commanded by God to be kept as a Holid ...
after Simchat Torah
Simchat Torah (; Ashkenazi: ), also spelled Simhat Torah, is a Jewish holiday that celebrates and marks the conclusion of the annual cycle of public Torah readings, and the beginning of a new cycle. Simchat Torah is a component of the Hebrew Bible ...
, generally in November, or on rare occasion in late October.
Readings
In traditional Sabbath Torah reading, the parashah is divided into seven readings, or , '' aliyot''. In theMasoretic Text
The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; ) is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (''Tanakh'') in Rabbinic Judaism. The Masoretic Text defines the Jewish canon and its precise letter-text, with its vocaliz ...
of the Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' peh'')). Parashat Chayei Sarah has one "closed portion" (, ''setumah'') division (abbreviated with the Hebrew letter (''
A midrash deduced from the words "Abraham ''came'' to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her" in Genesis 23:2 that Abraham came directly from Mount 
The Gemara expanded on the conversation between God and Satan in
The Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer identified the unnamed steward of Abraham's household in Genesis 24:2 with Abraham's servant Eliezer introduced in Genesis 15:2. The Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer told that when Abraham left
Reading the report of the servant's travels in Genesis 24:10, the Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer taught that from Kiriat Arba to
Reading the servant's test in Genesis 24:14, "And she may say, 'Drink,'" a midrash asked why the servant made this the sign that would prove her to be the one (in the words of Genesis 24:44) "whom the Lord has appointed for my master's son." The midrash explained that the servant knew that if she answered that way, she would be a righteous woman, eager to show hospitality, just like Abraham and Sarah.
Rabbi Samuel bar Naḥmani said in the name of Rabbi Jonathan that Abraham's servant Eliezer made an improper request when in Genesis 24:14 he asked God to grant that the young woman whom he would ask to draw water for him and who replied by offering also to water his camels might be the one whom God had decreed for Isaac. Rabbi Samuel asked what would have happened if she had happened to be lame or blind, and concluded that Eliezer was fortunate that Providence answered him by sending Rebekah to meet him. Rabbi Samuel compared Eliezer's request to the improvident oaths that 
The Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer taught that God saw that everything miraculously came together for Abraham's servant. A daughter of kings, Rebekah, who in all her life had never gone forth to draw water, went out to draw water at that hour. And the girl, who did not know who Abraham's servant was, accepted his proposal to be married to Isaac. The Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer taught that this happened because she had been destined for him from birth.
Rav Naḥman bar Isaac cited a Tanna that interpreted Genesis 24:16 to teach that Rebekah was virgin between the ages of 12 and 12½ (a ''naarah'') when Abraham's servant encountered her.
Rabbi Isaac called Bethuel a wicked man. A midrash identified Bethuel as a king.
Rava asked Rabba bar Mari from where people derived the saying: If you are aware of a derogatory matter about yourself, say it first before others say it about you. Rabba bar Mari answered that the source was what Eliezer said in Genesis 24:34, "And he said: 'I am Abraham's servant,'" immediately proclaiming that he was a servant.
A midrash taught that when Rebekah’s family heard Abraham's servant say in Genesis 24:34, "I am Abraham's servant," they hid their faces in shame and fear, realizing that if this was the servant, how much more so would be his master. They reasoned that one could judge a lion from its welp and concluded that they could not overcome him. Thereupon, they removed the poisoned food that they had given Abraham's servant.
Rav in the name of Rabbi Reuben ben Estrobile cited Laban's and Bethuel's response to Abraham's servant that "The matter was decreed by the Lord" in Genesis 24:50–51 as a proof text for the proposition that God destines a woman and a man for each other in marriage. Rabbi Joshua the son of
Noting that Genesis 24:55 reports that the next day, Rebekah's "brother and her mother said, ‘Let the maiden remain with us some ten days,'" the Rabbis asked where Bethuel was. The midrash concluded that Bethuel wished to hinder Rebekah's marriage, and so he was smitten during the night.Genesis Rabbah 60:12. The Rabbis said that Abraham's servant did not disclose Bethuel's fate to Isaac.Genesis Rabbah 60:15.
Rav Ḥisda interpreted the word "days" (, ''yamim'') in Genesis 24:55 to mean "a year." Genesis 24:55 says, "And her brother and her mother said: ‘Let the maiden abide with us ''yamim'', at the least ten." The Gemara reasoned that if , ''yamim'', in Genesis 24:55 means "days" and thus to imply "two days" (as the plural implies more than one), then Genesis 24:55 would report Rebekah's brother and mother suggesting first two days, and then when Eliezer said that that was too long, nonsensically suggesting ten days. The Gemara thus deduced that , ''yamim'', must mean "a year," as Leviticus 25:29 implies when it says, "if a man sells a house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; for a full year (, ''yamim'') shall he have the right of redemption." Thus Genesis 24:55 might mean, "Let the maiden abide with us a year, or at the least ten months." The Gemara then suggested that , ''yamim'', might mean "a month," as Numbers 11:20 suggests when it uses the phrase "a month of days (, ''yamim'')." The Gemara concluded, however, that , ''yamim'', means "a month" only when the term "month" is specifically mentioned, but otherwise means either "days" (at least two) or "a year." Similarly, the Mishnah taught that they allowed a virgin 12 months to prepare for her wedding after her fiancé told her to prepare.
Reading the servant's words to Laban in Genesis 24:56, "Do not hinder me, for the Lord has prospered my way," the Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer told that the servant rose early in the morning and saw the angel that had accompanied him standing and waiting for him in the street. The servant then told Laban and his friends the words of Genesis 24:56 and that the man who came with him the day before to prosper his way was standing and waiting for him.
A midrash noted that in Genesis 24:57, Rebekah's brother and mother determined to ask Rebekah if she assented to going with Abraham's servant to marry Isaac. The midrash deduced from this that a fatherless maiden may not be given in marriage without her consent.
In Genesis 24:58, Rebekah's brother and mother "called Rebekah, and said to her: ‘Will you go?'" Rabbi Uanina, the son of Rav Adda, said in Rabbi Isaac's name that Rebekah's brother and mother hinted to Rebekah (putting the question in a tone of surprise), "Will you (really) go?" "And she said: ‘I will go.'" Rebekah did not simply say "yes," but replied that she would go, in spite of her brother and mother, whether they wished it or not.
The Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer taught that Laban and his family ate and drank at a bridal banquet for Rebekah. And then, like an officiant who stands and blesses a bride in her bridal canopy, they stood and blessed Rebekah their sister on her upcoming wedding to Isaac, as Genesis 24:60 reports, "And they blessed Rebekah, and said to her, ‘Our sister . . . .'"
Reading Genesis 24:62, "Isaac came from going to Be'er Laḥai Ro'i," a midrash taught that Isaac had gone there to bring Hagar back to Abraham.
The Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer taught that the servant left Haran at noon and took Rebekah and her nurse Deborah riding on the camels. So that the servant would not be alone with the maiden Rebekah by night, the earth once again contracted before them, and in three hours, they came to Hebron at the time of the afternoon prayer (at 3 p.m.). Isaac had gone forth to say the afternoon prayer, as it is said in Genesis 24:63, "And Isaac went forth to meditate in the field towards evening."
Rabbi
Rabbi Judan read Genesis 24:67 to teach a rule of propriety: If a man has grown-up sons (and both the man and his sons wish to marry), he must first see that his sons marry and then take a wife himself. Rabbi Judan derived this from Abraham's example, for first Genesis 24:67 says, "And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent," and after that, Genesis 25:1 says, "And Abraham took another wife, and her name was Keturah."
A midrash told that the Ishmaelites came before
Reading Genesis 24:14,
According to Maimonides and
chapter 5
of ''
The tomb of Sarah is located in the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron along with that of Abraham and the other Biblical Matriarchs and Patriarchs. Every year on the Shabbat in which Parashat Chayei Sarah is read in synagogue services, thousands of people visit the site. Known as Shabbat Hebron, the weekend can attract more than 35,000 people.
Ketubot 5:2
Kiddushin 4:14
Avot 5:19
Land of Israel, circa 200 C.E. In, e.g., ''The Mishnah: A New Translation''. Translated by
8:1338:1042:545:948:1655:658:1–62:5; 65:9; 66:4; 67:9; 68:2–4, 9; 70:12; [https://www.sefaria.org/Bereishit_Rabbah.79.7 79:7
85:7; 96; 97. Land of Israel, 5th Century. In, e.g., ''Midrash Rabbah: Genesis''. Translated by Harry Freedman (rabbi), Harry Freedman">79:7">58:1–62:5; 65:9; 66:4; 67:9; 68:2–4, 9; 70:12
79:7
85:7; 96; 97. Land of Israel, 5th Century. In, e.g., ''Midrash Rabbah: Genesis''. Translated by Harry Freedman (rabbi), Harry Freedman
and Maurice Simon, volume 1, page 63, 309, 347, 357, 386–87, 416, 485–86; volume 2, pages 509–55, 584, 594, 603, 613, 616–18, 621, 645, 732, 794, 931–32. London: Soncino Press, 1939. *Leviticus Rabbah
19:5; 20:11; 30:10; 37:4. Land of Israel, 5th Century. In, e.g., ''Midrash Rabbah: Leviticus''. Translated by Harry Freedman and Maurice Simon. London: Soncino Press, 1939. *Esther Rabbah 2:9. 5th–11th centuries. In, e.g., ''Midrash Rabbah: Esther''. Translated by Maurice Simon, volume 9, page 40. London: Soncino Press, 1939. *Babylonian
Berakhot 18a26b61aShabbat 62b77aEruvin 18b53aPesachim 3aYoma 28bTaanit 4aMegillah 17aMoed Katan 18bYevamot 61b64aKetubot 57a–bNedarim 41bSotah 5a14aGittin 76aKiddushin 2a4b82aBava Kamma 92bBava Metzia 87aBava Batra 15b16b69b141aSanhedrin 46b59b91a95a107bShevuot 38bAvodah Zarah 7bZevachim 62bChullin 95b120aBekhorot 50a
Sasanian Empire, 6th Century. In, e.g., ''Talmud Bavli''. Edited by Yisroel Simcha Schorr, Chaim Malinowitz, and Mordechai Marcus, 72 volumes. Brooklyn: Mesorah Pubs., 2006. *Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah, Song of Songs Rabbah 2:41; 3:8. 6th–7th centuries. In, e.g., ''Midrash Rabbah: Song of Songs''. Translated by Maurice Simon, volume 9, pages 133, 153. London: Soncino Press, 1939. *Ruth Rabbah 4:3; 7:12. 6th–7th centuries. In, e.g., ''Midrash Rabbah: Ruth''. Translated by L. Rabinowitz, volume 8, pages 51, 88. London: Soncino Press, 1939. *Ecclesiastes Rabbah 2:30. 6th–8th centuries. In, e.g., ''Midrash Rabbah: Esther''. Translated by Maurice Simon, volume 8, pages 17, 72, 124, 174, 232. London: Soncino Press, 1939.
*Exodus Rabbah 1:32; 31:17; 32:9. 10th Century. In, e.g., ''Midrash Rabbah: Exodus''. Translated by S. M. Lehrman. London: Soncino Press, 1939.
*Lamentations Rabbah 1:19. 10th century. In, e.g., ''Midrash Rabbah: Deuteronomy/Lamentations''. Translated by A. Cohen, volume 7, pages 46, 85. London: Soncino Press, 1939.
*Solomon ibn Gabirol. ''A Crown for the King''
16:199–200
Spain, 11th Century. Translated by David R. Slavitt, pages 28–29, 36–37. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
*Rashi. ''Commentary''
Genesis 23–25
Troyes, France, late 11th Century. In, e.g., Rashi. ''The Torah: With Rashi's Commentary Translated, Annotated, and Elucidated''. Translated and annotated by Yisrael Isser Zvi Herczeg, volume 1, pages 241–70. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1995. *
*Numbers Rabbah 2:1, 26; 10:5; 14:10–11; 15:12; 19:32; 21:20. 12th Century. In, e.g., ''Midrash Rabbah: Numbers''. Translated by Judah J. Slotki. London: Soncino Press, 1939.
*
*Nahmanides, Naḥmanides. ''Commentary on the Torah''. Jerusalem, circa 1270. In, e.g., ''Ramban (Nachmanides): Commentary on the Torah: Genesis.'' Translated by Charles B. Chavel, volume 1, pages 281–312. New York: Shilo Publishing House, 1971.
*''Midrash ha-Ne'lam (The Midrash of the Concealed)''. Spain, 13th century. In, e.g., ''Zohar'', part 1, pages 121a–30a. Mantua, 1558–1560. In, e.g., ''The Zohar: Pritzker Edition''. Translation and commentary by Nathan Wolski, volume 10, pages 366–401. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2016.
*
*Emily Dickinson. s:He touched me, so I live to know, ''Poem 506 (He touched me, so I live to know)''. 1862. In ''The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson''. Edited by Thomas H. Johnson, page 246. New York: Little, Brown & Co., 1960.
*Samuel David Luzzatto (Shadal). ''Commentary on the Torah.'' Padua, 1871. In, e.g., Samuel David Luzzatto. ''Torah Commentary''. Translated and annotated by Eliyahu Munk, volume 1, pages 217–40. New York: Lambda Publishers, 2012.
*Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter. ''Sefat Emet''. Góra Kalwaria (Ger), Poland, before 1906. Excerpted in ''The Language of Truth: The Torah Commentary of Sefat Emet''. Translated and interpreted by Arthur Green, pages 33–36. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1998. Reprinted 2012.
*Hermann Cohen. ''Religion of Reason: Out of the Sources of Judaism''. Translated with an introduction by Simon Kaplan; introductory essays by Leo Strauss, page 301. New York: Ungar, 1972. Reprinted Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995. Originally published as ''Religion der Vernunft aus den Quellen des Judentums''. Leipzig: Gustav Fock, 1919.
*Alexander Alan Steinbach. ''Sabbath Queen: Fifty-four Bible Talks to the Young Based on Each Portion of the Pentateuch'', pages 14–17. New York: Behrman's Jewish Book House, 1936.
*Thomas Mann. ''Joseph and His Brothers''. Translated by John E. Woods (translator), John E. Woods, pages 11, 58, 93–94, 100, 127–28, 130, 133–34, 173, 185, 187, 203, 339–43, 353–54, 394–95, 476–77, 492–93, 496–98, 623, 779, 806. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. Originally published as ''Joseph und seine Brüder''. Stockholm: Bermann-Fischer Verlag, 1943.
*Manfred R. Lehmann. "Abraham's Purchase of Machpelah and Hittite Law." ''Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research'', volume 129 (1953): pages 15–18.
*Robert A. Kraft
“A Note on the Oracle of Rebecca (Gen. XXV. 23).”
''The Journal of Theological Studies'', volume 13 (number 2) (1962): pages 318–20. *Walter Orenstein and Hertz Frankel. ''Torah and Tradition: A Bible Textbook for Jewish Youth: Volume I: Bereishis'', pages 52–60. New York: Hebrew Publishing Company, 1964. *Delmore Schwartz
"Sarah."
In ''Selected Poems: Summer Knowledge''. New Directions, 1967.
*Martin Buber. ''On the Bible: Eighteen studies'', pages 22–43. New York: Schocken Books, 1968.
*R. David Freedman
"A New Approach to the Nuzi Sistership Contract."
''Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society'', volume 2 (number 2) (1970): pages 77–85. *Wolfgang M.W. Roth. "The Wooing of Rebekah. A Tradition-Critical Study of Genesis 24." ''Catholic Biblical Quarterly'', volume 34 (1972): pages 177–87. *R. David Freedman. "‘Put Your Hand Under My Thigh'—The Patriarchal Oath." ''Biblical Archaeology Review'', volume 2 (number 2) (June 1976). *Seän M. Warner
“The Patriarchs and Extra-Biblical Sources.”
''Journal for the Study of the Old Testament'', volume 1, number 2 (June 1976): pages 50–61. *J. Maxwell Miller
“The Patriarchs and Extra-Biblical Sources: a Response.”
''Journal for the Study of the Old Testament'', volume 1, number 2 (June 1976): pages 62–66. *Prudence Allen, Christine Garside Allen. "Who was Rebekah?" In ''Beyond Androcentrism: New Essays on Women and Religion''. Edited by Rita Gross, Rita M. Gross, pages 183–216. Missoula, Montana: Scholars, 1977. *John Tracy Luke
“Abraham and the Iron Age: Reflections on the New Patriarchal Studies.”
''Journal for the Study of the Old Testament'', volume 2, number 4 (February 1977): pages 35–47. *Nechama Leibowitz, Neḥama Leibowitz. ''Studies in Bereshit (Genesis)'', pages 207–56. Jerusalem: The World Zionist Organization, 1981. Reprinted as ''New Studies in the Weekly Parasha''. Lambda Publishers, 2010. *Walter Brueggemann. ''Genesis: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching'', pages 194–203. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982. *Nahum M. Sarna. "Genesis Chapter 23: The Cave of Machpelah." ''Hebrew Studies'', volume 23 (1982): pages 17–21. *K.T. Aitken. "The Wooing of Rebekah: A Study in the Development of a Tradition." ''Journal for the Study of the Old Testament'', volume 30 (1984): pages 3–23. *Mary Donovan Turner. "Rebekah: Ancestor of Faith." ''Lexington Theological Quarterly'', volume 20, number 2 (April 1985): pages 42–50. *Pinchas Hacohen Peli, Pinchas H. Peli. ''Torah Today: A Renewed Encounter with Scripture'', pages 21–24. Washington, D.C.: B'nai B'rith Books, 1987. *Marc Gellman. "Rebekah and the Camel Who Made No Noise." In ''Does God Have a Big Toe? Stories About Stories in the Bible'', pages 53–56. New York: HarperCollins, 1989. *Nahum M. Sarna. ''The JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis: The Traditional Hebrew Text with the New JPS Translation'', pages 157–77, 395–97. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989. *Raymond Westbrook. ''Property and Family in Biblical Law'', pages 24–35. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1991. *Elizabeth Bloch-Smith. "Burials." In ''The
*Ellen Frankel. ''The Five Books of Miriam: A Woman’s Commentary on the Torah'', pages 31–38. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1996.
*Gunther Plaut, W. Gunther Plaut. ''The Haftarah Commentary'', pages 44–53. New York: UAHC Press, 1996.
*Sorel Goldberg Loeb and Barbara Binder Kadden. ''Teaching Torah: A Treasury of Insights and Activities'', pages 33–38. Denver: A.R.E. Publishing, 1997.
*Susan Freeman. ''Teaching Jewish Virtues: Sacred Sources and Arts Activities'', pages 102–18, 165–78. Springfield Township, Union County, New Jersey, Springfield, New Jersey: A.R.E. Publishing, 1999. (Genesis 23:23–24; 24:25, 53).
*John S. Kselman. "Genesis." In ''The HarperCollins Bible Commentary''. Edited by James Luther Mays, James L. Mays, page 97. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, revised edition, 2000.
*Rona Shapiro. "Woman's Life, Woman's Truth." In ''The Women's Torah Commentary: New Insights from Women Rabbis on the 54 Weekly Torah Portions''. Edited by Elyse Goldstein, pages 70–74. Woodstock, Vermont: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2000.
*Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman. “Searching for the Patriarchs.” In ''The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts'', pages 27–47. New York: Free Press (publisher), The Free Press, 2001.
*Lainie Blum Cogan and Judy Weiss. ''Teaching Haftarah: Background, Insights, and Strategies'', pages 102–09. Denver: A.R.E. Publishing, 2002.
*Michael Fishbane. ''The JPS Bible Commentary: Haftarot'', pages 29–34. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2002.
*Tikva Frymer-Kensky. “The Hand that Rocks the Cradle: The Rivka Stories.” In ''Reading the Women of the Bible'', pages 5–23. New York: Schocken Books, 2002.
*Admiel Kosman
“The Story of a Giant Story: The Winding Way of Og King of Bashan in the Jewish Haggadic Tradition.”
''Hebrew Union College Annual'', volume 73 (2002): pages 157–90. *Robert Alter. ''The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary'', pages 113–29. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2004. *Jon D. Levenson. "Genesis." In ''The Jewish Study Bible''. Edited by Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, pages 47–53. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. *Lieve M. Teugels. ''Bible and Midrash: The Story of "The Wooing of Rebekah" (Genesis 24)''. Leuven: Peeters (publishing company), Peeters Publishers, 2004. *''Professors on the Parashah: Studies on the Weekly Torah Reading'' Edited by Leib Moscovitz, pages 47–53. Jerusalem: Urim Publications, 2005. *W. Gunther Plaut. ''The Torah: A Modern Commentary: Revised Edition''. Revised edition edited by David E. Stern, David E.S. Stern, pages 153–71. New York: Union for Reform Judaism, 2006. *Suzanne A. Brody. "Rebecca's Goodbye." In ''Dancing in the White Spaces: The Yearly Torah Cycle and More Poems'', page 66. Shelbyville, Kentucky: Wasteland Press, 2007. *Terence E. Fretheim. ''Abraham: Trials of Family and Faith''. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 2007. *Shmuel Goldin. ''Unlocking the Torah Text: Bereishit'', pages 99–121. Jerusalem: Gefen Publishing House, 2007.
*James Kugel, James L. Kugel. ''How To Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now'', pages 97, 121, 133–55, 166, 400. New York: Free Press, 2007.
*''The Torah: A Women's Commentary''. Edited by Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Andrea Weiss (rabbi), Andrea L. Weiss, pages 111–32. New York: Union for Reform Judaism, URJ Press, 2008.
*Rachel Brodie. "When Gender Varies: A Curious Case of Kere and Ketiv: Parashat Chayei Sarah (Genesis 23:1–25:18)." In ''Torah Queeries: Weekly Commentaries on the Hebrew Bible''. Edited by Gregg Drinkwater, Joshua Lesser, and David Shneer; foreword by Judith Plaskow, pages 34–37. New York: New York University Press, 2009.
*Reuven Hammer. ''Entering Torah: Prefaces to the Weekly Torah Portion'', pages 29–34. New York: Gefen Publishing House, 2009.
*Jonathan Sacks. ''Covenant & Conversation: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible: Genesis: The Book of Beginnings'', pages 121–44. New Milford, Connecticut: Maggid Books, 2009.
*John H. Walton. "Genesis." In ''Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary''. Edited by John H. Walton, volume 1, pages 99–104. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2009.
*Henrietta L. Wiley
“They Save Themselves Alone: Faith and Loss in the Stories of Abraham and Job.”
''Journal for the Study of the Old Testament'', volume 34 (number 2) (December 2009): pages 115–29. *Karolien Vermeulen
“The 'Song' of the Servant—Gen 24:23.”
''Vetus Testamentum'', volume 61 (number 3) (2011): pages 499–504. *Calum Carmichael. ''The Book of Numbers: A Critique of Genesis'', pages 7, 19–20, 22, 37, 91–92, 99, 105–06, 109–10, 112–13, 115, 117–18, 120–22, 124, 141, 156, 162, 191. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012. *William G. Dever. ''The Lives of Ordinary People in Ancient Israel: When Archaeology and the Bible Intersect'', page 137. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2012.
*Shmuel Herzfeld. "The Prohibition of Intermarriage." In ''Fifty-Four Pick Up: Fifteen-Minute Inspirational Torah Lessons'', pages 24–28. Jerusalem: Gefen Publishing House, 2012.
*Jon D. Levenson. ''Inheriting Abraham: The Legacy of the Patriarch in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam''. 2012.
*Jonathan Sacks. ''Lessons in Leadership: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible'', pages 23–26. New Milford, Connecticut: Maggid Books, 2015.
*“The Hittites: Between Tradition and History.” ''Biblical Archaeology Review'', volume 42 (number 2) (March/April 2016): pages 28–40, 68.
*Jean-Pierre Isbouts. ''Archaeology of the Bible: The Greatest Discoveries From Genesis to the Roman Era'', page 58. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, National Geographic, 2016.
*Jonathan Sacks. ''Essays on Ethics: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible'', pages 27–31. New Milford, Connecticut: Maggid Books, 2016.
*Zvi Grumet. ''Genesis: From Creation to Covenant'', pages 245–66. Jerusalem: Maggid Books, 2017.
*Shai Held. ''The Heart of Torah, Volume 1: Essays on the Weekly Torah Portion: Genesis and Exodus'', pages 40–48. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2017.
*Ekaterina E. Kozlova
“Abraham's Burial (Genesis 25.9): An Idyllic Burial or a Dispute over Inheritance?”
''Journal for the Study of the Old Testament'', volume 42, number 2 (December 2017): pages 139–53. *Steven Levy and Sarah Levy. ''The JPS Rashi Discussion Torah Commentary'', pages 15–17. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2017. *Pekka Pitkänen
“Ancient Israelite Population Economy: Ger, Toshav, Nakhri and Karat as Settler Colonial Categories.”
''Journal for the Study of the Old Testament'', volume 42, number 2 (December 2017): pages 139–53. *Jeffrey K. Salkin. ''The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary'', pages 21–25. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2017. *Bill Dauster
"Why Did Eliezer Change His Story?"
''Washington Jewish Week'', November 17, 2022, page 24. *Liana Finck. ''Let There Be Light: The Real Story of Her Creation'', pages 209–35. New York: Random House, 2022. *Abigail Pogrebin and Dov Linzer. ''It Takes Two to Torah: An Orthodox Rabbi and Reform Journalist Discuss and Debate Their Way Through the Five Books of Moses'', pages 31–35. Bedford, New York: Fig Tree Books, 2024.
Masoretic text and 1917 JPS translationHear the parashah chanted
Academy for Jewish Religion, CaliforniaAcademy for Jewish Religion, New YorkAish.com
American Jewish University—Ziegler School of Rabbinic StudiesChabad.orgHadarJewish Theological SeminaryMyJewishLearning.comPardes from JerusalemReconstructing Judaism
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{{Book of Genesis Weekly Torah readings in Cheshvan Weekly Torah readings from Genesis Abraham
. '' peh'')). Parashat Chayei Sarah has one "closed portion" (, ''setumah'') division (abbreviated with the Hebrew letter (''
samekh
Samekh or samech is the fifteenth Letter (alphabet), letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician alphabet, Phoenician ''sāmek'' 𐤎, Hebrew alphabet, Hebrew ''sāmeḵ'' , Aramaic alphabet, Aramaic ''samek'' 𐡎, and Syriac alphabet, Syr ...
'')) within the "open portion" division of the second reading. The long first open portion spans the first five readings. The second open portion coincides with the sixth reading. The third open portion coincides with the seventh reading.
First reading—Genesis 23:1–16
In the first reading, Sarah lived 127 years and died inHebron
Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...
, and Abraham mourned for her. Abraham asked the Hittites
The Hittites () were an Anatolian peoples, Anatolian Proto-Indo-Europeans, Indo-European people who formed one of the first major civilizations of the Bronze Age in West Asia. Possibly originating from beyond the Black Sea, they settled in mo ...
to sell him a burial site, and the Hittites invited him to bury his dead in the choicest of their burial places. Abraham asked the Hittites to intercede for him with Ephron, son of Zohar, to sell Abraham the cave of Machpelah
The Cave of the Patriarchs or Tomb of the Patriarchs, known to Jews by its Biblical name Cave of Machpelah () and to Muslims as the Sanctuary of Abraham (), is a series of caves situated south of Jerusalem in the heart of the Old City of Hebr ...
at full price. Before the Hittites at the town gate, Ephron offered to give Abraham the field and the cave that was in it, but Abraham insisted on paying the price of the land. Ephron named the value of the land at 400 shekel
A shekel or sheqel (; , , plural , ) is an ancient Mesopotamian coin, usually of silver. A shekel was first a unit of weight—very roughly 11 grams (0.35 ozt)—and became currency in ancient Tyre, Carthage and Hasmonean Judea.
Name
The wo ...
s of silver, and Abraham accepted Ephron's terms, gave him the silver, and purchased the land. The first reading ends here.
Second reading—Genesis 23:17–24:9
In the second reading, Abraham thus established his title to the land through purchase, and he buried Sarah in the cave. Abraham was old and instructed his senior servant to put his hand under Abraham's thigh and swear byGod
In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...
that he would not take a wife for Isaac from the Canaan
CanaanThe current scholarly edition of the Septuagint, Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interprets. 2. ed. / recogn. et emendavit Robert Hanhart. Stuttgart : D ...
ites, but would go to the land of Abraham's birth to get Isaac a wife. The servant asked if the woman did not consent to follow him to Canaan, should he take Isaac back to the land from which Abraham came? Abraham told him on no account to take Isaac back there, for God—who took Abraham from there and promised Abraham the land of Canaan
CanaanThe current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interprets. 2. ed. / recogn. et emendavit Robert Hanhart. Stuttgart : Dt. Bibelges ...
for his offspring—would send an angel
An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...
before the servant and allow him successfully to get a wife for Isaac from there, and if the woman did not consent to follow him, he would then be clear of his oath. So the servant put his hand under Abraham's thigh and swore to him as Abraham had asked.. The second reading ends here.
Third reading—Genesis 24:10–26
In the third reading, the servant took Abraham's bounty and ten of Abraham's camels and traveled toAram-Naharaim
Aram-Naharaim ( ''ʾĂram Nahărayim'') is the biblical term for an ancient land along the great bend of the Euphrates River.
It is mentioned five times in the Hebrew BibleGenesis 24:10; Deuteronomy 23:4; Judges 3:8,10; 1 Chronicles 19:6; Psalm ...
, the city of Nahor. He made the camels kneel by the well outside the city at evening, when women come out to draw water. The servant asked God to grant that the maiden whom he would ask to draw water for him and who replied by also offering to water his camels might be the one whom God had decreed for Isaac. He had scarcely finished speaking when Rebekah
Rebecca () appears in the Hebrew Bible as the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob and Esau. According to biblical tradition, Rebecca's father was Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram, also called Aram-Naharaim. Rebecca's brother was Laban t ...
, the beautiful virgin daughter of Abraham's nephew Bethuel
Bethuel ( – ''Bəṯūʾēl''), in the Hebrew Bible, was an Aramean man, the youngest son of Nahor and Milcah, the nephew of Abraham, and the father of Laban and Rebecca.
Bethuel was also a town in the territory of the tribe of Simeon, ...
, came out with her jar on her shoulder, went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up. The servant ran toward her and asked to sip a little water from her jar, and she quickly let him drink, and when he had drunk his fill, she offered to draw water for his camels until they finished drinking. When the camels had finished drinking, the servant took a gold nose ring and two gold bands for her arms and asked her whose daughter she was and whether there was room in her father's house for him to spend the night. She identified herself and told him that there was plenty of straw and feed and room at her home for him to spend the night. The servant bowed low to God. The third reading ends here.
Fourth reading—Genesis 24:27–52
In the fourth reading, the servant blessed God for steadfast faithfulness to Abraham. Rebekah ran and told everything to her mother's household. Rebekah's brother Laban ran out to the servant at the spring, and when he saw the nose-ring and the bands on Rebekah's arms, and when he heard his sister tell the story, Laban invited the servant to their house, had the camels unloaded and fed, and had water brought to bathe the feet of the servant and his party. But the servant would not eat before he had told his tale. The servant told how God had greatly blessed Abraham with sheep and cattle, silver and gold, male and female slaves, camels and asses, and a son and sole heir. The servant told how Abraham made him swear to go to Abraham's kindred to get Isaac a wife and that God would send an angel to make his errand successful. And the servant told how he met Rebekah at the well. The servant then asked whether or not they meant to treat Abraham with true kindness, and Laban and Bethuel answered that God had decreed the matter and Rebekah could go and be Isaac's wife. The servant bowed low to God. The fourth reading ends here.
Fifth reading—Genesis 24:53–67
In the fifth reading, the servant brought out silver, gold, and garments for Rebekah and presents for her brother and her mother. Then the servant and his party ate, drank, and spent the night. The following day, the servant asked to leave to return to Abraham, but Laban and her mother requested that Rebekah remain for a period of time. The servant persisted, so they called Rebekah to ask her, and she agreed to go. So they blessed Rebekah—wishing that her children be thousands of myriads and seize the gates of their foes—and they sent off Rebekah and her nurse with the servant. Isaac had just come back from the vicinity of Beer-lahai-roi to his home in the Negeb and was out walking in the field toward evening when he looked up and saw camels approaching. Raising her eyes, Rebekah saw Isaac, alighted from the camel, and asked the servant who the man was. The servant said that Isaac was his master, so she covered herself with her veil. The servant told Isaac everything that had happened, and Isaac brought her into Sarah's tent and took her as his wife. Isaac loved Rebekah and found comfort after his mother's death. The fifth reading and the long first open portion end here with the end of chapter 24.
Sixth reading—Genesis 25:1–11
In the sixth reading, in chapter 25, Abraham took another wife, namedKeturah
Keturah (, ''Qəṭūrā'', possibly meaning "incense"; ) was a wife (1917 Jewish Publication Society of America translation). "And Abraham took another wife, and her name was Keturah...." and a concubine (1917 Jewish Publication Society of A ...
, who bore him Zimran
Zimran (; , ), also known as Zambran, was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the first son of the marriage of Abraham, the patriarch of the Israelites, to Keturah, whom he wed after the death of Sarah. Zimran had five other brothers, Jokshan, Med ...
, Jokshan
Jokshan (, ''yoqšān'') was, according to the Bible, a son of Abraham (Avraham) and his wife or concubine Keturah, whom he wed after the death of Sarah. Jokshan had five brothers: Zimran, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah; as well as two hal ...
, Medan
Medan ( , ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of the Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province of North Sumatra. The nearby Strait of Malacca, Port of Belawan, and Kualanamu International Airport make Medan a regional hub and multi ...
, Midian
Midian (; ; , ''Madiam''; Taymanitic: 𐪃𐪕𐪚𐪌 ''MDYN''; ''Mīḏyān'') is a geographical region in West Asia, located in northwestern Saudi Arabia. mentioned in the Tanakh and Quran. William G. Dever states that biblical Midian was ...
, Ishbak, and Shuah. Abraham willed all that he owned to Isaac, but to his sons, by concubines, he gave gifts while he was still living, and he sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the East. Abraham lived 175 years and died old and contented. Isaac and Ishmael
In the Bible, biblical Book of Genesis, Ishmael (; ; ; ) is the first son of Abraham. His mother was Hagar, the handmaiden of Abraham's wife Sarah. He died at the age of 137. Traditionally, he is seen as the ancestor of the Arabs.
Within Isla ...
buried him in the cave of Machpelah with Sarah. After Abraham's death, God blessed Isaac and he settled near Beer-lahai-roi. The sixth reading and the second open portion end here.
Seventh reading—Genesis 25:12–18
In the seventh reading, Ishmael had 12 sons, who became chieftains of 12 tribes. In the ''maftir
Maftir () is the last person called up to the Torah on Shabbat and holiday mornings: this person also reads (or at least recites the blessings over) the ''haftarah'' portion from a related section of the Nevi'im (prophetic books).
Informally, t ...
'' () reading that concludes the parashah, Ishmael lived 137 years and then died. Ishmael's progeny dwelt in lands all the way from Havilah
Havilah () refers to both a land and people in several books of the Bible; one is mentioned in Genesis 2:10–11, while the other is mentioned in the Generations of Noah (Genesis 10:7).
In Genesis 2:10–11, Havilah is associated with the Garden ...
, near Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
, to Asshur. The seventh reading, the third open portion, and the parashah end here.
Readings according to the triennial cycle
Jews who read the Torah according to thetriennial cycle
The Triennial cycle of Torah reading may refer to either
* The historical practice in ancient Israel by which the entire Torah was read in serial fashion over a three-year period, or
* The practice adopted by many Reform, Conservative, Reconstruct ...
of Torah reading read the parashah according to the following schedule:
In inner-Biblical interpretation
The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these Biblical sources:Genesis chapter 23
Kiriath-arba, mentioned in Genesis 23:2, literally means “village of Arba.”Joshua
Joshua ( ), also known as Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' Literal translation, lit. 'Yahweh is salvation'), Jehoshua, or Josue, functioned as Moses' assistant in the books of Book of Exodus, Exodus and ...
14:15 explains that Arba was the great man among the Anakites. Similarly, Joshua 15:13 reports that Arba was the father of Anak, and Joshua 21:11 tells that Arba was the father of the Anokites.
The 400 shekels of silver that Abraham paid Ephron the Hittite to buy the cave of Machpelah and adjoining land in Genesis 23:14–16 far exceeds the 100 pieces of silver that Jacob
Jacob, later known as Israel, is a Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions. He first appears in the Torah, where he is described in the Book of Genesis as a son of Isaac and Rebecca. Accordingly, alongside his older fraternal twin brother E ...
paid the children of Hamor for the parcel of ground where he had spread his tent outside the city of Shechem
Shechem ( ; , ; ), also spelled Sichem ( ; ) and other variants, was an ancient city in the southern Levant. Mentioned as a Canaanite city in the Amarna Letters, it later appears in the Hebrew Bible as the first capital of the Kingdom of Israe ...
in Genesis 33:18–19; the 50 shekels of silver that King David
David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament.
The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...
paid Araunah the Jebusite
The Jebusites (; ) were, according to the Book of Joshua and Books of Samuel from the Hebrew Bible, a Canaanite tribe that inhabited Jerusalem, called Jebus () before the conquest initiated by Joshua (, ) and completed by David (). According to s ...
for Araunah's threshing floor, oxen, and wood in 2 Samuel
The Book of Samuel () is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings) that constitute a theological ...
24:18–24 (but 1 Chronicles
The Book of Chronicles ( , "words of the days") is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Chronicles) in the Christian Old Testament. Chronicles is the final book of the Hebrew Bible, concluding the third section of the Jewish Tan ...
21:24 reports cost 600 shekels of ''gold''); and the 17 shekels of silver that Jeremiah
Jeremiah ( – ), also called Jeremias, was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah authored the Book of Jeremiah, book that bears his name, the Books of Kings, and the Book of Lamentations, with t ...
paid his cousin Hanamel for his field in Anathoth
Anathoth is the name of one of the Levitical cities given to "the children of Aaron" in the tribe of Benjamin (; ). Residents were called Antothites or Anetothites.
Name
The name of this town may be derived from a Canaanite goddess, `Anat. It ...
in the land of Benjamin
Benjamin ( ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the younger of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel, and Jacob's twe ...
in Jeremiah
Jeremiah ( – ), also called Jeremias, was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah authored the Book of Jeremiah, book that bears his name, the Books of Kings, and the Book of Lamentations, with t ...
32:7–9.
The cave of Machpelah in which Genesis 23:18 reports Abraham buried Sarah later became the burial site for Abraham himself (as reported in Genesis 25:8–10) and thereafter Isaac, Rebekah, Leah
Leah () appears in the Hebrew Bible as one of the two wives of the Biblical patriarch Jacob. Leah was Jacob's first wife, and the older sister of his second (and favored) wife Rachel. She is the mother of Jacob's first son Reuben. She has thr ...
, and Jacob (as reported in Genesis 49:29–31).
Genesis chapter 24
The story of Abraham's servant's mission to get a wife for Isaac is told twice, once by the narrator in Genesis 24:1–27, and then a second time by Abraham's servant in Genesis 24:34–48.Isaac Abrabanel
Isaac ben Judah Abarbanel (; 1437–1508), commonly referred to as Abarbanel (; also spelled Abravanel, Avravanel or Abrabanel), was a Portuguese Jewish statesman, philosopher, Bible commentator, and financier.
Name
Some debate exists over ...
and other commentators noted a number of differences between the two recountings.
Abraham's servant's meeting (on behalf of Isaac) of Rebekah at the well in Genesis 24:11–27 is the Torah's first of several meetings at watering holes that lead to marriage. Also of the same type scene
A type scene is a literary convention employed by a narrator across a set of scenes, or related to scenes (place, action) already familiar to the audience. The similarities with, and differences from, the established type are used to illuminate dev ...
are the meeting of Jacob and Rachel
Rachel () was a Bible, Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph (Genesis), Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban (Bible), Laban. Her older siste ...
at the well in Genesis 29:1–12 and the meeting of Moses
In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...
and Zipporah
Zipporah is mentioned in the Book of Exodus as the wife of Moses, and the daughter of Jethro (biblical figure), Jethro, the priest and prince of Midian.
She is the mother of Moses' two sons: Eliezer and Gershom.
In the Book of Chronicles, two of ...
at the well in Exodus 2:15–21. Each involves (1) a trip to a distant land, (2) a stop at a well, (3) a young woman coming to the well to draw water, (4) a heroic drawing of water, (5) the young woman going home to report to her family, (6) the visiting man brought to the family, and (7) a subsequent marriage.
In early nonrabbinic interpretation
The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these early nonrabbinic sources:Genesis chapter 23
TheBook of Jubilees
The Book of Jubilees is an ancient Jewish apocryphal text of 50 chapters (1,341 verses), considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, as well as by Haymanot Judaism, a denomination observed by members of Ethiopian Jewish ...
reported that Abraham endured ten trials and was found faithful and patient in spirit. Jubilees listed eight of the trials: (1) leaving his country, (2) the famine, (3) the wealth of kings, (4) his wife taken from him, (5) circumcision, (6) Hagar and Ishmael driven away, (7) the binding of Isaac, and (8) buying the land to bury Sarah.
Genesis chapter 24
Josephus
Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...
reported that Rebekah told Abraham's servant, "my father was Bethuel, but he is dead; and Laban is my brother; and, together with my mother, takes care of all our family affairs, and is the guardian of my virginity."
In classical rabbinic interpretation
The parashah is discussed in theserabbi
A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...
nic sources from the era of the Mishnah
The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...
and the Talmud
The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...
:
Genesis chapter 23
Amidrash
''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; or ''midrashot' ...
noted that Genesis 23:1 recorded that "the life of Sarah was a hundred and seven and twenty years" rather than "one-hundred-twenty-seven years," and deduced that as the righteous are whole and unblemished by sin, so are their years reported whole in the Bible. Thus the midrash taught that at the age of 20, Sarah was as at the age of 7 in beauty, and at the age of 100, she was as at the age of 20 in sin (the age below which Providence does not punish for sin).
Rabbi Haggai said in Rabbi Isaac's name that all of the Matriarchs were prophets.
Rabbi Abba bar Kahana interpreted the words, "The sun rises, and the sun sets," in . ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; or ''midrashot' ...
Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes ( ) is one of the Ketuvim ('Writings') of the Hebrew Bible and part of the Wisdom literature of the Christian Old Testament. The title commonly used in English is a Latin transliteration of the Greek translation of the Hebrew word ...
1:5 to teach that before God causes the sun of one righteous person to set, God causes the sun of another righteous person to rise. Thus, a midrash taught that before God allowed Sarah's sun to set, God caused Rebekah's sun to rise. Thus Genesis 22:20–23 first says, "Behold, Milcah, she also has borne children . . . and Bethuel begot Rebekah," and after that, Genesis 23:1 says, "and the lifetime of Sarah was a hundred years . . . ."
Once while lecturing, Rabbi Akiva
Akiva ben Joseph (Mishnaic Hebrew: ; – 28 September 135 CE), also known as Rabbi Akiva (), was a leading Jewish scholar and sage, a '' tanna'' of the latter part of the first century and the beginning of the second. Rabbi Akiva was a leadin ...
asked why Esther
Esther (; ), originally Hadassah (; ), is the eponymous heroine of the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible. According to the biblical narrative, which is set in the Achaemenid Empire, the Persian king Ahasuerus falls in love with Esther and ma ...
deserved to reign over 127 provinces (as indicated by Esther
Esther (; ), originally Hadassah (; ), is the eponymous heroine of the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible. According to the biblical narrative, which is set in the Achaemenid Empire, the Persian king Ahasuerus falls in love with Esther and ma ...
1:1). Rabbi Akiva taught that the reason was this: Let Esther, the descendant of Sarah, who lived 127 years (as Genesis 23:1 reports), come and reign over 127 provinces.
Noting that Genesis 23:2 reports that "Sarah died in Kiriat-arba," literally, "city of four," a midrash taught that the city had four names—Eshcol, Mamre, Kiriat-arba, and Hebron. midrash taught that it was called Kiriat-arba because four righteous men dwelt there—Aner, Eshcol, Mamre, and Abraham; four righteous men were circumcised there—Abraham, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; four righteous men were buried there—Adam
Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam).
According to Christianity, Adam ...
, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and four matriarchs were buried there—Eve
Eve is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the universe and its inhabitants came to be. Creation myths develop through oral traditions and there ...
, Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah.
A midrash deduced from the words "Abraham ''came'' to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her" in Genesis 23:2 that Abraham came directly from Mount Moriah
Moriah (Hebrew language, Hebrew: , ''Mōrīyya''; Arabic: ﻣﺮﻭﻩ, ''Marwah'') is the name given to a region in the Book of Genesis, where the binding of Isaac by Abraham is said to have taken place. Jews identify the region mentioned in G ...
and the binding of Isaac
The Binding of Isaac (), or simply "The Binding" (), is a story from Book of Genesis#Patriarchal age (chapters 12–50), chapter 22 of the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. In the biblical narrative, God in Abrahamic religions, God orders A ...
. The midrash told that at the very moment in Genesis 22:11–12 that the angel of the Lord stayed Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, the Satan
Satan, also known as the Devil, is a devilish entity in Abrahamic religions who seduces humans into sin (or falsehood). In Judaism, Satan is seen as an agent subservient to God, typically regarded as a metaphor for the '' yetzer hara'', or ' ...
appeared to Sarah in the guise of Isaac. When Sarah saw him, she asked what Abraham had done to him. He told Sarah that Abraham had taken him to a mountain, built an altar, placed wood upon it, tied him down on it, and took a knife to slaughter him, and had God not told him not to lay a hand on him, Abraham would have slaughtered him. As soon as he finished speaking, Sarah's soul departed. Similarly, reading Genesis 23:2, "And Abraham came to mourn for Sarah," the Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer
Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer (, 'Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer'; abbreviated , 'PRE') is an aggadic-midrashic work of Torah exegesis and retellings of biblical stories. Traditionally, the work is attributed to the tanna Eliezer ben Hurcanus and his scho ...
reported that Abraham came from Mount Moriah to find that Sarah had died. When Abraham set out from Mount Moriah in peace, the anger of Sammael (the Satan) was kindled, for he saw that his desire to frustrate Abraham's offering had not been realized. So Sammael told Sarah that Abraham had killed Isaac and offered him as a burnt offering upon the altar. Sarah began to weep and to cry aloud three times, corresponding to the three sustained notes (of the shofar
A shofar ( ; from , ) is an ancient musical horn, typically a ram's horn, used for Jewish ritual purposes. Like the modern bugle, the shofar lacks pitch-altering devices, with all pitch control done by varying the player's embouchure. The ...
), and she gave forth three howlings corresponding to the three disconnected short notes (of the shofar), and her soul fled, and she died.
The Gemara
The Gemara (also transliterated Gemarah, or in Yiddish Gemore) is an essential component of the Talmud, comprising a collection of rabbinical analyses and commentaries on the Mishnah and presented in 63 books. The term is derived from the Aram ...
deduced from the use of the verb "came" in the account of Genesis 23:2, "And Abraham ''came'' to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her," that Abraham delayed Sarah's funeral until he could travel to where her body lay. The Gemara further taught that Sarah would have been pleased that Abraham delayed her funeral so that he could eulogize her.
Rav Ashi
Rav Ashi () ("Rabbi Ashi") (352–427) was a Babylonian Jewish rabbi, of the sixth generation of amoraim. He reestablished the Academy at Sura and was the first editor of the Babylonian Talmud.
The original pronunciation of his name may h ...
deduced from Genesis 23:3 that as long as a person has the obligation to bury a body, it is as if the corpse lay before the person. Genesis 23:3 says: "And Abraham rose up from before his dead," indicating that he departed from the presence of Sarah's body. And then Genesis 23:4 says: "that I may bury my dead out of my sight," showing that Abraham still spoke as if Sarah's corpse were lying before him. (And this status affects a person's obligation to perform other commandments.) Similarly, Rabbi Joḥanan taught that we learn from the words, "And Abraham rose up from before his dead and spoke," in Genesis 23:3 that one whose dead lies before him is exempt from reciting the Shema
''Shema Yisrael'' (''Shema Israel'' or ''Sh'ma Yisrael''; , “Hear, O Israel”) is a Jewish prayer (known as the Shema) that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer services. Its first verse encapsulates the monothe ...
(as the verse implies that until Sarah's burial, Abraham did nothing but make arrangements for it).
The Gemara expanded on the conversation between God and Satan in Job
Work, labor (labour in Commonwealth English), occupation or job is the intentional activity people perform to support the needs and desires of themselves, other people, or organizations. In the context of economics, work can be seen as the huma ...
1:6–8 to teach that Abraham's patience in receiving the Promised Land even in the face of the need to buy land to bury his wife in Genesis 23:3–16 showed faith comparable to that of Job
Work, labor (labour in Commonwealth English), occupation or job is the intentional activity people perform to support the needs and desires of themselves, other people, or organizations. In the context of economics, work can be seen as the huma ...
. Job 1:6–7 begins: "Now one day the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came among them. And the Lord said to Satan: 'From where do you come?' Then Satan answered. . . ." The Gemara taught that Satan then told God: "Sovereign of the Universe, I have traversed the whole world and found none so faithful as Your servant Abraham. For You said to him, ‘Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for to you will I give it,' and even so, when he was unable to find any place in which to bury Sarah until he bought one for 400 shekels of silver, he did not complain against Your ways." Only then did God say to Satan the words of Job 1:8, "Have you considered my servant Job? For there is none like him in the earth . . . ."
Rabbi Berekiah and Rabbi Ḥelbo taught in the name of Rabbi Samuel bar Naḥman that the Vale of Siddim (mentioned in Genesis 14:3 in connection with the battle between the four kings and the five kings) was called the Valley of Shaveh (which means "as one") because there all the peoples of the world agreed as one, felled cedars, erected a large dais for Abraham, set him on top, and praised him, saying (in the words of Genesis 23:6,) "Hear us, my lord: you are a prince of God among us." They told Abraham that he was king over them and a god to them. But Abraham replied that the world did not lack its King, and the world did not lack its God.
A midrash taught that Abraham said (with the words of Genesis 22:1 and 22:11), "'Here I am'—ready for priesthood, ready for kingship" (ready to serve God in whatever role God chose), and Abraham attained both priesthood and kingship. He attained priesthood, as Psalm 110:4 says, "The Lord has sworn, and will not repent: 'You are a priest forever after the manner of Melchizedek." And he attained kingship, as Genesis 23:6 says, "You are a mighty prince among us."
Rav and Samuel
Samuel is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the biblical judges to the United Kingdom of Israel under Saul, and again in the monarchy's transition from Saul to David. He is venera ...
differed as to its meaning of "Machpelah"—meaning "double cave"—in Genesis 23:9. One held that the cave consisted of two chambers one within the other, and the other held that it consisted of a lower and upper chamber. According to one, the term "double cave" meant that it was the burial place of multiple couples—Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Leah.
Similarly, Rabbi Jehudah taught that the three Patriarchs
The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Roman Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in ...
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob made covenants with the people of the Land of Israel. In Abraham's case, this is how it happened: When the three angels visited him (as reported in Genesis 18), Abraham ran to meet them and prepare for them a great banquet. He told Sarah to prepare cakes for them, but when Sarah was kneading, she perceived that the manner of women was upon her, so Abraham did not serve his visitors any of the cakes. Rather, Abraham ran to fetch a calf, but the calf fled from him and went into the cave of Machpelah. Abraham chased in after the calf and found Adam and Eve lying there upon their beds. Lights were kindled above them, and a sweet scent was upon them. Abraham consequently sought to get the cave as a burial possession. He spoke to the sons of Jebus to purchase the cave from them. The men did not accept his request at first. He began to bow down and prostrate himself to them, as Genesis 23:12 reports, "And Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land." They told Abraham that they knew that in the future God would give all the land to Abraham and his descendants. Thus, they asked Abraham to make a covenant with them that Abraham's descendants would not take possession of the cities of the Jebusites, and they would sell him the cave of Machpelah as a perpetual possession. So Abraham made a covenant with them with an oath that the Israelites would not take possession of the city of the Jebusites (Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
) without the consent of the Jebusites and then bought the cave of Machpelah as a perpetual possession, as Genesis 23:16 reports, "And Abraham hearkened to Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the hearing of the children of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant." The Jebusites made images of copper inscribed with Abraham's covenant and set them up in the streets of the city. When the Israelites later came to the land, they wished to enter the city of the Jebusites (as reported in Joshua 25:8 and Judges
A judge is an official who presides over a court.
Judge or Judges may also refer to:
Roles
*Judge, an alternative name for an adjudicator in a competition in theatre, music, sport, etc.
*Judge, an alternative name/aviator call sign for a membe ...
1:8), but they were unable to enter because of the sign of Abraham's covenant, as Judges 1:21 reports, "And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem." When David reigned, he wanted to enter the city of the Jebusites, but they did not allow him, as 2 Samuel 5:6 reports, "And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land; who spoke to David, saying, ‘You shall not come in here.'" Although the Israelites were numerous, they were unable to capture the city because of the force of the sign of Abraham's covenant. David saw this and turned back, as 2 Samuel 5:9 reports, "And David dwelt in the stronghold" (not in the city). David's men told him that he would not be able to enter the city until he had removed all those images upon which Abraham's covenant was written. So David told his men that whoever would remove those images would be the chief. Joab
Joab (; ), the son of Zeruiah, was the nephew of King David and the commander of his army according to the Hebrew Bible.
Name
The name Joab is, like many other Hebrew names, theophoric—derived from Yahweh (), the name of the God of Israel, ...
the son of Zeruiah
Zeruiah ( sometimes transliterated Tzruya or Zeruya) was a sister of King David. According to both the Hebrew Bible and the Babylonian Talmud, Zeruiah was a daughter of Jesse and sister of Abigail, to whom reference is made in 1 Chronicles () ...
did so and became the chief, as 1 Chronicles 11:6 reports, "And Joab the son of Zeruiah went up first and was made chief." Thereafter, David bought the city of the Jebusites for Israel with a deed for a perpetual possession, as 1 Chronicles 21:25 reports, "So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight."
The Gemara deduced from the use of the term "take" in Genesis 23:13 that "taking" means by monetary exchange. And thus the Gemara deduced that money effects betrothal by noting the common use of "take" in Genesis 23:13 and in Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy (; ) is the fifth book of the Torah (in Judaism), where it is called () which makes it the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament.
Chapters 1–30 of the book consist of three sermons or speeches delivered to ...
22:13, in the words, "If any man take a wife."
Contrasting the behavior of Abraham and Epron, Rabbi Eleazar taught that the righteous promise little and perform much, whereas the wicked promise much and do not perform even little. The Gemara deduced the behavior of the wicked from Ephron, who in Genesis 23:15 said, "The land is worth 400 shekels of silver," but Genesis 23:16 reports, "And Abraham hearkened to Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, 400 shekels of silver, current money with the merchant," indicating that Ephron refused to accept anything but centenaria (which are more valuable than ordinary shekels). And the Gemara deduced the behavior of the righteous from Abraham, who in Genesis 18:5 offered, "And I will fetch ''a morsel'' of bread," but Genesis 18:7 reports, "And Abraham ran to the herd," doing much more than he offered.
Rabbi Judan the son of Rabbi Simon cited Abraham's purchase of the cave at Machpelah as one of three places where Scripture reports purchases in the Land of Israel, thus providing a defense against the nations of the world who might taunt the Jews, saying that the Israelites had stolen the Land. The three instances are: the cave of Machpelah, of which Genesis 23:16 reports, "And Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver"; Joseph's Tomb
Joseph's Tomb (, ''Qever Yosef''; , ''Qabr Yūsuf'') is a funerary monument located in Balata village at the eastern entrance to the valley that separates Mounts Gerizim and Ebal, northwest of Jacob's Well, on the outskirts of the West Ban ...
, of which Genesis 33:19 reports, "And he bought the parcel of ground"; and the Temple
A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...
, of which 1 Chronicles 21:25 reports, "So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold."
The Mishnah attributed to Abraham a good eye (a magnanimous spirit in financial matters, based, for example, on Abraham's generous and ungrudging nature in his dealings with Ephron the Hittite in Genesis 23:16).
Rabbi Ḥaninah taught that every time the Torah refers to silver coin (, ''shekel kesef'') without any qualification, it means a ''sela'' (shekel
A shekel or sheqel (; , , plural , ) is an ancient Mesopotamian coin, usually of silver. A shekel was first a unit of weight—very roughly 11 grams (0.35 ozt)—and became currency in ancient Tyre, Carthage and Hasmonean Judea.
Name
The wo ...
), except for the silver coin that Genesis 23:16 cites in the transaction with Ephron. For although Genesis 23:16 mentions the coinage without qualification, it means ''centenaria'' (worth 100 shekels each), because Genesis 23:16 says: "400 shekels of silver current money with the merchant" (implying that wherever there were merchants, these shekels had to be accepted as such), and there is a place where they call ''centenaria'' "shekels."
Rav Judah said in the name of Rav that Genesis 23:17, which says, "So the field of Efron which was in Machpelah . . . and all the trees that were in the field that were in the border thereof," indicates that Abraham in buying the field acquired all the small trees that were identified by their surrounding boundary. But the purchase did not include those large, distinctive trees that did not require a surrounding boundary for people to know to whom they belonged. And Rav Mesharsheya deduced from Genesis 23:17 that one who buys a field also gains title to the border strips and the trees on these strips surrounding the field.
Genesis chapter 24
The Mishnah andTosefta
The Tosefta ( "supplement, addition") is a compilation of Jewish Oral Law from the late second century, the period of the Mishnah and the Jewish sages known as the '' Tannaim''.
Background
Jewish teachings of the Tannaitic period were cha ...
deduced from Genesis 24:1 that God blessed Abraham in his old age because (as the Mishnah deduced from Genesis 26:5) he kept the entire Torah even before it was revealed. And the Tosefta deduced from the contrast between the plenty indicated in Genesis 24:1 and the famine indicated in Genesis 26:1 that God gave the people food and drink and a glimpse of the world to come while the righteous Abraham was alive, so that the people might understand how much they had lost when he was gone.
Rabbi Ḥama ben Ḥanina taught that our ancestors were never without a scholars' council. Abraham was an elder and a member of the scholars' council, as Genesis 24:1 says, "And Abraham was an elder (, ''zaken'') well stricken in age." Eliezer
Eliezer () was the name of at least three different individuals in the Hebrew Bible.
Eliezer of Damascus
Eliezer of Damascus () was, according to Targum Jonathan Bereishit, 14:14, the son of Nimrod. As mentioned in Lech-Lecha#Sixth_reading— ...
, Abraham's servant, was an elder and a member of the scholars' council, as Genesis 24:2 says, "And Abraham said to his servant, the elder of his house, who ruled over all he had," which Rabbi Eleazar explained to mean that he ruled over—and thus knew and had control of—the Torah of his master. Isaac
Isaac ( ; ; ; ; ; ) is one of the three patriarchs (Bible), patriarchs of the Israelites and an important figure in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Baháʼí Faith. Isaac first appears in the Torah, in wh ...
was an elder and a member of the scholars' council, as Genesis 27:1 says: "And it came to pass when Isaac was an elder (, ''zaken'')." Jacob was an elder and a member of the scholars' council, as Genesis 48:10 says, "Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age (, ''zoken'')." In Egypt they had the scholars' council, as Exodus 3:16 says, "Go and gather the elders of Israel together." And in the Wilderness, they had the scholars' council, as in Numbers
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
11:16, God directed Moses to "Gather . . . 70 men of the elders of Israel."
The Gemara read the words of Genesis 24:1, "And the Lord blessed Abraham with everything," to support the Sages' teaching that God gave three people in this world a taste of the World To Come
The world to come, age to come, heaven on Earth, and the Kingdom of God are eschatology, eschatological phrases reflecting the belief that the World (theology), current world or Dispensation (period), current age is flawed or cursed and will be r ...
—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Of Isaac, Genesis 27:33 says, "And I have eaten from everything." And of Jacob, Genesis 33:11 says, "Because I have everything." Already in their lifetimes they merited everything, that is perfection. The Gemara read these three verses also to teach that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were three people over whom the evil inclination had no sway, as Scripture says about them, respectively, "with everything," "from everything," and "everything," and the completeness of their blessings meant that they did not have to contend with their evil inclinations. And the Gemara read these same three verses to teach that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were three of six people over whom the Angel of Death had no sway in their demise—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. As Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were blessed with everything, the Gemara reasoned, they were certainly spared the anguish of the Angel of Death.
The Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer identified the unnamed steward of Abraham's household in Genesis 24:2 with Abraham's servant Eliezer introduced in Genesis 15:2. The Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer told that when Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees
Ur Kasdim (), commonly translated as Ur of the Chaldees, is a city mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as the birthplace of Abraham, the Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch of the Israelites and the Ishmaelites. In 1862, Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet, Hen ...
, all the magnates of the kingdom gave him gifts, and Nimrod
Nimrod is a Hebrew Bible, biblical figure mentioned in the Book of Genesis and Books of Chronicles, the Books of Chronicles. The son of Cush (Bible), Cush and therefore the great-grandson of Noah, Nimrod was described as a king in the land of Sh ...
gave Abraham Nimrod's first-born son Eliezer as a perpetual slave. After Eliezer had dealt kindly with Isaac, he set Eliezer free, and God gave Eliezer his reward in this world by raising him up to become a king— Og, king of Bashan
Bashan (; ; or ''Basanitis'') is the ancient, biblical name used for the northernmost region of Transjordan during the Iron Age. It is situated in modern-day Jordan and Syria. Its western part, nowadays known as the Golan Heights, was occupied b ...
.
The Tosefta reported that Jewish judicial proceedings adopted the oath that Abraham imposed in Genesis 24:3. And Rav Judah said that Rav said that the judge adjures the witness with the oath stated in Genesis 24:3, "And I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven." Ravina explained that this accorded with the view of Rabbi Ḥaninah bar Idi, who said that Jewish judicial proceedings require swearing by the Name of God. Rav Ashi replied that one might even say that it accorded with the view of the Rabbis, who said that a witness can be adjured with a Substitute for the Name of God. They concluded that the witness needs to hold something sacred in his hand, as Abraham's servant did when in Genesis 24:9 he put his hand under Abraham's thigh and held Abraham's circumcision. Rava said that a judge who adjures by "the Lord God of heaven" without having the witness hold a sacred object errs and must repeat the swearing correctly. Rav Papa
Rav Pappa () (c. 300 – died 375) was a Babylonian rabbi, of the fifth generation of amoraim.
Biography
He was a student of Rava and Abaye. After the death of his teachers he founded a school at Naresh, a city near Sura, in which he officiat ...
said that a judge who adjures with tefillin
Tefillin (Modern Hebrew language, Israeli Hebrew: / ; Ashkenazim, Ashkenazic pronunciation: ; Modern Israeli Hebrew, Modern Hebrew pronunciation: ), or phylacteries, are a set of small black leather boxes with leather straps containing scrolls o ...
errs and must repeat the swearing. The law follows Rava, but not Rav Papa, as tefillin are considered sacred.
Rabbi Haggai observed in Rabbi Isaac's name that Abraham prophesied in Genesis 24:7 when he said, "He will send His angel before you." Rabbi Haggai taught in Rabbi Isaac's name that even though Abraham was capable of prophesy, he still needed God's kindness, as Genesis 24:12 reports Abraham's servant praying, "And show kindness to my master Abraham." Rabbi Haggai concluded in Rabbi Isaac's name that all need God's kindness.
Reading the report of Genesis 24:10, "And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master," a midrash noted that mention that they were "of the camels of his master" is apparently superfluous. The midrash explained that Abraham's camels were distinguishable wherever they went, because they were led out muzzled so as not to graze in other people's fields.Genesis Rabbah 59:11.
Reading the report of Genesis 24:10 that Abraham's servant had "all the goods of his master's in his hand," Rabbi Ḥelbo explained that this was a deed of gift (made by Abraham of all his wealth to Isaac, so that a bride would be more eager to marry him). Similarly, Rabbi Simeon (or some say Rabbi Shemajah) taught that Abraham wrote a will that bequeathed all that he had as an inheritance to Isaac, as Genesis 25:5 says, "And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac." Abraham took the document and gave to Eliezer, his servant, who reasoned that since the document was in his hand, all Abraham's money was in his hand, so that he might go and be recommended thereby in Abraham's father's house and with his family.Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer, chapter 16Reading the report of the servant's travels in Genesis 24:10, the Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer taught that from Kiriat Arba to
Haran
Haran or Aran ( ''Hārān'') is a man in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. He was a son of Terah, brother of Abraham, and father of son Lot and daughters Milcah and Iscah. He died in Ur of the Chaldees. Through Lot, Haran was the ance ...
was a journey of 17 days, but Abraham's servant came to Haran in three hours. The servant was astonished that he had arrived on the same day and said (as reported in Genesis 24:42), "And I came ''this day'' to the fountain." Rabbi Abbahu taught that God wished to show loving-kindness to Isaac, and he sent an angel before Eliezer to shorten the way for him, so that the servant came to Haran in three hours. Similarly, Rabbi Berekiah taught in Rabbi Isaac's name that the words of Genesis 24:42, "And I came ''this day'' to the fountain," mean that Abraham's servant set out that day and miraculously arrived the same day. The midrash thus counted Abraham's servant along with Jacob and Abishai the son of Zeruiah
Zeruiah ( sometimes transliterated Tzruya or Zeruya) was a sister of King David. According to both the Hebrew Bible and the Babylonian Talmud, Zeruiah was a daughter of Jesse and sister of Abigail, to whom reference is made in 1 Chronicles () ...
as men who miraculously traveled long distances in a short time when the earth trembled, closing gaps and thereby speeding them along. And similarly, the Rabbis read the words "And I came ''this day'' to the well" in Genesis 24:42 to imply that Eliezer had set out that day from Abraham's household and arrived on the same day in Aram-Naharaim. The Rabbis thus taught that the earth shrank to speed Eliezer's journey, as it would again for Jacob (as implied in Genesis 28:10–11) and Abishai the son of Zeruiah.
A midrash asked why, in Genesis 24:11, Abraham's servant stopped by the well. The midrash explained that he thus followed the usual practice: Whoever seeks a neighbor sits at the water and find the neighbor there, as everyone eventually comes to the water. The midrash noted that all the righteous who left their homes went to wells. In addition to Abraham's servant in Genesis 24:11, Genesis 29:2 says of Jacob, "And behold a well in the field," and Exodus 2:15 reports of Moses, "He sat down by a well."
Reading of the servant's plan in Genesis 24:11, "At the time of evening, the time that women go out to draw water," Rav Huna
Rav Huna (Hebrew: רב הונא) was a Jewish Talmudist and Exilarch who lived in Babylonia, known as an amora of the second generation and head of the Academy of Sura; he was born about 216 CE (212 CE according to Gratz) and died in 296–297 ...
asked: When a man goes to take a wife and he hears dogs barking, can he then understand what they are saying? Rav Huna taught that there was just as little reason in the servant's plan, "At the time of evening, the time that women go out to draw water."
Reading the servant's test in Genesis 24:14, "And she may say, 'Drink,'" a midrash asked why the servant made this the sign that would prove her to be the one (in the words of Genesis 24:44) "whom the Lord has appointed for my master's son." The midrash explained that the servant knew that if she answered that way, she would be a righteous woman, eager to show hospitality, just like Abraham and Sarah.
Rabbi Samuel bar Naḥmani said in the name of Rabbi Jonathan that Abraham's servant Eliezer made an improper request when in Genesis 24:14 he asked God to grant that the young woman whom he would ask to draw water for him and who replied by offering also to water his camels might be the one whom God had decreed for Isaac. Rabbi Samuel asked what would have happened if she had happened to be lame or blind, and concluded that Eliezer was fortunate that Providence answered him by sending Rebekah to meet him. Rabbi Samuel compared Eliezer's request to the improvident oaths that Saul
Saul (; , ; , ; ) was a monarch of ancient Israel and Judah and, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament, the first king of the United Monarchy, a polity of uncertain historicity. His reign, traditionally placed in the late eleventh c ...
made in 1 Samuel
The Book of Samuel () is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings) that constitute a theological ...
17:25 when he promised his daughter to the man who would kill Goliath
Goliath ( ) was a Philistines, Philistine giant in the Book of Samuel. Descriptions of Goliath's giant, immense stature vary among biblical sources, with texts describing him as either or tall. According to the text, Goliath issued a challen ...
and that Jephthah
Jephthah (pronounced ; , ''Yiftāḥ'') appears in the Book of Judges as a judge who presided over Israel for a period of six years (). According to Judges, he lived in Gilead. His father's name is also given as Gilead, and, as his mother is de ...
made in Judges 11:31 when he promised to sacrifice whatever came out of his house to meet him on his return. Similarly, a midrash taught that Abraham's servant was one of four who asked improperly—Eliezer, Caleb
Caleb ( ; , Tiberian vocalization: , Modern Israeli Hebrew: ) is a figure who appears in the Hebrew Bible as a representative of the Tribe of Judah during the Israelites' journey to the Promised Land.
Following the Israelite conquest of Ca ...
, Saul, and Jepthah. The midrash asked: What if a slave woman had done as Eliezer had asked? Yet the midrash taught that God prepared Rebekah for him and granted his request in a fitting manner. And Rav cited Eliezer's request in Genesis 24:14 along with the omen sought by Jonathan in 1 Samuel 14:9–10 as forms of improper acts of divination.
Rabbi Simeon bar Yoḥai taught that God answered three men even while their petition was still on their lips: Abraham's servant Eliezer, Moses, and Solomon
Solomon (), also called Jedidiah, was the fourth monarch of the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), Kingdom of Israel and Judah, according to the Hebrew Bible. The successor of his father David, he is described as having been the penultimate ...
. Regarding Eliezer, Genesis 24:15 reports: "And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out." Regarding Moses, Numbers 16:31 reports: "And it came to pass, as he made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground did cleave asunder." And with regard to Solomon, 2 Chronicles
The Book of Chronicles ( , "words of the days") is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Chronicles) in the Christian Old Testament. Chronicles is the final book of the Hebrew Bible, concluding the third section of the Jewish Tan ...
7:1 reports: "Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven."
The Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer taught that God saw that everything miraculously came together for Abraham's servant. A daughter of kings, Rebekah, who in all her life had never gone forth to draw water, went out to draw water at that hour. And the girl, who did not know who Abraham's servant was, accepted his proposal to be married to Isaac. The Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer taught that this happened because she had been destined for him from birth.
Rav Naḥman bar Isaac cited a Tanna that interpreted Genesis 24:16 to teach that Rebekah was virgin between the ages of 12 and 12½ (a ''naarah'') when Abraham's servant encountered her.
Rabbi Isaac called Bethuel a wicked man. A midrash identified Bethuel as a king.
Rava asked Rabba bar Mari from where people derived the saying: If you are aware of a derogatory matter about yourself, say it first before others say it about you. Rabba bar Mari answered that the source was what Eliezer said in Genesis 24:34, "And he said: 'I am Abraham's servant,'" immediately proclaiming that he was a servant.
A midrash taught that when Rebekah’s family heard Abraham's servant say in Genesis 24:34, "I am Abraham's servant," they hid their faces in shame and fear, realizing that if this was the servant, how much more so would be his master. They reasoned that one could judge a lion from its welp and concluded that they could not overcome him. Thereupon, they removed the poisoned food that they had given Abraham's servant.
Rav in the name of Rabbi Reuben ben Estrobile cited Laban's and Bethuel's response to Abraham's servant that "The matter was decreed by the Lord" in Genesis 24:50–51 as a proof text for the proposition that God destines a woman and a man for each other in marriage. Rabbi Joshua the son of Rabbi Nehemiah
Rabbi Nehemiah was a rabbi who lived circa 150 AD (fourth generation of tannaim).
He was one of the great students of Rabbi Akiva, and one of the rabbis who received semicha from R' Judah ben Baba
The Talmud equated R' Nechemiah with Rabbi Ne ...
in the name of Rabbi Ḥaninah ben Isaac said that the decree with regard to Rebekah that Laban and Bethuel acknowledged came from Mount Moriah.
But the Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer taught that Laban and Bethuel said in Genesis 24:50, "The thing proceeds from the Lord: We cannot speak to you bad or good," only because since this word had come forth from God, they could not prevent it.Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer, chapter 16Noting that Genesis 24:55 reports that the next day, Rebekah's "brother and her mother said, ‘Let the maiden remain with us some ten days,'" the Rabbis asked where Bethuel was. The midrash concluded that Bethuel wished to hinder Rebekah's marriage, and so he was smitten during the night.Genesis Rabbah 60:12. The Rabbis said that Abraham's servant did not disclose Bethuel's fate to Isaac.Genesis Rabbah 60:15.
Rav Ḥisda interpreted the word "days" (, ''yamim'') in Genesis 24:55 to mean "a year." Genesis 24:55 says, "And her brother and her mother said: ‘Let the maiden abide with us ''yamim'', at the least ten." The Gemara reasoned that if , ''yamim'', in Genesis 24:55 means "days" and thus to imply "two days" (as the plural implies more than one), then Genesis 24:55 would report Rebekah's brother and mother suggesting first two days, and then when Eliezer said that that was too long, nonsensically suggesting ten days. The Gemara thus deduced that , ''yamim'', must mean "a year," as Leviticus 25:29 implies when it says, "if a man sells a house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; for a full year (, ''yamim'') shall he have the right of redemption." Thus Genesis 24:55 might mean, "Let the maiden abide with us a year, or at the least ten months." The Gemara then suggested that , ''yamim'', might mean "a month," as Numbers 11:20 suggests when it uses the phrase "a month of days (, ''yamim'')." The Gemara concluded, however, that , ''yamim'', means "a month" only when the term "month" is specifically mentioned, but otherwise means either "days" (at least two) or "a year." Similarly, the Mishnah taught that they allowed a virgin 12 months to prepare for her wedding after her fiancé told her to prepare.
Reading the servant's words to Laban in Genesis 24:56, "Do not hinder me, for the Lord has prospered my way," the Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer told that the servant rose early in the morning and saw the angel that had accompanied him standing and waiting for him in the street. The servant then told Laban and his friends the words of Genesis 24:56 and that the man who came with him the day before to prosper his way was standing and waiting for him.
A midrash noted that in Genesis 24:57, Rebekah's brother and mother determined to ask Rebekah if she assented to going with Abraham's servant to marry Isaac. The midrash deduced from this that a fatherless maiden may not be given in marriage without her consent.
In Genesis 24:58, Rebekah's brother and mother "called Rebekah, and said to her: ‘Will you go?'" Rabbi Uanina, the son of Rav Adda, said in Rabbi Isaac's name that Rebekah's brother and mother hinted to Rebekah (putting the question in a tone of surprise), "Will you (really) go?" "And she said: ‘I will go.'" Rebekah did not simply say "yes," but replied that she would go, in spite of her brother and mother, whether they wished it or not.
The Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer taught that Laban and his family ate and drank at a bridal banquet for Rebekah. And then, like an officiant who stands and blesses a bride in her bridal canopy, they stood and blessed Rebekah their sister on her upcoming wedding to Isaac, as Genesis 24:60 reports, "And they blessed Rebekah, and said to her, ‘Our sister . . . .'"
Reading Genesis 24:62, "Isaac came from going to Be'er Laḥai Ro'i," a midrash taught that Isaac had gone there to bring Hagar back to Abraham.
The Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer taught that the servant left Haran at noon and took Rebekah and her nurse Deborah riding on the camels. So that the servant would not be alone with the maiden Rebekah by night, the earth once again contracted before them, and in three hours, they came to Hebron at the time of the afternoon prayer (at 3 p.m.). Isaac had gone forth to say the afternoon prayer, as it is said in Genesis 24:63, "And Isaac went forth to meditate in the field towards evening."
Rabbi Joshua ben Levi
Joshua ben Levi or Yehoshua ben Levi (220 – 250 CE) was an amora—a scholar of Jewish law during the period in which the Gemara was codified—who lived in the Land of Israel in the first half of the third century. He lived and taught in the ...
(according to the Jerusalem Talmud
The Jerusalem Talmud (, often for short) or Palestinian Talmud, also known as the Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century Jewish oral tradition known as the Mishnah. Naming this version of the Talm ...
) or a baraita
''Baraita'' ( "external" or "outside"; pl. ''bārayāṯā'' or in Hebrew ''baraitot''; also baraitha, beraita; Ashkenazi pronunciation: berayse) designates a tradition in the Oral Torah of Rabbinical Judaism that is not incorporated in the Mi ...
in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yose the son of Rabbi Ḥanina (according to the Babylonian Talmud) said that the three daily prayers derived from the Patriarchs, and cited Genesis 24:63 for the proposition that Jews derived the afternoon prayer from Isaac, arguing that within the meaning of Genesis 24:63, "speak" meant "pray," just as it did in Psalm
The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament.
The book is an anthology of H ...
102:1. Thus, interpreting Genesis 24:64, Rav Huna taught that when Rebekah first saw Isaac, she saw his hand stretched out in prayer.
Rabbi Elazar noted that Isaiah 2:3 says, "And many peoples shall go and say: 'Go and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob,'" and asked why the verse refers only to Jacob, and not to Abraham and Isaac. Rabbi Elazar explained that the Temple will ultimately be described in the same way that Jacob referred to it in Genesis 28:19. It will not be referred to as it was referred to by Abraham, for when he prayed at the location of the Temple mount, he called it "mount," as Genesis 22:14 says, "As it is said on this day: On the mount where the Lord is seen." And it will not be referred to as it was referred to by Isaac, for he called the location of the Temple "field" when he prayed there, as Genesis 24:63 says, "And Isaac went out to meditate in the field." Rather, it will be described as Jacob referred to it, as a house, as Genesis 28:19 says, "And he called the name of that place Beth-El," which means "house of God."
Rabbi José taught that Isaac observed three years of mourning for his mother. After three years he married Rebekah and forgot the mourning for his mother. Hence Rabbi José taught that until a man marries a wife, his love centers on his parents. When he marries a wife, he bestows his love upon his wife, as Genesis 2:24 says, "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and he shall cleave unto his wife."
A midrash taught that as long as Sarah lived, a cloud (signifying the Divine Presence) hung over her tent. When she died, the cloud disappeared. But when Rebekah came, it returned. As long as Sarah lived, her doors were wide open. At her death that liberality ceased. But when Rebekah came, that openhandedness returned. As long as Sarah lived, there was a blessing on her dough, and the lamp used to burn from the evening of the Sabbath until the evening of the following Sabbath. When she died, these ceased. But when Rebekah came, they returned. And so when Isaac saw Rebekah following in his mother Sarah's footsteps, separating her challah in cleanness and handling her dough in cleanness (rereading the words of Genesis 24:67), "Isaac brought her into the tent, (and, behold, she was like) his mother Sarah."Genesis Rabbah 60:16Rabbi Judan read Genesis 24:67 to teach a rule of propriety: If a man has grown-up sons (and both the man and his sons wish to marry), he must first see that his sons marry and then take a wife himself. Rabbi Judan derived this from Abraham's example, for first Genesis 24:67 says, "And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent," and after that, Genesis 25:1 says, "And Abraham took another wife, and her name was Keturah."
Genesis chapter 25
Rabbi Judah said that Keturah was another name forHagar
According to the Book of Genesis, Hagar is an Egyptian slave, a handmaiden of Sarah (then known as ''Sarai''), whom Sarah gave to her own husband Abram (later renamed Abraham) as a wife to bear him a child. Abraham's firstborn son, through Haga ...
.
Rabbi Judah, Rabbi Nehemiah, and the Rabbis differed about the meaning of Genesis 25:5, "And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac." Rabbi Judah said that Abraham gave Isaac the birthright. Rabbi Nehemiah said that Abraham gave the power of blessing granted to Abraham in Genesis 12:2. The Rabbis said that Abraham gave the privilege of being buried in the cave of Machpelah and a deed of gift. Rabbi Judah the son of Rabbi Simon, Rabbi Berekiah, and Rabbi Levi in the name of Rabbi Ḥama the son of Rabbi Ḥanina taught that Abraham did not bless Isaac but gave him gifts. Rabbi Ḥama likened this to a king who had an orchard, which he entrusted to a steward. The orchard contained two trees that were intertwined, and one of which yielded life-giving fruit and the other a deadly poison. The steward thought that if he watered the life-bearing tree, the death-bearing one would flourish with it; while if he did not water the death-bearing tree, the life-bearing could not survive. On reflection, the steward decided that his position required him to do his duty, and whatever the owner of the orchard wished to do, he could do. In like manner, Abraham argued that if he blessed Isaac, the children of Ishmael and of Keturah would also be blessed; while if he did not bless the children of Ishmael and Keturah, he could not bless Isaac. On reflection, he decided that he was only flesh; he would do his duty, and whatever God wished to do, God would do. Consequently, when Abraham died, God appeared to Isaac and blessed him, as Genesis 25:11 reports, "And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed Isaac his son."
A midrash told that the Ishmaelites came before Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...
to dispute the birthright with Israel, accompanied by the Canaanites and the Egyptians. The Ishmaelites based their claim on Deuteronomy 21:17, "But he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated," and Ishmael was the firstborn. Gebiah the son of Kosem representing the Jews, asked Alexander whether a man could not do as he wished to his sons. When Alexander replied that a man could, Gebiah quoted Genesis 25:5, "And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac." The Ishmaelites asked where the deed of gift to his other sons was. Gebiah replied by quoting Genesis 25:7, "But to the sons of the concubines, whom Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts." Thereupon the Ishmaelites departed in shame.
Rabbi Ḥama son of Rabbi Ḥaninah taught that Genesis 25:11 shows God comforting the mourning Isaac, and thus demonstrates one of God's attributes that humans should emulate. Rabbi Ḥama son of Rabbi Ḥaninah asked what Deuteronomy 13:5 means in the text, "You shall walk after the Lord your God." How can a human being walk after God, when Deuteronomy 4:24 says, " e Lord your God is a devouring fire"? Rabbi Ḥama son of Rabbi Ḥaninah explained that the command to walk after God means to walk after the attributes of God. As God clothes the naked—for Genesis 3:21 says, "And the Lord God made for Adam
Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam).
According to Christianity, Adam ...
and for his wife coats of skin and clothed them"—so should we also clothe the naked. God visited the sick—for Genesis 18:1 says, "And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre
Mamre (; ), full name "Oaks of Mamre", refers to an ancient religious site originally focused on a single holy tree growing "since time immemorial" at Hebron in Canaan.Niesiolowski-Spano (2016). At its first location, Khirbet Nimra, a pagan tre ...
" (after Abraham
Abraham (originally Abram) is the common Hebrews, Hebrew Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father who began the Covenant (biblical), covenanta ...
was circumcised in Genesis 17:26.)—so should we also visit the sick. God comforted mourners—for Genesis 25:11 says, "And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed Isaac his son"—so should we also comfort mourners. God buried the dead—for Deuteronomy 34:6 says, "And He buried him in the valley"—so should we also bury the dead. Similarly, the Sifre
Sifre (; ''siphrēy'', ''Sifre, Sifrei'', also, ''Sifre debe Rab'' or ''Sifre Rabbah'') refers to either of two works of '' Midrash halakha'', or classical Jewish legal biblical exegesis, based on the biblical books of Numbers and Deuteronomy.
...
on Deuteronomy 11:22 taught that to walk in God's ways means to be (in the words of Exodus 34:6) "merciful and gracious."
In medieval Jewish interpretation
The parashah is discussed in thesemedieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
Jewish sources:
Genesis chapter 24
Baḥya ibn Paquda taught that because humans cannot understand anything about God except for God’s Name and that God exists, Abraham associated God’s Name with heaven and earth when he said in Genesis 24:3, "And I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth."
Abraham ibn Ezra
Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra (, often abbreviated as ; ''Ibrāhim al-Mājid ibn Ezra''; also known as Abenezra or simply ibn Ezra, 1089 / 1092 – 27 January 1164 / 23 January 1167)''Jewish Encyclopedia''online; '' Chambers Biographical Dictionar ...
read the words “He will send His angel before you” in Genesis 24:7 as a prayer. Ibn Ezra argued that if it were a prophecy, Abraham would not have said in Genesis 24:8, “And if the woman is not willing to follow you . . . .”
The ''Zohar
The ''Zohar'' (, ''Zōhar'', lit. "Splendor" or "Radiance") is a foundational work of Kabbalistic literature. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah and scriptural interpretations as well as material o ...
'' taught that when Abraham's servant reached Haran and met Rebekah (in the words of Genesis 24:11) "at the time of evening," it was the time of the afternoon (, ''mincha
Mincha (, ; sometimes spelled Minchah, Minhah, Mincho or Minchuh) is the afternoon prayer service in Judaism.
Etymology
The name ''Mincha'', meaning "gift" or "offering", is derived from the meal offering that accompanied each sacrifice offered ...
'') prayer. Thus, the moment when Isaac began the afternoon prayer coincided with the moment when Abraham's servant encountered Rebekah. So, too, Rebekah came to Isaac (as reported in Genesis 24:64) at the very moment of Isaac's afternoon prayer.
Reading Genesis 24:14, Obadiah ben Jacob Sforno
Ovadia ben Jacob Sforno (Obadja Sforno, Hebrew: עובדיה ספורנו) was an Italian rabbi, Biblical commentator, philosopher and physician. A member of the Sforno family, he was born in Cesena about 1475 and died in Bologna in 1549.
Bi ...
distinguished what Abraham's servant did from divination. According to Sforno, Abraham's servant did not make what he said a sign whereby he might recognize Isaac's destined wife, because that would be divination; rather he prayed that it might occur the way that he described. If an individual says something not as a prayer, but in the nature of, "If such-and-such happens, then I shall do this," then the individual is guilty of divination.
The ''Zohar'' taught that Rabbi Simeon discoursed on Malachi
Malachi or Malachias (; ) is the name used by the author of the Book of Malachi, the last book of the Nevi'im (Prophets) section of the Hebrew Bible, Tanakh. It is possible that ''Malachi'' is not a proper name, because it means "messenger"; ...
1:6, “A son honors his father, and a servant his master,” saying that Eliezer illustrated a servant's honoring his master by carrying out all Abraham's wishes and paying him great respect, as Genesis 24:34–35 reports, “And he said, ‘I am Abraham’s servant; and the Lord blessed my master Abraham.’” Eliezer had with him silver, gold, precious stones, and camels, and was himself quite handsome; yet he did not present himself as Abraham’s friend or family, but openly declared, “I am the servant of Abraham,” in order to extol his master and make him an object of honor in the eyes of Rebekah's family.
Maimonides
Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...
cited Laban and Bethuel's words regarding Rebekah in Genesis 24:51, "Let her be a wife to the son of your master, as the Lord spoke," as an example of the proposition that Scripture ascribes to God events evidently due to chance.
Genesis chapter 25
Rashbam
Samuel ben Meir (Troyes, c. 1085 – c. 1158), after his death known as the "Rashbam", a Hebrew acronym for RAbbi SHmuel Ben Meir, was a leading French Tosafist and grandson of Shlomo Yitzhaki, "Rashi".
Biography
He was born in the vicinity of ...
identified the "concubines" to whom Genesis 25:6 refers as Hagar and Keturah.
The Zohar, however, deduced from the plural of "concubines" in Genesis 25:6 that Abraham had two concubines beside Sarah and Hagar and thus like Jacob had four spouses.
In modern interpretation
The parashah is discussed in these modern sources:Genesis chapter 23
John Van Seters
John Van Seters (May 2, 1935 – April 9, 2025) was a Canadian scholar of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and the Ancient Near East. He was a University Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina, and James A. Gray Professor of Bi ...
argued that the Abraham cycle was a postexilic invention of the 5th century CE or later.
Genesis chapter 24
Genesis 24:22 discusses a gold ring of half a shekel or a ''bekah'' () in weight and gold bracelets of ten shekels in weight. This table translates units of weight used in the Bible into their modern equivalents:Commandments
According to Maimonides and Sefer ha-Chinuch
''Sefer ha-Chinuch'' (, "Book of Education") is a rabbinic text which systematically discusses the 613 commandments of the Torah. It was written in 13th-century Spain by an anonymous "Levite of Barcelona".
Content
The work's enumeration of th ...
, there are no commandments
Commandment may refer to:
* The Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments (), or the Decalogue (from Latin , from Ancient Greek , ), are religious and ethical directives, structured as a covenant document, that, according to the Hebrew Bible, ...
in the parashah.
The ''Kitzur Shulchan Aruch'' taught that people who have animals who are dependent on them for their food are prohibited from eating until they feed their animals, based on Deuteronomy 11:15, "I will grant grass for your cattle in your field, that you may eat and be satisfied," which gives precedence to animals eating before people. But the ''Kitzur Shulchan Aruch'' noted that people came before animals with regard to drinking in Genesis 24:14, which says, "Drink and I will also draw for your camels," and Numbers 20:8 which says, "And you will provide water for the congregation and their cattle."
In the liturgy
The parashah is reflected in these parts of the Jewish liturgy: Some Jews refer to the ten trials of Abraham in Genesis 12–25 as they studchapter 5
of ''
Pirkei Avot
Pirkei Avot (; also transliterated as ''Pirqei Avoth'' or ''Pirkei Avos'' or ''Pirke Aboth'', also ''Abhoth''), which translates into English as Chapters of the Fathers, is a compilation of the ethical teachings and maxims from Rabbinic Jewis ...
'' on a Sabbath between Passover and Rosh Hashanah.
In the Blessing after Meals (''Birkat Hamazon
Birkat Hamazon ( "The Blessing of the Food"), known in English as the Grace After Meals ( "to bless", Yinglish: Bentsching), is a set of Hebrew language, Hebrew blessings that Halakha, Jewish law prescribes following a meal that includes at le ...
''), at the close of the fourth blessing (of thanks for God's goodness), Jews allude to God's blessing of the Patriarchs
The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Roman Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in ...
described in Genesis 24:1, 27:33 and 33:11.
The Sages deduced from Isaac's "meditation . . . toward evening" in Genesis 24:63 that Isaac began the practice of the afternoon (, ''mincha'') prayer service.
The Weekly Maqam
In the Weekly Maqam, Sephardi Jews each week base the songs of the services on the content of that week's parashah. For Parashat Chayei Sarah, Jews from Aleppo apply Maqam Hijaz, the maqam that expresses mourning and sadness in Syrian Jewish traditions, because the parashah contains the deaths of both Sarah and Abraham. Jews from Damascus, meanwhile, will use Maqam Saba, which is generally the Maqam for painful occasions across the Arab world.Tomb of Sarah
The tomb of Sarah is located in the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron along with that of Abraham and the other Biblical Matriarchs and Patriarchs. Every year on the Shabbat in which Parashat Chayei Sarah is read in synagogue services, thousands of people visit the site. Known as Shabbat Hebron, the weekend can attract more than 35,000 people.
Haftarah
Ahaftarah
The ''haftara'' or (in Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazic pronunciation) ''haftorah'' (alt. ''haftarah, haphtara'', ) "parting," "taking leave" (plural form: ''haftarot'' or ''haftoros''), is a series of selections from the books of ''Nevi'im'' ("Pr ...
is a text selected from the books of Nevi'im
The (; ) is the second major division of the Hebrew Bible (the ''Tanakh''), lying between the () and (). The Nevi'im are divided into two groups. The Former Prophets ( ) consists of the narrative books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings ...
("The Prophets") that is read publicly in the synagogue after the reading of the Torah on Sabbath and holiday mornings. The haftarah usually has a thematic link to the Torah reading that precedes it.
The specific text read following Parashah Chayei Sarah varies according to different traditions within Judaism. Examples are:
:*for Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium CE. They traditionally speak Yiddish, a language ...
, Sephardi Jews
Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...
, and Dardai communities: :1 Kings 1:1–31
:*for Yemenite Jews
Yemenite Jews, also known as Yemeni Jews or Teimanim (from ; ), are a Jewish diaspora group who live, or once lived, in Yemen, and their descendants maintaining their customs. After several waves of antisemitism, persecution, the vast majority ...
: 1 Kings 1:1–36, 46
:*for Karaite Jews
Karaite Judaism or Karaism is a non-Rabbinical Jewish sect characterized by the recognition of the written Tanakh alone as its supreme authority in ''halakha'' (religious law) and theology. Karaites believe that all of the divine commandme ...
: Isaiah 51:2–22
:*for Italian Jews
Italian Jews (; ) or Roman Jews (; ) can be used in a broad sense to mean all Jews living in or with roots in Italy, or, in a narrower sense, to mean the Italkim, an ancient community living in Italy since the Ancient Roman era, who use the It ...
: 1 Kings 1:1–34
Notes
Further reading
The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these sources:Biblical
*Genesis 29:1–12 (courtship at the well). *Exodus 2:15–21 (courtship at the well).Early nonrabbinic
* Apocalypse of Abraham. Circa 70–150 CE. Translated by R. Rubinkiewicz. In ''The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Volume 1: Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments''. Edited byJames H. Charlesworth
James Hamilton Charlesworth (born May 30, 1940) is an American academic who served as the George L. Collord Professor of New Testament Language and Literature until January 17, 2019, and Director of the Dead Sea Scrolls Project at the Princeton Th ...
, pages 681–705. New York: Anchor Bible
The Anchor Bible Series, which consists of a commentary series, a Bible dictionary, and a reference library, is a scholarly and commercial co-venture which was begun in 1956, with the publication of individual volumes in the commentary series. O ...
, 1983.
*Testament of Abraham
The Testament of Abraham is a pseudepigraphic text of the Old Testament. Probably composed in the 1st or 2nd century AD, it is of Jewish origin and is usually considered to be part of the apocalyptic literature. It is regarded as scripture by Bet ...
. Circa 1st or 2nd century CE. Translated by E. P. Sanders. In ''The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Volume 1: Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments''. Edited by James H. Charlesworth, pages 871–902. New York: Anchor Bible, 1983.
Classical rabbinic
*Mishnah
The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...
Ketubot 5:2
Kiddushin 4:14
Avot 5:19
Land of Israel, circa 200 C.E. In, e.g., ''The Mishnah: A New Translation''. Translated by
Jacob Neusner
Jacob Neusner (July 28, 1932 – October 8, 2016) was an American academic scholar of Judaism. He was named as one of the most published authors in history, having written or edited more than 900 books.
Neusner's application of form criticism ...
, pages 387–88, 498, 688–89. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988.
*Tosefta
The Tosefta ( "supplement, addition") is a compilation of Jewish Oral Law from the late second century, the period of the Mishnah and the Jewish sages known as the '' Tannaim''.
Background
Jewish teachings of the Tannaitic period were cha ...
: Sotah 7:3, 10:5; Kiddushin 5:17. Land of Israel, circa 300 C.E. In, e.g., ''The Tosefta: Translated from the Hebrew, with a New Introduction''. Translated by Jacob Neusner, pages 861, 876, 946. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 2002.
*Jerusalem Talmud
The Jerusalem Talmud (, often for short) or Palestinian Talmud, also known as the Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century Jewish oral tradition known as the Mishnah. Naming this version of the Talm ...
: Berakhot 43a; Orlah 9b; Shabbat 45b; Rosh Hashanah 12a; Ketubot 5a; Sotah 32a; Kiddushin 1a, 11b, 16b; Sanhedrin 62a. Tiberias, Land of Israel, circa 400 CE. In, e.g., ''Talmud Yerushalmi''. Edited by Chaim Malinowitz, Yisroel Simcha Schorr, and Mordechai Marcus, volumes 1, 12, 14, 24, 31, 37, 40, 45. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 2005–2018. And in, e.g., ''The Jerusalem Talmud: A Translation and Commentary''. Edited by Jacob Neusner and translated by Jacob Neusner, Tzvee Zahavy, B. Barry Levy, and Edward Goldman (professor), Edward Goldman. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 2009.
*Genesis Rabbah]8:13
85:7; 96; 97. Land of Israel, 5th Century. In, e.g., ''Midrash Rabbah: Genesis''. Translated by Harry Freedman (rabbi), Harry Freedman">79:7">58:1–62:5; 65:9; 66:4; 67:9; 68:2–4, 9; 70:12
79:7
85:7; 96; 97. Land of Israel, 5th Century. In, e.g., ''Midrash Rabbah: Genesis''. Translated by Harry Freedman (rabbi), Harry Freedman
and Maurice Simon, volume 1, page 63, 309, 347, 357, 386–87, 416, 485–86; volume 2, pages 509–55, 584, 594, 603, 613, 616–18, 621, 645, 732, 794, 931–32. London: Soncino Press, 1939. *Leviticus Rabbah
19:5; 20:11; 30:10; 37:4. Land of Israel, 5th Century. In, e.g., ''Midrash Rabbah: Leviticus''. Translated by Harry Freedman and Maurice Simon. London: Soncino Press, 1939. *Esther Rabbah 2:9. 5th–11th centuries. In, e.g., ''Midrash Rabbah: Esther''. Translated by Maurice Simon, volume 9, page 40. London: Soncino Press, 1939. *Babylonian
Talmud
The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...
Berakhot 18a
Sasanian Empire, 6th Century. In, e.g., ''Talmud Bavli''. Edited by Yisroel Simcha Schorr, Chaim Malinowitz, and Mordechai Marcus, 72 volumes. Brooklyn: Mesorah Pubs., 2006. *Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah, Song of Songs Rabbah 2:41; 3:8. 6th–7th centuries. In, e.g., ''Midrash Rabbah: Song of Songs''. Translated by Maurice Simon, volume 9, pages 133, 153. London: Soncino Press, 1939. *Ruth Rabbah 4:3; 7:12. 6th–7th centuries. In, e.g., ''Midrash Rabbah: Ruth''. Translated by L. Rabinowitz, volume 8, pages 51, 88. London: Soncino Press, 1939. *Ecclesiastes Rabbah 2:30. 6th–8th centuries. In, e.g., ''Midrash Rabbah: Esther''. Translated by Maurice Simon, volume 8, pages 17, 72, 124, 174, 232. London: Soncino Press, 1939.
Medieval
*Deuteronomy Rabbah 2:11; 9:4; 11:1. Land of Israel, 9th Century. In, e.g., ''Midrash Rabbah: Deuteronomy''. Translated by Harry Freedman and Maurice Simon. London: Soncino Press, 1939.
*Exodus Rabbah 1:32; 31:17; 32:9. 10th Century. In, e.g., ''Midrash Rabbah: Exodus''. Translated by S. M. Lehrman. London: Soncino Press, 1939.
*Lamentations Rabbah 1:19. 10th century. In, e.g., ''Midrash Rabbah: Deuteronomy/Lamentations''. Translated by A. Cohen, volume 7, pages 46, 85. London: Soncino Press, 1939.
*Solomon ibn Gabirol. ''A Crown for the King''16:199–200
Spain, 11th Century. Translated by David R. Slavitt, pages 28–29, 36–37. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
*Rashi. ''Commentary''Genesis 23–25
Troyes, France, late 11th Century. In, e.g., Rashi. ''The Torah: With Rashi's Commentary Translated, Annotated, and Elucidated''. Translated and annotated by Yisrael Isser Zvi Herczeg, volume 1, pages 241–70. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1995. *
Rashbam
Samuel ben Meir (Troyes, c. 1085 – c. 1158), after his death known as the "Rashbam", a Hebrew acronym for RAbbi SHmuel Ben Meir, was a leading French Tosafist and grandson of Shlomo Yitzhaki, "Rashi".
Biography
He was born in the vicinity of ...
. ''Commentary on the Torah''. Troyes, France, early 12th century. In, e.g., ''Rabbi Samuel Ben Meir's Commentary on Genesis: An Annotated Translation''. Translated by Martin I. Lockshin, pages 101–30. Lewiston, New York: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1989.
*Abraham ibn Ezra
Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra (, often abbreviated as ; ''Ibrāhim al-Mājid ibn Ezra''; also known as Abenezra or simply ibn Ezra, 1089 / 1092 – 27 January 1164 / 23 January 1167)''Jewish Encyclopedia''online; '' Chambers Biographical Dictionar ...
. ''Commentary on the Torah''. Mid-12th century. In, e.g., ''Ibn Ezra's Commentary on the Pentateuch: Genesis (Bereshit)''. Translated and annotated by H. Norman Strickman and Arthur M. Silver, pages 228–47. New York: Menorah Publishing Company, 1988.
*Numbers Rabbah 2:1, 26; 10:5; 14:10–11; 15:12; 19:32; 21:20. 12th Century. In, e.g., ''Midrash Rabbah: Numbers''. Translated by Judah J. Slotki. London: Soncino Press, 1939.
*Maimonides
Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...
. ''The Guide for the Perplexed'', part 1, chapters s:The Guide for the Perplexed (Friedlander)/Part I#CHAPTER XII, 12, s:The Guide for the Perplexed (Friedlander)/Part I#CHAPTER XIX, 19, s:The Guide for the Perplexed (Friedlander)/Part I#CHAPTER XXXVII, 37, s:The Guide for the Perplexed (Friedlander)/Part I#CHAPTER XLI, 41; part 2, chapters s:Page:Guideforperplexed.djvu/256, 19, s:Page:Guideforperplexed.djvu/286, 30, s:Page:Guideforperplexed.djvu/318, 48. Cairo, Egypt, 1190. In, e.g., Moses Maimonides. ''The Guide for the Perplexed''. Translated by Michael Friedländer, pages 24, 28, 53, 56, 188, 218, 250. New York: Dover Publications, 1956.
*Hezekiah ben Manoah. ''Hizkuni''. France, circa 1240. In, e.g., Chizkiyahu ben Manoach. ''Chizkuni: Torah Commentary''. Translated and annotated by Eliyahu Munk, volume 1, pages 166–86. Jerusalem: Ktav Publishers, 2013.
*Nahmanides, Naḥmanides. ''Commentary on the Torah''. Jerusalem, circa 1270. In, e.g., ''Ramban (Nachmanides): Commentary on the Torah: Genesis.'' Translated by Charles B. Chavel, volume 1, pages 281–312. New York: Shilo Publishing House, 1971.
*''Midrash ha-Ne'lam (The Midrash of the Concealed)''. Spain, 13th century. In, e.g., ''Zohar'', part 1, pages 121a–30a. Mantua, 1558–1560. In, e.g., ''The Zohar: Pritzker Edition''. Translation and commentary by Nathan Wolski, volume 10, pages 366–401. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2016.
*Zohar
The ''Zohar'' (, ''Zōhar'', lit. "Splendor" or "Radiance") is a foundational work of Kabbalistic literature. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah and scriptural interpretations as well as material o ...
part 1, pages 21a, 50a, 100b, 103a, 121a–34a, 135b, 141a, 142a, 181b, 187a, 223a, 224a; part 2, pages 39b, 236a; part 3, pages 103a, 148b, 158a; Raya Mehemna 60a. Spain, late 13th Century. In, e.g., ''The Zohar''. Translated by Harry Sperling and Maurice Simon. 5 volumes. London: Soncino Press, 1934.
*Bahya ben Asher. ''Commentary on the Torah''. Spain, early 14th century. In, e.g., ''Midrash Rabbeinu Bachya: Torah Commentary by Rabbi Bachya ben Asher''. Translated and annotated by Eliyahu Munk, volume 1, pages 346–84. Jerusalem: Lambda Publishers, 2003.
*Isaac ben Moses Arama. ''Akedat Yizhak (The Binding of Isaac)''. Late 15th century. In, e.g., Yitzchak Arama. ''Akeydat Yitzchak: Commentary of Rabbi Yitzchak Arama on the Torah''. Translated and condensed by Eliyahu Munk, volume 1, pages 159–76. New York, Lambda Publishers, 2001.
Modern
*Isaac Abravanel. ''Commentary on the Torah''. Italy, between 1492–1509. In, e.g., ''Abarbanel: Selected Commentaries on the Torah: Volume 1: Bereishis/Genesis''. Translated and annotated by Israel Lazar, pages 129–46. Brooklyn: CreateSpace, 2015. *Obadiah ben Jacob Sforno
Ovadia ben Jacob Sforno (Obadja Sforno, Hebrew: עובדיה ספורנו) was an Italian rabbi, Biblical commentator, philosopher and physician. A member of the Sforno family, he was born in Cesena about 1475 and died in Bologna in 1549.
Bi ...
. ''Commentary on the Torah''. Venice, 1567. In, e.g., ''Sforno: Commentary on the Torah''. Translation and explanatory notes by Raphael Pelcovitz, pages 114–29. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1997.
*Moshe Alshich. ''Commentary on the Torah''. Safed, circa 1593. In, e.g., Moshe Alshich. ''Midrash of Rabbi Moshe Alshich on the Torah''. Translated and annotated by Eliyahu Munk, volume 1, pages 145–63. New York, Lambda Publishers, 2000.
*Avraham Yehoshua Heschel. ''Commentaries on the Torah''. Kraków, Cracow, Poland, mid 17th century. Compiled as ''Chanukat HaTorah''. Edited by Chanoch Henoch Erzohn. Piotrków Trybunalski, Piotrkow, Poland, 1900. In Avraham Yehoshua Heschel. ''Chanukas HaTorah: Mystical Insights of Rav Avraham Yehoshua Heschel on Chumash''. Translated by Avraham Peretz Friedman, pages 65–69. Southfield, Michigan: Targum Press/Feldheim Publishers, 2004.
*Chaim ibn Attar. ''Ohr ha-Chaim''. Venice, 1742. In Chayim ben Attar. ''Or Hachayim: Commentary on the Torah''. Translated by Eliyahu Munk, volume 1, pages 185–200. Brooklyn: Lambda Publishers, 1999.
*Emily Dickinson. s:He touched me, so I live to know, ''Poem 506 (He touched me, so I live to know)''. 1862. In ''The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson''. Edited by Thomas H. Johnson, page 246. New York: Little, Brown & Co., 1960.
*Samuel David Luzzatto (Shadal). ''Commentary on the Torah.'' Padua, 1871. In, e.g., Samuel David Luzzatto. ''Torah Commentary''. Translated and annotated by Eliyahu Munk, volume 1, pages 217–40. New York: Lambda Publishers, 2012.
*Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter. ''Sefat Emet''. Góra Kalwaria (Ger), Poland, before 1906. Excerpted in ''The Language of Truth: The Torah Commentary of Sefat Emet''. Translated and interpreted by Arthur Green, pages 33–36. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1998. Reprinted 2012.
*Hermann Cohen. ''Religion of Reason: Out of the Sources of Judaism''. Translated with an introduction by Simon Kaplan; introductory essays by Leo Strauss, page 301. New York: Ungar, 1972. Reprinted Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995. Originally published as ''Religion der Vernunft aus den Quellen des Judentums''. Leipzig: Gustav Fock, 1919.
*Alexander Alan Steinbach. ''Sabbath Queen: Fifty-four Bible Talks to the Young Based on Each Portion of the Pentateuch'', pages 14–17. New York: Behrman's Jewish Book House, 1936.
*Thomas Mann. ''Joseph and His Brothers''. Translated by John E. Woods (translator), John E. Woods, pages 11, 58, 93–94, 100, 127–28, 130, 133–34, 173, 185, 187, 203, 339–43, 353–54, 394–95, 476–77, 492–93, 496–98, 623, 779, 806. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. Originally published as ''Joseph und seine Brüder''. Stockholm: Bermann-Fischer Verlag, 1943.
*Manfred R. Lehmann. "Abraham's Purchase of Machpelah and Hittite Law." ''Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research'', volume 129 (1953): pages 15–18.
*Robert A. Kraft“A Note on the Oracle of Rebecca (Gen. XXV. 23).”
''The Journal of Theological Studies'', volume 13 (number 2) (1962): pages 318–20. *Walter Orenstein and Hertz Frankel. ''Torah and Tradition: A Bible Textbook for Jewish Youth: Volume I: Bereishis'', pages 52–60. New York: Hebrew Publishing Company, 1964. *Delmore Schwartz
"Sarah."
In ''Selected Poems: Summer Knowledge''. New Directions, 1967.
*Martin Buber. ''On the Bible: Eighteen studies'', pages 22–43. New York: Schocken Books, 1968.
*R. David Freedman"A New Approach to the Nuzi Sistership Contract."
''Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society'', volume 2 (number 2) (1970): pages 77–85. *Wolfgang M.W. Roth. "The Wooing of Rebekah. A Tradition-Critical Study of Genesis 24." ''Catholic Biblical Quarterly'', volume 34 (1972): pages 177–87. *R. David Freedman. "‘Put Your Hand Under My Thigh'—The Patriarchal Oath." ''Biblical Archaeology Review'', volume 2 (number 2) (June 1976). *Seän M. Warner
“The Patriarchs and Extra-Biblical Sources.”
''Journal for the Study of the Old Testament'', volume 1, number 2 (June 1976): pages 50–61. *J. Maxwell Miller
“The Patriarchs and Extra-Biblical Sources: a Response.”
''Journal for the Study of the Old Testament'', volume 1, number 2 (June 1976): pages 62–66. *Prudence Allen, Christine Garside Allen. "Who was Rebekah?" In ''Beyond Androcentrism: New Essays on Women and Religion''. Edited by Rita Gross, Rita M. Gross, pages 183–216. Missoula, Montana: Scholars, 1977. *John Tracy Luke
“Abraham and the Iron Age: Reflections on the New Patriarchal Studies.”
''Journal for the Study of the Old Testament'', volume 2, number 4 (February 1977): pages 35–47. *Nechama Leibowitz, Neḥama Leibowitz. ''Studies in Bereshit (Genesis)'', pages 207–56. Jerusalem: The World Zionist Organization, 1981. Reprinted as ''New Studies in the Weekly Parasha''. Lambda Publishers, 2010. *Walter Brueggemann. ''Genesis: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching'', pages 194–203. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982. *Nahum M. Sarna. "Genesis Chapter 23: The Cave of Machpelah." ''Hebrew Studies'', volume 23 (1982): pages 17–21. *K.T. Aitken. "The Wooing of Rebekah: A Study in the Development of a Tradition." ''Journal for the Study of the Old Testament'', volume 30 (1984): pages 3–23. *Mary Donovan Turner. "Rebekah: Ancestor of Faith." ''Lexington Theological Quarterly'', volume 20, number 2 (April 1985): pages 42–50. *Pinchas Hacohen Peli, Pinchas H. Peli. ''Torah Today: A Renewed Encounter with Scripture'', pages 21–24. Washington, D.C.: B'nai B'rith Books, 1987. *Marc Gellman. "Rebekah and the Camel Who Made No Noise." In ''Does God Have a Big Toe? Stories About Stories in the Bible'', pages 53–56. New York: HarperCollins, 1989. *Nahum M. Sarna. ''The JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis: The Traditional Hebrew Text with the New JPS Translation'', pages 157–77, 395–97. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989. *Raymond Westbrook. ''Property and Family in Biblical Law'', pages 24–35. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1991. *Elizabeth Bloch-Smith. "Burials." In ''The
Anchor Bible
The Anchor Bible Series, which consists of a commentary series, a Bible dictionary, and a reference library, is a scholarly and commercial co-venture which was begun in 1956, with the publication of individual volumes in the commentary series. O ...
Dictionary''. Edited by David Noel Freedman, volume 1, pages 785–94. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
*Aaron Wildavsky. ''Assimilation versus Separation: Joseph the Administrator and the Politics of Religion in Biblical Israel'', pages 6–7. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 1993.
*Judith S. Antonelli. "Milkah: Sarah's Sister." In ''In the Image of God: A Feminist Commentary on the Torah'', pages 48–59. Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson, 1995.
*Naomi H. Rosenblatt and Joshua Horwitz. ''Wrestling With Angels: What Genesis Teaches Us About Our Spiritual Identity, Sexuality, and Personal Relationships'', pages 204–27. Delacorte Press, 1995.
*Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg. ''The Beginning of Desire: Reflections on Genesis'', pages 123–43. New York: Image Books/Doubelday, 1995.
*Ellen Frankel. ''The Five Books of Miriam: A Woman’s Commentary on the Torah'', pages 31–38. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1996.
*Gunther Plaut, W. Gunther Plaut. ''The Haftarah Commentary'', pages 44–53. New York: UAHC Press, 1996.
*Sorel Goldberg Loeb and Barbara Binder Kadden. ''Teaching Torah: A Treasury of Insights and Activities'', pages 33–38. Denver: A.R.E. Publishing, 1997.
*Susan Freeman. ''Teaching Jewish Virtues: Sacred Sources and Arts Activities'', pages 102–18, 165–78. Springfield Township, Union County, New Jersey, Springfield, New Jersey: A.R.E. Publishing, 1999. (Genesis 23:23–24; 24:25, 53).
*John S. Kselman. "Genesis." In ''The HarperCollins Bible Commentary''. Edited by James Luther Mays, James L. Mays, page 97. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, revised edition, 2000.
*Rona Shapiro. "Woman's Life, Woman's Truth." In ''The Women's Torah Commentary: New Insights from Women Rabbis on the 54 Weekly Torah Portions''. Edited by Elyse Goldstein, pages 70–74. Woodstock, Vermont: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2000.
*Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman. “Searching for the Patriarchs.” In ''The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts'', pages 27–47. New York: Free Press (publisher), The Free Press, 2001.
*Lainie Blum Cogan and Judy Weiss. ''Teaching Haftarah: Background, Insights, and Strategies'', pages 102–09. Denver: A.R.E. Publishing, 2002.
*Michael Fishbane. ''The JPS Bible Commentary: Haftarot'', pages 29–34. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2002.
*Tikva Frymer-Kensky. “The Hand that Rocks the Cradle: The Rivka Stories.” In ''Reading the Women of the Bible'', pages 5–23. New York: Schocken Books, 2002.
*Admiel Kosman“The Story of a Giant Story: The Winding Way of Og King of Bashan in the Jewish Haggadic Tradition.”
''Hebrew Union College Annual'', volume 73 (2002): pages 157–90. *Robert Alter. ''The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary'', pages 113–29. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2004. *Jon D. Levenson. "Genesis." In ''The Jewish Study Bible''. Edited by Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, pages 47–53. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. *Lieve M. Teugels. ''Bible and Midrash: The Story of "The Wooing of Rebekah" (Genesis 24)''. Leuven: Peeters (publishing company), Peeters Publishers, 2004. *''Professors on the Parashah: Studies on the Weekly Torah Reading'' Edited by Leib Moscovitz, pages 47–53. Jerusalem: Urim Publications, 2005. *W. Gunther Plaut. ''The Torah: A Modern Commentary: Revised Edition''. Revised edition edited by David E. Stern, David E.S. Stern, pages 153–71. New York: Union for Reform Judaism, 2006. *Suzanne A. Brody. "Rebecca's Goodbye." In ''Dancing in the White Spaces: The Yearly Torah Cycle and More Poems'', page 66. Shelbyville, Kentucky: Wasteland Press, 2007. *Terence E. Fretheim. ''Abraham: Trials of Family and Faith''. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 2007. *Shmuel Goldin. ''Unlocking the Torah Text: Bereishit'', pages 99–121. Jerusalem: Gefen Publishing House, 2007.
*James Kugel, James L. Kugel. ''How To Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now'', pages 97, 121, 133–55, 166, 400. New York: Free Press, 2007.
*''The Torah: A Women's Commentary''. Edited by Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Andrea Weiss (rabbi), Andrea L. Weiss, pages 111–32. New York: Union for Reform Judaism, URJ Press, 2008.
*Rachel Brodie. "When Gender Varies: A Curious Case of Kere and Ketiv: Parashat Chayei Sarah (Genesis 23:1–25:18)." In ''Torah Queeries: Weekly Commentaries on the Hebrew Bible''. Edited by Gregg Drinkwater, Joshua Lesser, and David Shneer; foreword by Judith Plaskow, pages 34–37. New York: New York University Press, 2009.
*Reuven Hammer. ''Entering Torah: Prefaces to the Weekly Torah Portion'', pages 29–34. New York: Gefen Publishing House, 2009.
*Jonathan Sacks. ''Covenant & Conversation: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible: Genesis: The Book of Beginnings'', pages 121–44. New Milford, Connecticut: Maggid Books, 2009.
*John H. Walton. "Genesis." In ''Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary''. Edited by John H. Walton, volume 1, pages 99–104. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2009.
*Henrietta L. Wiley“They Save Themselves Alone: Faith and Loss in the Stories of Abraham and Job.”
''Journal for the Study of the Old Testament'', volume 34 (number 2) (December 2009): pages 115–29. *Karolien Vermeulen
“The 'Song' of the Servant—Gen 24:23.”
''Vetus Testamentum'', volume 61 (number 3) (2011): pages 499–504. *Calum Carmichael. ''The Book of Numbers: A Critique of Genesis'', pages 7, 19–20, 22, 37, 91–92, 99, 105–06, 109–10, 112–13, 115, 117–18, 120–22, 124, 141, 156, 162, 191. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012. *William G. Dever. ''The Lives of Ordinary People in Ancient Israel: When Archaeology and the Bible Intersect'', page 137. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2012.
*Shmuel Herzfeld. "The Prohibition of Intermarriage." In ''Fifty-Four Pick Up: Fifteen-Minute Inspirational Torah Lessons'', pages 24–28. Jerusalem: Gefen Publishing House, 2012.
*Jon D. Levenson. ''Inheriting Abraham: The Legacy of the Patriarch in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam''. 2012.
*Jonathan Sacks. ''Lessons in Leadership: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible'', pages 23–26. New Milford, Connecticut: Maggid Books, 2015.
*“The Hittites: Between Tradition and History.” ''Biblical Archaeology Review'', volume 42 (number 2) (March/April 2016): pages 28–40, 68.
*Jean-Pierre Isbouts. ''Archaeology of the Bible: The Greatest Discoveries From Genesis to the Roman Era'', page 58. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, National Geographic, 2016.
*Jonathan Sacks. ''Essays on Ethics: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible'', pages 27–31. New Milford, Connecticut: Maggid Books, 2016.
*Zvi Grumet. ''Genesis: From Creation to Covenant'', pages 245–66. Jerusalem: Maggid Books, 2017.
*Shai Held. ''The Heart of Torah, Volume 1: Essays on the Weekly Torah Portion: Genesis and Exodus'', pages 40–48. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2017.
*Ekaterina E. Kozlova“Abraham's Burial (Genesis 25.9): An Idyllic Burial or a Dispute over Inheritance?”
''Journal for the Study of the Old Testament'', volume 42, number 2 (December 2017): pages 139–53. *Steven Levy and Sarah Levy. ''The JPS Rashi Discussion Torah Commentary'', pages 15–17. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2017. *Pekka Pitkänen
“Ancient Israelite Population Economy: Ger, Toshav, Nakhri and Karat as Settler Colonial Categories.”
''Journal for the Study of the Old Testament'', volume 42, number 2 (December 2017): pages 139–53. *Jeffrey K. Salkin. ''The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary'', pages 21–25. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2017. *Bill Dauster
"Why Did Eliezer Change His Story?"
''Washington Jewish Week'', November 17, 2022, page 24. *Liana Finck. ''Let There Be Light: The Real Story of Her Creation'', pages 209–35. New York: Random House, 2022. *Abigail Pogrebin and Dov Linzer. ''It Takes Two to Torah: An Orthodox Rabbi and Reform Journalist Discuss and Debate Their Way Through the Five Books of Moses'', pages 31–35. Bedford, New York: Fig Tree Books, 2024.
External links
Texts
Masoretic text and 1917 JPS translation
Commentaries
Academy for Jewish Religion, California
American Jewish University—Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies
{{Book of Genesis Weekly Torah readings in Cheshvan Weekly Torah readings from Genesis Abraham