Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Sarah lived one hundred twenty-seven years. This was the length of Sarah’s life. Sarah died in Kiriath Arba (also called Hebron), in the land of Canaan. Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.”
(Genesis 23:1-2)

This is the only time the age of a woman at the time of her death is given.

Sarah lived until Isaac was 36 years old, so she lived right up until Abraham and Isaac went to that sacrifice, but did not live much longer. In fact, we can put a limit to Isaac’s age if we assume that the sacrifice happened before Sarah died. That is implied by the order of the events, but the Bible isn’t always linear. It is conceivable that she died before the sacrifice, but almost all scholars agree that it happened before her death.

Abraham was 136 years old at the time of Sarah’s death at 127 years old. Noah had died only 58 years prior to this. Shem was still alive and would live for another 74 years. All told Abraham and Sarah were married for more than a century. What a blow that must have been for Abraham.

Abraham was not where Sarah was when she died. He had to return to where she was, which was Hebron. Abraham’s home – at the last we heard – was Beersheba. There are those who believe that because Abraham took Isaac and was willing to sacrifice him that a rift appeared between Abraham and Sarah. That their relationship never recovered from that blow and they were separated. There is no scriptural evidence for this beyond being in two separate places when she died. But there are a thousand or more reasons why they would be apart that have nothing to do with their being estranged – but some do hold to that thinking.

The sage Bekhor Shor writes: ‘And the life of Sarah It is not the [usual] way to record the deaths of women, even righteous ones, unless it is by means of a deed. For behold we find only Sarah, Rachel, and Devorah — Rivka’s wetnurse — and Miriam on the withdrawal of the well. Sarah’s death is mentioned since she makes known to us how the grave was acquired with riches (and this is one of the tests [of Avraham]). Devorah’s death is mentioned to make known how the name of the place is called Alon-Bachut. Rachel’s death is mentioned to teach why she is not buried in Ma’arat haMachpela. And why is it that their years are not numbered, except for Sarah? Since she is the most important of them all.’

The sage Da’at Zekenim writes: ”ויהיו חיי שרה וגו, “the lives of Sarah were, etc.” the description of Sarah having had more than one life must be understood as follows: during the first ninety years of her life she had been childless. Anyone who has no children is really considered as if dead. When you look at the numerical value of the letters in the word ויהיו the total is 37. This is the Torah’s way at showing us that the last thirty seven years of Sarah’s life were really the ones that counted.’

The sage Rav Hirsch writes: ‘V. 2. ויבא אברהם. This is usually taken to say: So Abraham came etc. so that he was not present at her death. And this is then explained that when he returned from the Akeida he found that his wife was no longer living. So little is the reward which was promised to the Patriarch to be measured by the joy and happiness he was allowed to enjoy here below. But this explanation has then to be supplemented by the supposition that, before he left Beer-Sheba to go to Moriah, Abraham had sent Sarah to Hebron to prevent her suddenly getting the painful tragic news of what he thought had to happen. But this whole supposition can be made unnecessary if one considers the real original meaning of בוא. The original meaning of בוא is, to betake oneself out of the open into the house, out of a public place into privacy. Thus, of Gideon (Judges Vi.19) וגדעון בא ויעש וגו׳; Is. 26,20, לך עמי בא בחדריך, Ez. 3,23 בא הסגר בתוך ביתך, “retire and shut yourself up in your house”. Thus also בא השמש the sun goes in, sets, in contrast to צאת השמש, comes out, rises So that here the meaning may simply be: — Abraham withdrew, shut himself in to mourn for his Sarah and to weep for her. He does not wear his heart upon his sleeve, makes no parade of his grief. Whether this is not indicated also by the small כ in לבכתה, we state as a possibility. We know what his Sarah had been to Abraham, how infinitely deep his grief must have been. He mourns, he weeps but he bears the pain in his heart, in the privacy of his home.’