Chayei Sarah 5774:    Something in Common

By Rabbi Joshua (commonly known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

In honor of Sarah Burk, granddaughter of Rabbi Gerry Burk, whose first birthday occurred this Friday.

            Parshas Chayei Sarah begins with an account of Sarah’s death and Avraham’s purchase of a burial plot, the Me’aras HaMachpeilah, in Kiryas Arba. Rashi, citing the midrash, says that the city in which Sarah died was called Kiryas Arba, “The City of Four”, because four couples would be buried there – Adam and Chava, and the patriarchs and matriarchs. Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, zt”l, pointed out that the inclusion of Adam and Chava in the Me’aras HaMachpeilah indicates that there is no gap between universal human dignity and Jewish covenantal sanctity.  Avraham’s role was not to free the Jew from his universal human obligation, but to elevate them. This idea is in a sense, similar to the teaching of Rav Kook in his Oros HaKokdesh that there are two types of mussar, or ethics – mussar enoshi, or basic human decency, things which everyone knows instinctively, should be done, and mussar Eloki, divine ethics, which build on the basic level. Anything that purports to be mussar Eloki but contradicts the lower level, says Rav Kook, is inherently flawed and does not qualify to be included in that category. 

            Despite the concept of basic human morality that is implied by the inclusion of Adam and Chava in the Me’aras HaMachpeilah, Avraham refused to bury Sarah in a burial plot along the children of Cheis, or the Hittites, as they are generally known. Rav Soloveitchik explains that this is because a Jew retains his identity after death, and, in terms of his spiritual essence, the way he prays, and the way he approaches life in general, he is totally different from a non-Jew. This difference, I believe, was best stated by Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l. Rav Aharon Soloveitchik, zt”l, related that when Franklin Delano Roosevelt died, he was still highly regarded in the Jewish community, and, in consonance with this feeling, a memorial service was held for him at Rav Moshe Feinstein’s yeshiva, Tiferes Yerushalayim. When, however, the cantor began to say the “maleih,” or the memorial prayer for the dead, Rav Moshe, zt”l, told him to leave out the phrase “grant him rest in the level of the most holy” because such is exclusive to the Jewish people. Rabbi Yitzchak Frankel, a student of Rav Moshe, discusses in his work Machat Shel Yad, Parshas Chayei Sarah, that the body of a Jew performs mitzvos and studies Torah in the course of a lifetime, and thereby becomes a receptacle of holiness, which is in turn inherently holy, just as the parchment upon which a sefer Torah is written. Interestingly, Rabbi Moshe Meiselman related that he heard from Rav Kook’s son-in-law, Rav Nosson Ra’anan, that at the funeral of Rav Kook his wife said, “azah heilige guf” or “such a holy body.” Avraham understood that only a Jew can achieve this level, in life and in death, and therefore insisted upon a separate burial plot. 

            This distinction between the universal mission of the Jew and his unique character that separates him from the other nations is, I believe, brought out later in the parsha, in regard to Eliezer’s mission to find a wife for Yitzchak. On the one hand, the Torah goes at great length in presenting the events themselves, as well as Eliezer’s account of the events to Rivkah’s family.  The rabbis tell us that we see from this lengthy account that the conversations of the servants of the patriarchs is dearer to God than the Torah of the children, as we find many halachos that are derived from a mere word or two. Rav Hertzel Kaplan explained that Eliezer, through relating the events to Rivkah’s family, was able to bring these idolaters to a recognition – that God was behind the events. In this sense, Eliezer, as a servant of Avraham, carried a universal message, of belief in God and His control over the universe. On the other hand, the prayer of Eliezer that preceded his discovery of Rivkah is a subject of controversy among Talmudic commentators (see Chulin 95a and commentaries) and is regarded by some as an example of divination. This contrasts to the prayer of Yitzchak, which reflected a holiness so intense, that when Rivkah first saw him, while engaged in this prayer, she fell from her camel, and according to the Netziv, considered him a holy man beyond her capacity to communicate with in a casual level. This contrast in prayer between Eliezer and Yitzchak brings into relief the distinction between a non-Jew, even one as devoted to the universal message of Avraham such as was Eliezer, and a Jew, such as Yitzchak, who had the added dimension of holiness, which Eliezer did not have the capacity to attain.