Chayei Sarah

[27] 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.

[30] The servant then asked whether or not they meant to treat Abraham with true kindness, and Laban and Bethuel answered that God and Rebekah had decreed the matter could go and be Isaac's wife.

[35] 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.

[38] 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.

[44] In the sixth reading, in chapter 25, Abraham took another wife, named Keturah, who bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.

[58] The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these early nonrabbinic sources:[59] The Book of Jubilees 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.

[60] Josephus 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.

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.

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,'[73] 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."

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.

[77] Similarly, Rabbi Jehudah taught that the three Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob made covenants with the people of the Land of Israel.

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.

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.

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.

The midrash thus counted Abraham's servant along with Jacob and Abishai the son of Zeruiah as men who miraculously traveled long distances in a short time when the earth trembled, closing gaps and thereby speeding them along.

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.

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.

[100] 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.

[101] 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.

[103] 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.

[108] 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.

[110] 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.

[116] The Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer taught that the servant left Haran at noon and took Rebekah and her nurse Deborah riding on the camels.

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.

[132] Maimonides 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.

[135] The parashah is discussed in these modern sources: John Van Seters argued that the Abraham cycle was a postexilic invention of the 5th century CE or later.

This table translates units of weight used in the Bible into their modern equivalents:[137] According to Maimonides and Sefer ha-Chinuch, there are no commandments in the parashah.

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 study chapter 5 of Pirkei Avot on a Sabbath between Passover and Rosh Hashanah.