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.

Burial of Sarah (engraving by Gustave Doré from the 1865 La Sainte Bible )
Abraham Weighs Silver (illustration from the 1728 Figures de la Bible )
Eliezer and Rebekah (engraving by Gustave Doré from the 1865 La Sainte Bible )
Meeting of Isaac and Rebekah (engraving by Gustave Doré from the 1865 La Sainte Bible )
Isaac and Ishmael Bury Abraham (illustration from the 1728 Figures de la Bible )
The Sacrifice of Isaac (painting circa 1590–1610 by Caravaggio )
Satan Inflicting Plagues on Job (watercolor by William Blake from his 1826 Illustrations of the Book of Job )
Abraham bought a piece of land with a cave on it. (1984 illustration by Jim Padgett, courtesy of Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing)
Abraham was very old. (1984 illustration by Jim Padgett, courtesy of Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing)
Abraham ordered his servant to get a wife for Isaac. (1984 illustration by Jim Padgett, courtesy of Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing)
Abraham's Servant Swears (illustration from the 1728 Figures de la Bible )
The servant stopped at the well. (1984 illustration by Jim Padgett, courtesy of Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing)
The servant prayed that the Lord would help him. (1984 illustration by Jim Padgett, courtesy of Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing)
The Return of Jephtha (painting circa 1700–1725 by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini )
Rebecca and Eliezer (painting circa 1652 by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo )
Eliezer and Rebecca (18th Century painting by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo )
Isaac's servant trying the bracelet on Rebecca's arm (painting circa 1800 by Benjamin West )
Rebecca Meets Isaac by the Way (watercolor circa 1896–1902 by James Tissot )
Rebekah Sees Isaac (woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld from the 1860 Die Bibel in Bildern )
Rebekah has come to the land of Canaan (illustration from the 1897 Bible Pictures and What They Teach Us by Charles Foster)
Rebecca lights off the Camel (illustration from the 1728 Figures de la Bible )
Isaac loved Rebekah. (1984 illustration by Jim Padgett, courtesy of Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing)
Alexander the Great ( Hellenistic marble bust of the 2nd-1st century BCE in the British Museum )
The Title Page of the Zohar
Maimonides
Shlomo Ganzfried, editor of the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch
Room containing the cenotaph of Sarah in the Tomb of Machpela complex [ 142 ]
Abishag at the bed of David, with Bathsheba, Solomon, and Nathan (from a Dutch Bible circa 1435)
Talmud
Ibn Gabirol
Rashi
Maimonides
Naḥmanides
Dickinson
Luzzatto
Cohen
Mann
Kraft
Buber
Plaut
Finkelstein
Kosman
Kugel
Sacks
Herzfeld
Finck