Parashat Chayei-Sara is the third and final parasha that tells of the life of Avraham, but both in content and from the standpoint of literary structure, it is distinct and stands apart. The story of Avraham’s life is bookended by two commands of “lekh-lekha” – the command to leave his home and relocate in Canaan, which appears at the beginning of Parashat Lekh-Lekha, and the command to “go forth” to Mount Moriah for the akeida, the section which concludes Parashat Vayera. In between, we read of Avraham’s experiences as he forged a special covenant with God, which began being fulfilled when he obtained great wealth, achieved prominence, earned special divine protection from adversaries, and, finally, when he begot a son. The story of Avraham could have, at first glance, ended after the akeida, which is commonly seen as the last of his “tests” and marks the last time God spoke to him.
But the Torah then “appends” Parashat Chayei-Sara, where we read of Avraham the individual, as opposed to Avraham the patriarch and covenantal partner of God. In this parasha, Avraham does not receive prophecies from God, erect altars for “calling out in the Name of the Lord,” wage wars, struggle with the powerful rulers in Canaan, or host angels. In Parashat Chayei-Sara, Avraham tends to his family, ensuring a proper and respectful burial for his wife, finding a wife for his son, and then remarrying and having more children who from the outset were not destined to have any part in his covenant with God. We might say that this parasha portrays Avraham as an “ordinary” person. Certainly, there is much to learn from his words and actions even in “ordinary” life, but the persona developed in Parashat Chayei-Sara is that of a husband and father, not a man who changed history.
And this might precisely be the reason why this “addendum” was necessary. The Torah perhaps seeks to warn us not to think that the life of Avraham is only about Lekh-Lekha and Vayera, about history making, prophecy, angelic encounters, supernatural protection and miraculous military triumphs. Avraham’s life was also about family, the so-called “simple things,” the private enterprises of caring for a wife and children.
Rashi, commenting on the beginning of the parasha, cites the Midrash’s famous comment that Sara died as a result of hearing of the akeida, and thus Avraham returned home from Moriah to find his wife dead. Symbolically, and in a strikingly dramatic and even distressing way, the Midrash here expresses the reality of life that public life takes its toll on one’s family. While Avraham was “making history” atop Mount Moriah, providing merit for his descendants to this day and beyond, his wife back home died. Avraham did exactly what he had to do, but no person – even somebody as great as Avraham – could be in two places at once. Climbing to Mount Moriah, being an Avraham Avinu, exacts a price on family.
But in Parashat Chayei-Sara, we are shown that Avraham worked to minimize this sacrifice, to care for his family alongside his achievements as founder of Am Yisrael. While some sacrifice is inevitable, it does not have to be crippling. And thus Parashat Chayei-Sara teaches that Avraham our patriarch was also Avraham the husband and father, that spiritual greatness includes commitment to one’s basic, fundamental duties to his family.
(Based on a sicha by Rav Moshe Taragin)