Parshat Shavua

Avraham has now finished his “10 Tests.” After the traumas of being thrown into a fiery furnace, leaving his family & his homeland, fighting a war to free his nephew, circumcising himself (at age 99!), & almost sacrificing his beloved Yitzchak at the Akeida, Avraham certainly deserves a well-earned rest.

In truth, our mother Sarah, like many other mothers past and present in Jewish life, has not quite received her due. Rashi, quoting Midrash in describing Sarah’s life, states that all the years of Sarah’s life were “for good.” He must mean “for good” in a spiritual and holy sense, for in her physical worldly life there was little good that she experienced.

This week’s parsha records for us the passing of our father and mother, of Avraham and Sarah. The Torah notes these sad events without any undue display of emotion or even of great sadness. The Torah’s view of life is that death is inevitable and that death does not end the influence of life – in fact, it does not end life itself.