Parsha Chayei Sarah 5766: Two Shidduchim and a Legacy
by, Moshe Burt
Toward the end of our parsha, after Avraham Aveinu’s acquistion of the Ma’arat HaMachpela for 400 shekels of silver from Efron the Hittite, after his burial and mourning period for Sarah Emeinu, Avraham sends Eliezer back to his (Avraham’s) family on a mission to find a wife for Yitzchak.
As Eliezer approaches Aram Naharayim, the city of Nahor, the home of Avrham’s family, he prays to Hashem; “Oh Lord, G’d of my master Avraham, I pray you … show kindness to my master Avraham.”
And he continues, “And it will come to pass, that the damsel to whom I will say, ‘Let down your pitcher, I pray you, that I may drink’and she will say, ‘Drink, and I will give your camels drink also,’ she will be the one that you have appointed for your servant Yitzchak; and thereby will I know that you have shown kindness to my master.'” (Breish’t Perek 24, posukim 12 and 14)
We learn that “it was when he had not yet finished speaking that suddenly Rifka was coming out — she who had been born to Bethuel, the son of Milcah the wife of Nahor, brother of Avraham — with her jug upon her shoulder… And the servant ran to meet her, and said, ‘Let me drink, if you please, a little water from your pitcher. And she said, ‘Drink my lord’; and she hurried, and let down her her pitcher to her hand, and gave him drink. When she finished giving him drink, she said, ‘I will draw water even for your camels until they have finished drinking. She hurried and emptied her pitcher into the trough and kept running to the well to draw water; and she drew for all of his camels.” (Breish’t Perek 24, posukim 15 and 17-20)
And our parsha explains that Eliezer was “…astonished at Rifka…” (Breish’t Perek 24, posuk 21) just as I was astonished when, in mid-sentence, I was stopped just short of 11 years ago [back in Philadelphia] from relating my story of the Melave Malka [where the idea for The Sefer Torah Recycling Network was born] the previous night. Rabbi Mordechai Young offered me a Sefer Torah which was restored and placed in Yishuv Bat Ayin some 5 months later. This Sefer brought about the birth of an idea which became reality with the subsequent placement, over the next 11 years, of this and 10 other Sifrei Torah in needy locations exclusively in Eretz Yisrael.
And further towards our parsha’s end, we find Avraham remarrying to a woman named Ketura who we are told is actually Hagar who had done full teshuva and had secluded herself from all men since her separation from Avraham.
We learn that Avraham bore six sons to Ketura who were unworthy to stay with Avraham and were discharged with gifts from the household. Only Yitzchak would inherit the mantle of the legacy of B’nai Yisrael.
And at Avraham’s death only Yitzchak and Yishmael would bury their father. The seventh and maftir aliyot speak of the sons of Yishmael and the years of his life.
This will segue into a Zohar, on a Parsha Sheet, which I hold is mind-blowing. Mind you, I do not learn Zohar and did not focus on the big, bold lettering of the Parsha HaShevua which was written a couple of years ago.
When I receive parsha sheets, I read them and then place them in one of a few Chumashim under that week’s parsha. So when I opened my Artscroll Stone Chumash to Parsha Chayei Sarah, what I saw was shocking!
“In the future, the sons of Yishmael will rule in the Holy Land … And they will prevent Israel from returning home … and the time will come when the sons of Yishmael will arouse fierce wars throughout the world.” (Zohar, Breish’t 119 as presented on Parsha Sheet for Chayei Sarah, Darka Shel Torah)
And yes, the descendents of Yishmael — Arafat Y’machsh’mo, his successor Abu “Abu Abbas in a business suit” Mazen Y’machsh’mo , Fatah, the Tanzim, Hamas, Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad, al Qaida, bin Laden, the Taliban, etc. — they all threaten the world as well as threatening to seize control of The Land of Israel via equivocating Jewish rule based on secular hatred and disdain for Torah, tradition, Jewish values. And they stand as obstacles, thanks to this self-hating Israeli government, to Jewish reclamation of Jewish Land.
But the final these three Zohar statements is most telling of all at present. “The sons of Yishmael will arouse fierce wars throughout the world.”
Consider some of these headlines from a well-known news and commentary blog;
Non-Muslims Beaten to Death in French Intifada, 2,000 Suicide Bombers Loose in Bangladesh, Suicide Bombers Kill 57 at Jordan Hotels, Blast Outside KFC in Pakistan Kills Three, etc. And these do not even scratch the surface of all of the Islamic warfare presently in the world nor are they even the strongest headlines as the beat goes on.
And yet, many Jews look upon the Yishmaelites, these unstable as water and who seek world domination over the non-Islamic “Infidels” as “our cousins”, that “‘we are all sons of Abraham’ and … are quite comfortable with the Machpelah being shared (sic) among all of ‘Abraham’s children.'” (Parsha Sheet for Chayei Sarah, Darka Shel Torah)
Rabbi Binyamin Kahane z”l writes, “Tragically, one who refuses to see will not be convinced by thousands of quotes [by the greatest Torah authorities] … or by a thousand murdered Jews. And for this reason the Yishmaelites do not have to resort to cunning to camouflage their diabolical plot: what they plan to do, they state openly — and we refuse to listen. ‘O deaf ones, listen; who is blind as My servant (Israel) and deaf as My messenger.'” (Quote “O deaf ones…” from Yeshayahu 42:18 as included in Parsha Sheet for Chayei Sarah, Darka Shel Torah)
May it be in this new year and beyond, that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif and the Shomron as well as our dear brother, Jonathan Pollard are central in our thoughts, prayers, chassadim and actions.
B’Ezrat Hashem, may we soon know the day when Torah is the law of the land, when we pray thanks to Hashem for the Ge’ula Shlaima and for the restoration of our Brethren, expelled by the evil regime from Gush Katif and the Shomron towns to bigger and more beautiful homes and neighborhoods, Bati Knesset, Yeshivot in Gush Katif and the Shomron and only happiness and success for all time. May this abominable period of history called hitnatkut be as a bad dream. And may we soon see freedom and long life in Eretz Yisrael for Jonathan Pollard.
May we be zocha in this coming year take giant steps toward fulfilling Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations.”
May we be zocha the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, “Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Meiyad, Etmol!!!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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