Sarah, the Enabler: From the Binding of Isaac to the First Israelite
Land Purchase in the Promised Land

Schulamith C. Halevy

Chapter xxiii of Genesis begins with a brief report of Sarah's death at
age 127 and a rather protracted and seemingly overly detailed account
of Abraham's negotiations for the purchase of a burial site. Isaac is
completely absent from this chronicle of his mother's passing, his
sorrow only alluded to later, where we are informed that he overcame
it. Abraham's reaction to the loss of his wife is expressed in five
succinct Hebrew words: ``And-Abraham came to-mourn for-Sarah
and-to-weep-for-her.'' The rest of the chapter deals with the business
side of things. What significance does this very detailed account of
Abraham's purchase of the Cave of Machpelah hold?

Abraham wished to bury Sarah in the crypt, and, having learned that it
belonged to Ephron the Hittite, offers to buy it from him. In verse 9,
he asks explicitly for the cave at the edge of Ephron' s field, making
it clear that the cave was all he wanted. Ephron in response offers to
give Abraham both the field and the cave, meaning that he would not
sell one without the other. He then proceeds to remind Abraham of his
poor bargaining position, having to bury his dead, and sets a hefty
asking price (verse 15). Abraham graciously overpays and is now the
owner of both the cave he had wanted and the field which he had
expressed no interest in, but the importance of which the Torah amply
emphasizes ``... and the field of Ephron... and the cave... and all the
trees... in the presence of all the people of Heth...'' (verses 17-18).
Afterall this, we are at last told that Abraham buried his wife in the
cave of the field of Machpelah, then reminded again in the last verse
of our chapter that the field (mentioned first), and the cave, were now
Abraham's.

Throughout the book of Genesis, we are continually reminded of this
businesstransaction and the importance of this field: In xxv, 9-10,
following Abraham's death, Isaac and Ishmael bury him ``in the cave of
Machpelah, in the field... which Abraham purchased of the children of
Heth.'' In xlix, 29-32, Jacob asks his children to be sure and bury
him, ``in the cave that is in the field... which Abraham bought from
Ephron the Hittite... the field and cave which was purchased from the
children of Heth.'' When Jacob's last wish is carried out, in the last
chapter of Genesis, we hear yet again that the cave was located in the
field of Machpelah which Abraham purchased from Ephron (verse 13).

The Torah's narration is clearly assigning great significance to the
purchase of this field which Abraham was all but forced into buying.
Indeed, the land purchase is so important, it almost completely
overshadows the story of Sarah's death. The terse treatment of
Abraham's grief is further highlighted by the event described just prior
to Sarah's death--the akeidah, the Binding of Isaac (chapter xxii). In
contrast to the tone of our story, great attention is given in the
akeidah to mood-setting detail, telling us something of what transpired
between father and beloved son, and opening the door to rabbinic
speculation, and to our imagination, as to all that remains unsaid.

So central and powerful is the akeidah experience in the Jewish
religious andnational conscience that the attempted sacrifice is
recalled in many a prayer. The incident has been turned to by grieving
parents throughout the Jewish Nation's trials. References can be found
to the ashes of the sacrificed Isaac in the High Holiday liturgy, as
well as in the Talmud. What ashes? Abraham offered no more than his
willingness to offer his son, and a God-given ram! Hardly a great
sacrifice, and far less than the realities that have befallen the
Jewish people countless times since. On the other hand, Sarah the
Matriarch's real death appears to fade into insignificance amid
haggling over the field of Machpelah.

Interestingly, a number of midrashic threads weave together the story
before us the binding of Isaac. In Genesis Rabbah (and other sources),
the Midrash asks where Abraham came from when he ``came to'' mourn for
Sarah, and answers that he wasreturning from Mount Moriah, following
the akeidah. Yet another midrash (Pirkei d'Rabbi Eliezer) tells us that
Satan, frustrated by Abraham's unshakable devotion, went to Sarah while
Abraham was on his way to Moriah and told her that her husband was
about to sacrifice her son, causing her to die of grief. (Other
versions mention Samael, or Isaac returning and reporting the event.)

This connection is bolstered by the oft-repeated rabbinic assertion,
according to which Isaac was 37 years old at the time of the akeidah.
Considering the specifics of the story, this is a highly unlikely age,
as Maimonides, Abravanel, Ibn-Ezra and Kimchi, among other
commentators, hasten to point out. What 37 year old has the firewood
put on his shoulder by his elderly father? or is referred to as a
``lad'' when innocently asking his father where the lamb for slaughter
is? or allows himself to be tied up to be killed by his 137 year old
father and ends up with no credit? This midrash, by arguing that
Isaac's age at the time of the akeidah was his age when Sarah
died--Sarah was 90 when she gave birth to Isaac--must be trying to
provide some deeper insight, not a new chronology.

What point are the midrashim trying to make? What insights are there to
be gained by connecting the akeidah to Sarah's death over and over and
over again? The Sages are offering us an alternative scenario: the
three midrashim, the one placing Abraham on Mount Moriah at the time of
Sarah's death, the arithmetics making Isaac 37 at the time, and the one
contending Sarah's death resulted from her discovering that Isaac had
been bound for sacrifice, combine to offer an explanation why the story
of Sarah's death appears immediately following the akeidah: Sarah died,
according to these midrashim, as a consequence of the akeidah. To make
this important connection--one that does not answer to the literal
reading of the story--yet is obvious in the historic sense, the Sages
argue for Isaac's age at 37 at the time of the akeidah. The first
midrash simply lets us know that the akeidah and Sarah's death occurred
at the same time. The second adjusts Isaac's age at the time of the
akeidah to agree with his age at the time of his mother's death. The
last story makes the causal connection: Satan was the instrument by
which the akeidah brought about Sarah's death. A great sacrifice
indeed, say the Sages, was made at Mount Moriah: the demand for Isaac's
sacrifice was met by his mother. Out of the shadows and into the
limelight of the akeidah they take Sarah. Isaac could not be the one to
die on the mount; it was through him that God had promised progeny to
Abraham and Sarah.

Our first foremother, Sarah, was the sacrifice taken in Isaac's stead.
Not all mothers have been offered this option, and, not surprisingly,
bereaved parents throughout history identify with Sarah and Abraham,
deriving from this powerful story thestrength to accept God's will.

Following Sarah's death and burial, the Torah continues with Abraham
exacting an oath from his servant not to take Isaac out of the Promised
Land, but to go back himself to Abraham's ``motherland'' to find Isaac
a wife. Isaac was not to leave the future Land of Israel, not to find
himself a wife, not even for relief from famine. God says: ``Reside in
this land'' (Gen. xxvi, 3). The Midrash expounds, ``You are the
unblemished sacrifice. Just as a burnt-offering that is removed from
the Tabernacle is disqualified, so you, too, if you leave the Land will
be disqualified.'' He was forever bound, by virtue of his mother's
sacrifice, to the land. When, finally, Rebecca, the next matriarch,
established herself in Sarah's tent, and the perpetuation of Sarah's
children, for whom she died, was assured, Isaac--the survivor--was
comforted from his grief over her death. Thus, Sarah's death, far from
representing an end, heralded the start of the agricultural
inhabitation of the country by Abraham's descendents, and properly
belongs at the beginning of the story of Isaac, in the Torah portion
entitled haye Sarah--the life of Sarah.

Here at last is the meaning of all the talk of land purchase
surrounding--practically drowning out--Sarah's death. Although for
Abraham, the nomadic herdsman, the only reason for the transaction was
the need for a burial site, the time had come for the first act of
securing the Promised Land, and--as the Torah reports--Abraham was the
unwitting instrument in establishing a permanent claim to the land.
Abraham paid four hundred silver shekels for the parcel of land; Sarah
paid for it with her life and willed it to her only son. The Field of
Machpelah was of incalculable importance in establishing the bond
between the future generations and their homeland, as demonstrated by
the repeated emphasis on the field, at Abraham's burial and again at
Jacob's.

This is the last link in the Sarah-Isaac saga: first, the akeidah; then
Sarah's death; finally, Isaac settling down to stay. The light the
Midrash sheds on the sequence of events reinforces our understanding of
the akeidah as the commitment to kiddush hashem--sanctifying God's
name, even to the point of martyrdom--demanded of, andoffered by, the
Jewish people throughout history. Through her death, Sarah, the actual
sacrifice, facilitates the purchase of the first tract of land by the
first Jew inthe Promised Land, thus securing the cornerstone of the
home of the Jewish nation, just as her many children sacrificed
themselves and their children for the survival of their people. Sarah's
burial place came with land, the land which Isaac--the
sacrfice-designate--was to till, to reap and never to leave.

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SCHULAMITH C. HALEVY, a poet, teaches Jewish Studies at Spertus
Institute in Chicago. She is currently editing a book of divrei Torah
written by women and aresource book on descendents of forced converts
of Spain and Portugal.