This Shabbat we study the Parshah Chayei Sarah, meaning  "The life of Sarah" (Genesis 23:1). Sarah dies at age 127 and is buried in the Machpelah Cave in Hebron, which Abraham purchases from Ephron the Hittite for four hundred shekels of silver.

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Abraham’s servant Eliezer is sent, laden with gifts, to Charan, to find a wife for Isaac. At the village well, Eliezer asks G-d for a sign: when the maidens come to the well, he will ask for some water to drink; the woman who will offer to give his camels to drink as well shall be the one destined for his master’s son.

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Rebecca, the daughter of Abraham’s nephew Bethuel, appears at the well and passes the “test.” Eliezer is invited to their home, where he repeats the story of the day’s events. Rebecca returns with Eliezer to the land of Canaan, where they encounter Isaac praying in the field. Isaac marries Rebecca, loves her, and is comforted over the loss of his mother.

Abraham takes a new wife, Keturah (Hagar), and fathers six additional sons, but Isaac is designated as his only heir. Abraham dies at age 175 and is buried beside Sarah by his two eldest sons, Isaac and Ishmael.

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Chabad.org

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This week's haftorah describes an aging King David, echoing this week's Torah reading, which mentions that "Abraham was old, advanced in days."

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King David was aging, and he was perpetually cold. A young maiden, Abishag of Shunam, was recruited to serve and provide warmth for the elderly monarch. Seeing his father advancing in age, Adoniahu, one of King David's sons, seized the opportunity to prepare the ground for his ascension to his father's throne upon the latter's passing — despite King David's express wishes that his son Solomon succeed him. Adoniahu recruited two influential individuals — the High Priest and the commander of David's armies — both of whom had fallen out of David's good graces, to champion his cause. He arranged to be transported in a chariot with fifty people running before him, and invited a number of his sympathizers to a festive party where he publicized his royal ambitions.

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The prophet Nathan encouraged Bat Sheva, mother of Solomon, to approach King David and plead with him to reaffirm his choice of Solomon as his successor. This she did, mentioning Adoniahu's recent actions of which the king had been unaware. Nathan later joined Bat Sheva and the king to express support for Bat Sheva's request. King David acceded to their request: "Indeed," he told Bat Sheva, "as I swore to you by the Lord God of Israel saying, 'Surely Solomon, your son, shall reign after me and he shall sit on my throne in my stead,' surely, so will I swear this day."

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Chabad.org

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The years of Sarah’s life were 127 years, these were the years of Sarah’s life (Genesis 23:1)
Sarah had two lives, because she merited to higher life as well. Why Sarah more than anyone else? Because she descended to Egypt and rose back up.—Zohar

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The person you are in this lifetime is a faint and flawed reflection of the greatness of your soul before it descended to the Egypt of a body. Until you work with this body and with this world to raise them higher.

Then, even while living in this world, you will have higher life.

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Rabbi Tzvi Freeman

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Abraham’s purchase of the field which contained the Cave of Machpelah represents the beginning of the general redemption of all Jews. The commentary Pa’ane’ach Raza explains that with the 400 silver shekels that Abraham paid (Chayei Sarah 23:16), he purchased one square cubit of the Land of Israel for every one of the 600,000 root-souls of Israel. For by the estimation of “the seed of a chomer of barley at fifty silver shekels” (Vayikra 27:16), 400 silver shekels redeem exactly 600,000 square cubits.

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Rabbi J. Immanuel Schochet

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"What type of man do I want to marry?" the young woman repeated the question that had been asked of her. "Well, I want someone kind. And smart. But not the too-kind type that lets himself be walked on. And not the too-smart type that lets it get to his head. Someone who isn't too much into his books: someone sociable. A leader, the life of a party — but not someone who aggravates with his presence. I'd like him to be handsome, but not haughty. I'd like..." She looked at the Rebbe, seated behind his desk. His smile was broad and his eyes twinkled. "It sounds like you want to marry more than one person."

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I've told this story — to myself and to whoever wants to listen — dozens of times. I don't know who the lady was. But this next story I know happened to Chana Sharfstein:

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Chana (then Zuber) was a young woman in Boston in the early fifties. Her father had brought the family there from Stockholm. Not long afterwards he was gruesomely murdered while walking home from shul on a Friday night. Back then, such things shocked New England. Chana will tell you that after she lost her father the Rebbe adopted her. Six months after her father's murder, she too, stood before the Rebbe's desk.

Why haven't you married yet? the Rebbe wanted to know.

I haven't met the right one.

What will the right one look like?

A charismatic Prince Charming stepped out of Chana's imagination and into their conversation.

The Rebbe laughed fully.

"You've read too many novels," the Rebbe said, still laughing but growing more serious. "Novels are not real life: they're fictions. They're full of romance and infatuation. Infatuation is not real. Infatuation is not love.

"Love is life," the Rebbe continued. "It grows through small acts of two people living together. With time they cannot imagine life without each other."

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Infatuation you fall into. Love you build. And love-–the barometer of a successful marriage-–is dependant 20% on the person you marry and 80% on the way you marry them every day.

"And they shall build a home in Israel," the Rebbe said in his blessing he sent Chaya and me for our wedding day. A home and a house is not the same thing. They say nothing stresses a marriage like building a house.

May we all be blessed to build a home-–the newlyweds and the jubilee-plus anniversarians. Built with small acts. Bit by bit. With time.

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Rabbi Shimon Posner

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