Thread by @GREENESJ333

Roger Froikin @rlefraim wrote, "SHABBAT SHALOM. שבת שלום

Parshat Chayei Sarah
Genesis 23:1–25:18

THERE ARE SOME INTERESTING POINTS IN THIS PARSHA THAT ARE NOT NOTICED ALL THAT OFTEN.
1)

If you want a traditional interpretation, it won’t be here. If you would like something that focuses on some less noticed items, read on.
2)

“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”
3)

Four Thousand years ago, Avraham, a man from a business oriented culture, knew that purchasing land established true ownership, a claim to ownership that no one could take away no matter the circumstances.
4)

Today, a small Jewish Community is in Hebron. No other nation has as strong a claim to that land, to that city, as does the Jewish Nation. It is time that the claim is made in a more concrete manner — expanding the Jewish population, Jewish businesses, Jewish institutions...
5)

to a modern Jewish population of 250,000.

And

Abraham’s servant Eliezer is sent, laden with gifts, to Haran, 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;...
6)

the woman who will offer to give his camels to drink as well shall be the one destined for his master’s son.

Note that Avraham wanted his son married to someone from his ancestral culture, in Haran, which covered an area known today as South East Turkey,...
7)

not from Ur of the Chaldese (Southern Iraq today) where his immediate family had lived & where he was born. It is as if Torah is instructing us 4000 years later of the need to seek continuation of our own culture rather than to marry out,...
8)

a statement against intermarriage that might lead to the demise of our people.

When Avraham dies, he is buried in the Cave he purchased next to his first wife, Sarah, and he is buried by his sons, Isaac and Ishmael.
9)

And later, when they die, both Isaac and Ishamel are buried in the same place, in the land Avraham bought to be the possession of his descendants forever.
10)

This is particularly relevant today. Sometimes people decide who their enemies are and who their friends are based on the experience of only a limited period of time. The general belief is that Jews and Muslims are adversaries, that Israel and Arabs hate one another.
11)

We hear from all sorts of commentators, trying to fit the Biblical narrative to modern times, of how Isaac (Yitzchak) and Ismael are adversaries that can never be at peace.
12)

But this parsha can teach something a bit different. Yitzchak & Ismael may have had different approaches to life, & may have had conflicts, & may have resented one another for a variety of reasons,...
13)

but they came together to bury their father, & their descendants buried them together.

Who might be an adversary yesterday, may not be tomorrow and certainly not forever.
14)

The world is changing. Relationships, alliances, interests will change. Never assume what is today will be forever."
15)

@threader_app compile