Chayei Sarah – a d’var torah

During our Youth Group led Shabbat service, Sierra shared a lesson on the parshah that she had prepared. Sierra is a 9th grader, and a religious school student in the confirmation class. Here is her d’var torah:

This week’s Torah portion is called Chayei Sarah from the book of Genesis. I have written a d’var torah, or teaching of the Torah. Chayei Sarah means “the life of Sarah” and is about her death at age 127. She is buried in the Machpelah Cave in Hebron and is accompanied by her husband Abraham and their two eldest children about 50 years later after paying the price of four hundred shekels of silver for the graves. This happens even though Abraham remarried to a woman named Keturah. He gains 6 boys from that short-lived marriage, though his heir to all his belongings is still Isaac. Sarah misses the marriage of her child, Isaac to Rebecca. Issac and Rebecca come together when Eliezer is sent with gifts to Charan. Eliezer is given a sign from G­-d when Rebecca appears with water for his camel and as a result passes the test. Then Eliezer is invited to Rebecca’s home where he tells his story and later brings Rebecca back to Canaan to meet Isaac during his daily rituals. This is important because they marry after falling in love and he eventually forgets the grief of losing his mother, Sarah.

Looking further into the text, Chayei Sarah expands on what makes you happy in life.“Sarah lived to be 127 years old. These were the years of Sarah’s life,” (23:1). Could this mean that she lived life to the fullest. Was it simply an enjoyable life or simply a long and full life– or is it both? All we can do in our own lives is to define the meaning of happiness and hope to see it come to fruition. “To be happy does not mean that you have everything you want or everything you were promised. It means, simply, to have done what you were called on to do, to have made a beginning, and then to have passed on the baton to the next generation.” I think the most important thing to be learned here is that we need to fulfill our duties to education and career—but we also must do our work of continuing to teach the generations to come. And maybe, if possible, we will make a lasting impression. After all, we are only human– just like Sarah and Abraham.