Chaye Sarah: mother's legacy

Chaye Sarah: mother's legacy

 Chaye Sarah is the parsha that precedes  the yahrzeit for my mother.  I read the Haftorah for  the parsah every year.  The haftorah is the story of Bathsheva ( David's real wife)  protecting her son, Shlomo, from the consequences of  his half brother, Adoniya's,  grab for the throne of David.  That throne had been promised to Shlomo.  Every year, I see my mother protecting me from unseen threats.  I trust in her; she was very good at miraculous survival, as evidenced by my existence. 

The parsha talks about the lives of  our mother Sarah.  It then proceeds to tell us elements of her legacy. Her impact extended far beyond her lifetime

 Sarah  was the catalyst for the first land purchase in the Promised Land. 

 My mother did likewise, I buried her near Beith Shemesh.  My parents made our family's  first land purchase in the Promised Land: their graves.  When I went to bury her, the funeral agent (  my Efron)  tried to dissuade  me.  He wanted to buy back the plot.  I did not let that happen.  I personally flew with her and buried her in , what is now, our family plot.  I hope that Elisheva and Shoshana, the two daughters that now live in Israel, will visit  for her yahrzeit. 

When my mother was born, there was no Jewish Homeland.  Some say that is part of the reason that her parents, brother and sisters were buried in mass graves ...after their murder. A homeland might have protected them.

 The parsha ends with the the 12 princes  who are the legacy of Ishmael.  This is the Ishmael that Sarah had cast out into the wilderness, the Ishmael from whom Hagar, his mother,  turned away ( rather than see him die), the Ishmael who was rescued by an angel.  The cruel act that Sarah insisted upon did not have the tragic outcome that logic would dictate.  Ishmael bore 12 princes and lived to be 137 years old. . .

A happy ending is an ending that happens, a testament to survival