Dvar Torah for Parashat Chayei Sarah given on Friday evening 11/13/20
[Genesis 23:1 – 25:18]
Near the end of this week’s Torah portion we read of Abraham’s final years, after the death and burial of Sarah, and after the marriage of Isaac and Rebecca.
We learn in Gen 25:1 that Abraham takes another wife, named Keturah. Rashi, following the lead of the classic rabbinic midrash collection, Bereshit Rabba, asserts that this Keturah was none other than Hagar, the mother of Abraham’s first son Ishmael.[1] Hagar and Ishmael had been sent away years before, but, according to this midrashic version, Abraham called Hagar back to be with him in his final years after the death of her rival Sarah.
We may or may not find this midrashic flight of fancy convincing. Indeed, other medieval commentators dispute the identification of Keturah with Hagar. However, I personally find it very moving to imagine that Keturah was Hagar. This means that Abraham's life could end on a note of reconciliation after the various crises and trials that he had lived through in the decades before.
And perhaps this explains how a few verses later, at Gen. 25:9, it can happen that Isaac and Ishmael bury their father together. Perhaps there is a long hoped-for reconciliation there too. And, if not a full-scale reconciliation, at least it shows that they were capable of joining together to address a common task.
In like fashion, let us pray for reconciliation among the various political factions within our country. That all of us – including the most ardent partisans among us -- may respect one another’s humanity and ascribe sincere motivations to one another’s actions.
Such an approach has gotten more and more difficult with each new election cycle. Too many of the loudest voices in the political realm seem to deny the legitimacy of those who disagree with them. That is particularly true with respect to the administration that is now in its last days. The new President-Elect, Joe Biden, has promised to be a president for all the people in our nation, not just those who voted for him. That will be a welcome change if he is true to his words.
Whatever our own political affiliations or leanings --whether we be Democrats or Republicans or none of the above --- let us hope and pray that the new administration will be successful in leading us past the current pandemic and ushering in a time of reconciliation and progress for all.
Meanwhile, I’m generally feeling a bit calmer today than in recent days about the current transition period. It seems to me that the artificial obstacles that were placed in the way of a smooth transition are inexorably melting away by the hour.
In the coming days and weeks, may the transition from one administration to the next be as smooth and graceful as the transitions that miraculously take place before our very eyes each day as God rolls away the light before the darkness and the darkness before the light.[2]
Shabbat shalom.
© Rabbi David Steinberg
November 2020/ Cheshvan 5781
[1] https://www.sefaria.org/Genesis.25.1?lang=bi&aliyot=0&p2=Rashi_on_Genesis.25.1.1&lang2=bi
[2] C.f., the “Maariv Aravim” blessing in the evening prayer service. http://jman1.com/Hebrew/Prayers/Ma%27ariv+Aravim
