Jack Weiner - Dvar Torah
My Parsha is Chayei Sarah from the book of Genesis. I have been very lucky to have this portion as I think that there are a number of very important lessons in it.
Briefly my Parsha is about Abraham’s wife Sarah dying, and Abraham wanting to own a nice piece of land to bury her. My portion is also about Abraham then sending Eleizer his servant to find a suitable wife for his son Isaac.
The five lessons from my parsha which I think are really important are.
1. It was very important for Abraham to buy a very good place to bury Sarah and he gladly paid Ephron more than it was worth so he could to this. This shows the importance in Judaism of having great respect for the dead, which we still have today.
2. I also think this part of the Parsha is important because of the fact that Abraham buying the land is written in the Torah and this proves that the Jews owned land in Israel from thousands and thousands of years ago and did not steal it from anyone.
3. When Abraham was buying the land Ephron the owner of the land pretended that he didn’t care if he got paid for it or not and would even give it to him for free, but Abraham knew that he was bluffing and really wanted a lot of money for it. The lesson for me is that some bad people will promise everything but do nothing, while good people don’t say much but will do a lot for you. This is like Abraham, who when he hosted 3 the strangers, said he would make something small for them to eat but then prepared a whole meal for them.
Even in my short life I have seen that that some people just talk and some people do things for you.
4. Abraham sent his servant, Eliezer to go and find a wife for his son Isaac. It was most important for Isaac’s wife to be kind and modest and Eliezer was informed that the sign he would receive from Hashem, as to who was the right woman for Isaac would be the one who not only gave him water to drink, but also volunteered to water his camels. Rebecca came to the well and poured water for Eliezer and without being asked also got water for his camels which took a long time, and so Eliezer knew that she was the right one. This is a very important lesson because it shows that kindness and helpfulness are more important than money or looks. And also if you are going to be kind or do a good deed, just do it and don’t brag about it.
5. When Eliezer was talking to Rebecca’s family about her traveling with him to marry Isaac, her family didn’t want her to leave immediately but to wait for a year. When Eliezer said they should leave right away they decided to ask Rebecca what she wanted to do and she said that she would go. I think that this is important because it shows that Rebecca decided for herself if she wanted to go and get married or not, and that this is a lesson which is important today that women should be free to choose what they want to do. There are unfortunately today some societies where woman are forced to get married young and forbidden to get an education.
And so I think it is really amazing that what was written thousands and thousands of years ago has such important lessons for us today and that it shows how the Torah is something which lives forever for all generations.
