חַיֵּ֣י שָׂרָ֔ה Chayei Sarah

Originally posted: November 9, 2023

​Aura Chaya Gispan, Board Member &

Lech-Lecha Trekker, ​2023 White Mountains & Catskills, 2025 Tu B'Shevat Cabin Retreat

October 7th marked the conclusion of the Torah reading cycle for that year, and was and the beginning of the year that was unscrolled.  Fraught as the day became with the debilitating onslaught of massacres and all of the ensuing devastation, what characterized that Torah cycle for me had been the weightiness and import of every “DNA strand” of Torah—whether represented as ink on parchment, or in embodied human form—as a vital and inextricable link in Jewish destiny: each “letter” indispensable to our wholeness, each loss indescribably tragic.

The literality of the text had not been lost on me: from the rude awakening from an “idyllic” lull of Edenic-like holy days to brutality and bombardment from ancient-modern serpentine thinking surreptitiously usurping humanity’s empathy towards a most destructive cause. From nefarious schemes to create global upheaval and literally “flood al Aqsa,” to Avraham’s quest to redeem hostages from the clutch of terror. From Yitzchak’s near death experience on the altar of the history his future progeny would endure; to the unbearable losses and existential threats we were (re)experiencing on so many fronts around the world…History seemed to be repeating itself so that the Torah portions unraveled like predictive iPhone texts. The Torah portion, even today, is actually future-oriented, a narrative of newness. 

Unlike dominant discourses that are often recursive, Torah funnels a holistic perspective that offers a collective form of “narrative therapy” characterized by the quality and mandate of Lech-Lecha! Every moment is an opportunity to rescript our history away from limiting beliefs and patterns, towards lasting progress.  Staying close to the text can help steer our vision towards a new reality, one of unprecedented goodness and peace.  Perhaps when we are utterly familiar with the metaphysical grooves of history we can chart our way into the promised era for all humanity, the destiny we were always charged with.  Reaffirming our commitment to reading the Torah portion—not as something separate from our daily experience but as a critical lens and visionary-aid in “how to read” the current unfolding—can be a powerful anchor to a transcendent power at this turbulent time.

In my own reflections on this Parsha I often linger on the title, saturated as it is with meaningful reverberations. This week in Chayei Sarah, our primary matriarch, is memorialized through the plethora of expressions her descendants will embody through her many lives — the chapters of which we are still unfurling, still in the throes of birthing the world she endeavored to usher forth. Her life force lives and loves more fiercely through each iteration of her spirit. Just as she stood her holy ground and literally drew lines in the sand to protect her son and the future Jewish people from the violent fantasies and envy of his half-brother Ishmael, so are we being called to hold our steady ground today. The 127 years of Sarah’s life were eventually mapped onto 127 territories when Esther entered the palace with the particular assignment of drawing lines again. Not only did she save her people from the dire threat of total extinction, her progeny enabled our temple to be rebuilt. The parallels are many—countless threads of meaning our shared history is asking you to unravel in the unique way that similar dynamics might be at play in your world. There are no spectators. We are all main actors on a global stage, protecting sacred terrain.

Every one of us is a spark of Sarah, every one of us the embodiment of Esther. The many lives (and determined love) of Sarah continue to be chronicled in the unfurling scroll of our day. 

Shabbat Shalom!