Kol Ramah

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Hayyai Sarah [23:1–25:18] is the fifth of the weekly parashiyot in Sefer B’reshit [the Book of Genesis]. It begins with the death notice of Sarah, and continues with the first acquisition of land by Avraham in Canaan. This is the basis of the subsequent Jewish claim to the Land. Canaan is the place where Avraham the Hebrew buried his dead. In fact, this burial is the first mention of burial in the Torah. Heretofore, the death notice was simply a death notice, often accompanied with a note on the years the deceased lived. But now, we find Avraham engaging in negotiations to acquire land to bury his dead. A piece of the land now belongs to him, and to his descendants. The story continues with Avraham now seeking to find a wife for his son Isaac. He sends his servant back east, to the ancestral homeland, to see if he might find a woman willing to come to Canaan. That woman is Rebecca, who we have had occasion to refer