This weeks Parsha, which is called Chaya Sara includes the passing and burial of Sara as well as the shiddich of Yitzchak and Rivka. One of the reasons why the Parsha which contains the death of Sara is called "the Life of Sara", is because we see how Sara'a values are continued into the next generation through the marriage of her son to Rivka, who we see is a young woman/or young girl of incredible kindness and depth.
These past few weeks in Eretz Yisroel have seen tremendous suffering and grief as the birthpangs of the imminent redemption seem to be intensifying. The deaths of 26 year old Dahlia Lemkus, a young woman from Alon Shvut who loved to help people and do water color paintings, Almog Shilon from Mod-In who had just graduated from the first ever Platoon Commanders' Course of the Nahal Haredi battalion of the Israeli Air Force, 3 month old Chaya Zissel Braun who had just visited the kotel for the first time, the young woman from Equadore, Keren Yemima Mosquera who had only recently completed a conversion process and others.................. and unhappily we stop paying attention. We stop feeling because maybe feeling all this pain and suffering is too much for us??
The Piacesna Rebbe , Rabbi Kolonymus Kalman Shapira ( Rebbe who lived in the Warsaw ghetto in the 2nd World War) explains that Sara's death can almost be seen as a protest, that she somehow testifies to the limit of how much suffering we as a people are capable of handling... that even the thought that her only son and future of the Jewish people being slaughtered was absolutely too much!!
Rabbi Meir Kahana whose Yortzeit was this last week was often described as the Rabbi who made the Jewish people wake up, are we awake yet??
Being awake is a good thing, we eat fish on shabbos as fish are compared to the righteous who always have their eyes open, but what do we see??
Rabbi Avrahan Eiger writes in the Shevet Mi Yehuda that the difference between a slave person and someone who is free is how they see the world, a slave who is looked down upon looks down at the world, sees negativity and cannot look up or see the beyond, while a free person is able to look up and see beyond the darkness, beyond the reality of just today.
Our sages teach us that there are two ways of seeing, being aware of what is right in front of us and being able to see the reality beyond. In this week's HaYom Yom the Alter Rebbe is quoted as sharing with someone in Yechidus that Shma is an acronym of "Se'u marom einechem"
Raise your eyes on High! Look upwards!
When Eliezer comes to the spring or fountain where he will meet Rivka, who will become the wife of Yitzchak, it says in verse 24:13 that he arrives at the "Ayin Ha Mayim", which literally means the eye of the water. The word for a spring or fountain is "Ma-ayan " which actually means "Mem from Ayin" from the eye! Reb Shlomo Carlebach explains the importance of this and connects this idea to the way we see things, and how warmth and love can be communicated with our eyes. True giving is done not just with our hands, but with our eyes too, the spirit with which we give. Eliezer was looking for the girl who had the right type of eye, the eye of true giving, as well as the eye that could see beyond the realities of just today.
Ayin is the letter in the hebrew alphabet that has the value of 70, there are 70 nations of the world. Reb Shlomo teaches that the way we use our eyes, will enable us to cope with the 70 nations. Se'u Marom Eineichem, look up and get the power and strength and vision beyond that of the 70 nations... let it be our Ayin, not theirs.
One of my students Reva sent me the following in response to our learning together of the Piacesna's learning on Sara:
Thank you Reva.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Blessing us all with a beautiful Shabbos, with the power of a good eye that is able to look up and see good, and the revelation of true good with the Geula Shelaimah!
P.S Just wanted to make a shout out to my own amazing parents Irma and Dick Hayden ( they should both be well and strong!) who have an amazing capacity to always look for and see the good !!
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