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The Final Journey: Sarah's Death and Burial

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GEN 23 Sarah's Death and Burial 1 Sarah lived 127 years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. Rashi Sarah lived 127 years —The word "years" is written after every digit. Each digit must be explained by itself as a complete number: at the age of one hundred she was as a woman of twenty as regards sin—for just as at the age of twenty one may regard her as having never sinned, since she had not then reached the age when she was subject to punishment, so, too, when she was one hundred years old she was sinless—and when she was twenty she was as beautiful as when she was seven ( Bereishit Rabbah 58:1 ). The years of the life of Sarah —All of them equally good. 2 And Sarah died at Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. Bereishit Rabbah 58:5 Abraham went in to eulogize Sarah —From where did he come? Rabbi levi said: He went in to Sarah from the burial of Terah. Rabbi Yossi said to him: A...
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The Promise and the Oath

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GEN 23 17 So the field of Ephron in Machpelah, which was to the east of Mamre, the field with the cave that was in it and all the trees that were in the field, throughout its whole area, was made over Rashi The field of Ephron . . . was made over (literally, it rose)—It received a rise in importance because it passed from the possession of an ordinary person into the possession of a king ( Bereshit Rabbah 58:8 ). The real meaning of the verse is: And the field with the cave that was within it, and all the trees . . . were made over to Abraham as a possession etc. Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre . . . GEN 25:9 Rashi Isaac and Ishmael — From this we gather that Ishmael repented (cf. Bava Batra 16b ) and yielded the precedence to Isaac. This is what is meant by “a good old age” mentioned in connection with Abraham ( above 15:15 ; Bereshit Rabbah 38:12 ). . . . and they ...
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