Rabbi's Derasha

Sharsheret - Pies for Thanksgiving

12th Annual Pies-For-Prevention Thanksgiving Bake Sale in support of the Stephanie Sussman & Ann Nadrich Memorial Jewel and Sharsheret's Ovarian Cancer Program.

Pies: Pecan, Pumpkin, and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. All pies are kosher and pareve.
Order Deadline: Wednesday, November 18th, 5pm
Pick-Up Time: Wednesday, November 25th, 12-5pm
Pick-Up Location: 226 Maclane Street

As always, this is dedicated to our dear friends, Stephanie Sussman and Ann Nadrich, a"h, but this year we'd like to add our Savta, Jessica Feldman (Chasya Henzel bas Yehuda Leib, a"h), who passed away five months ago from ovarian cancer. 

For more information, please contact Aliza Coleman at alizafeld@gmail.com or (650) 796-0638

Derasha

[An old friend of mine passed away last Sunday in Yerushalayim.  We had known each other from college through Yeshiva, and have been in touch off and on for more than 35 years.  His passing was not unexpected; he had been very sick for many months.  The subject I want to address this week was dear enough to him to make it among the goals he had in life.  Therefore, I want to dedicate this L’iilui Nishmato -- for R’ Mattisyahu Rosenblum, (Mattisyahu Yered ben Feivel Yisroel, a”h).]

The Sages say that Sara died because she heard about the Akeida.  That means that her burial in Chevron is connected directly to that test of Avraham Avinu.  They are related, and, together, the Akeida and the burial of Sara lay the foundation for all of Jewish history. 

The Sages understood burial as an act of planting.  Like all planting, it is an act that expresses faith in an eventual growth and reemergence.  That means that in burying we are creating roots.  Avraham Avinu wanted to establish a burial place for his family that struck roots in the land of Israel.  [The final wishes of Jews throughout the generations to be buried in Eretz Yisrael, as R’ Dovid Feinstein, ztz’l, was this week, is connected to our wish to establish those roots in Eretz Yisrael.]

But it goes further than that.  Sara’s burial has deep significance because roots established underground are a sharp metaphor for the overall purpose of the patriarchs and matriarchs.  Roots provide sustenance and solidity.  It was the function of the Avot and Imahot -- beginning of course with Avraham and Sara -- to provide the basis of an ongoing enterprise.  They are the roots of this people, a constant source of sustenance and the essential prop that keeps the Jewish people steady.  They are mentioned in the beginning of the Shmoneh Esray because they are provided the basis (the roots) for our relationship with Hashem.
  
No tree ever outgrows the potential granted by its roots.  If Avraham was able to aspire to full sacrifice for Hashem -- he was willing to offer up his son -- it was because the roots of his faith ran very deep.  R’ Aharon Lopianski of Silver Spring has pointed out that the Akeida sets the mark in terms of aspirations while Chevron provides the roots that permit such aspirations.  This is why the Akeida took place on a mountain -- the word Har relates to aspirations, to Hirhurim, the yearning to go far.  Burying Sara afterward is a metaphor for making sure such aspirations are firmly rooted in the ground, in a way that can nurture that kind of achievement forever.  When Yosef begins his venture to check on his brothers -- and sets Jewish history in motion -- he leaves from a place the Torah calls “Emek Chevron,” the valley of Chevron.  Rashi points out that Chevron is on a hill and not a valley.  Calling it a valley refers to those who are buried there, to Avraham and Sara, whose roots are “deep” in Chevron.  This is where the roots that sustain the Jewish people are planted.

What do lives anchored in the depths of Chevron look like?  When Rashi writes about the place called Maarat HaMachpela, the cave of the double chamber, he defines the chambers two ways: they are doubled because they lead further and further inward or they are on top of each other.  That lays out two possibilities.  The first describes what is called Penimiut, or inner unseen depths.  This first possibility describes not the actions we do but the inner intentions that inform those actions.  This is unseen by the world, as are all roots, and cannot be remarked upon by any observer.  But these intentions form the pith and marrow of what we do; the Avot gave us not just the ability to perform actions but the capacity to grow rich interior lives that would endow our actions with spirit and focused purpose.

Rashi’s second possibility is about the height of our aspirations.  The chambers of the cave stepped onward and upward.  The patriarchs and matriarchs give us the solid base upon which we could build higher and greater hopes.  Jews are people with deep longing --  for improvements stretching toward perfection.  As long as it’s anchored in the roots of Chevron, and nurtured by those roots, real depth is possible, as is real growth.