To Come Into Our Days

Avivah Zornberg (The Beginning of Desire p.136)

Ultimately, he dies in the mode of bakol-"And the Lord had blessed Abraham bakol [in all things]" (24:1). He is "full of days": in the reading of Sefat Emet, this indicates a condition in which nothing is forgotten, nothing censored. Bringing all his days with him, Abraham dies in accord with God's prediction: "You shall go to your fathers in peace" (15:15). According to Rashi, the reference to "your fathers" promises final recon- ciliation with all that he rejected at the outset of his life

Rabbi Lydia Medwin (from Torah Without End, p.9)

The Sefat Emet comments that Abraham was imbued with remembering everything he learned, of bringing his learning with him every day as if it were as fresh and wonderous as the day he first learned it...

Abraham teaches us about the awakening and insight mindfulness affords us. Even as forgetfulness forever pulls us towards worldliness and materialism, an awakened mind sees the world as it is: continually renewed, engaging us in its marvelous and enduring unfolding. We can be ba b'yamim, bring each day to awareness, when we remember that the everyday "stuff" is actually the stuff of miracles.

Kedushat Levi

Rabbi Levi Yizhak of Berdichev (Poland, 1740-1809)

Translation by Rabbi Jonathan Slater

There is a tzaddik (righteous person) whose complete intention and desire is for the sake of the community, and there is a tzaddik whose intention is for his own sake. Abraham was the sort of tzaddik whose desire was for the sake of all.

This is how we should understand our verse. The conventional reading is: "God blessed Abraham in all things" (bakol). But the direct object "et" can also have the meaning of "with." So, read the verse instead: "God blessed Abraham with all (i.e. the community/collective)," according to his intention and desire.

Rabba Dr. Mira Niculescu (from; Open My Eyes - IJS Weekly Torah commentary, Chayei Sarah)

Unpacking this verse, the Meor Einayim offers a profound teaching about what it means to be blessed – and how we might open ourselves more fully to receive blessings. Our teacher begins by referencing a midrash, a rabbinic teaching which suggests that Abraham was blessed due to “the merit of [his practice of ] tithing.” (Midrash Tanchuma)

Tithing (in Hebrew ma’aser, from the word esser, or ten) is the Biblically-based practice of donating a tenth of one’s resources to tzedakah, charity. While tithing is obviously an ethical matter, the Meor Einayim recognizes it as a spiritual practice as well, citing a verse from the prophet Malachi (3:10): [Bring the all of the tithes into the storehouse…] and thereby put me to the test, [says God]. See if I I will not throw open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing (emphasis added). According to the Meor Einayim’s interpretation, when we give away our wealth and what we hold dear, we emulate Abraham by inviting God to pour blessings upon us.

Yael Shy (Silent Center of Things; IJS Weekly Torah commentary)

Rebecca's kindness and generosity upon meeting Abraham's servant at the well is as abundant as the water she pulls up to quench the thirst of the man and his camels. Aviva Zornberg writes, "as she runs back and forth at the well, eagerly providing for the needs of the servant and the camels, she resembles Abraham welcoming his angel-guests - impatient, energetic, overflowing with love (chesed)." In fact, the text uses the word chesed four times in the space of two chapters, underlining the trait in relation to Rebecca. Chesed is also the trait most commonly associated with Abraham.

Rebecca's chesed should not be considered simply being nice. Chesed in the Torah can be defined more accurately as a profound generosity of spirit. Alan Moranis writes that chesed involves acts that sustain another. She gives from a bottomless well (pun intended) of this sustaining love and kindness.

Why does this make Rebecca particularly open to receiving love?

One possibility is that chesed works directly to counteract scarcity mentality, i.e. "I don't have enough myself, how can I give generously to others?" Chesed abides by its own rules - generating love even as it "spends" it. As Shakespeare's Juliet says, "My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep; the more I give to thee, / The more I have, for both are infinite."

Rabbi Marc Margolius (from, Mindful Torah: IJS Weekly Torah commentary ,Chayei Sarah)

One Hassidic interpretation understands the phrase "Abraham was old, come into days" to mean that "the original quality of chesed, that of Abraham the Elder, 'came into days, became embodied and entered into temporal reality." Traditionally, Abraham symbolically represents the earthly personification of chesed, the Divine quality of love which sustains the world. He represents our capacity, as beings in the Divine Image, to experience and manifest love, a Divine, transcendent quality which connects everything.

Abraham exemplifies the ability to see through the world's fragmentation and witness its underlying unity. It is striking that this quality is associated with Abraham, whose identity is rooted in the experience of living between the past and the future, in the insecure fracture of time and space. Perhaps Abraham's awareness of a quality which transcends the fissures and connects the fragments into a whole is born out of his "immigrant consciousness."

Like Abraham, Rebekah voluntarily steps out of her known and familiar past, and towards an uncertain place and future. She, too, now lives in the "existential fracture," the space between past and future. Like Abraham, perhaps from her immigrant experience she is able to perceive an underlying reality which heals and unites the brokenness.