CHOCHMAS NASHIM: DEAR SARAH IMEINU:
Funeral of Rose Lubin, Israel Border Police
By: Suri Davis
Goodbye Mar Cheshvan, you lived up to your reputation. Welcome the month of Kislev where we celebrate the victory of a small band of Jews against the grest Greek army. May this month live up to its reputation as well and may we celebrate the geulah shlaimah bkarov.
Dear Sarah Imeinu:
When you heard that your son Isaac was being sacrificed, the son for whom you waited your entire life, it was too much for your physical body, and in this week’s parshah, Torah portion, Chayei Sara, we read about your passing and how your devoted husband cried for your loss.
When G-d changed your name from Sarai to Sarah, it was a transformation from a woman dedicated to her husband, to rise to the mother of all people and nations. We learned in last week’s parshah, that you gave your maidservant, Hagar, to Abraham, so that he could have children who would inherit him materially, but more importantly, spiritually. Perhaps, you had given up faith and trust that G-d would fulfill His promise to you that you would bear children. Perhaps that lapse of faith, affects your children to this day.
Hagar gave birth to Yishmael. You eventually gave birth to Isaac, and realized early on, that Yishmael was a bad influence on Isaac, and was a thorn in his side. You asked Abraham to send Yishmael away with Hagar and he was reluctant, until G-d said to Abraham, listen to Sarah. The children of Abraham, through the Isaac branch, are a nation of mercy. Watching the interrogation by Israel police of Hamas terrorists, they are clear that the heads of Hamas hide in hospitals, schools and ambulances, relying on this mercy of Isaac in not bombing these natural places of mercy. As you can see, Yishmael and his descendants continue to be a thorn in our side.
In our natural tendencies to be merciful, we have the story of King Saul, who was commanded by G-d to destroy all of Amalek. He permitted one man, Agag, to stay alive, who impregnated a woman, permitting the line of evil merciless warriors, who hated Jews to continue threatening Jews, as we saw in the Book of Esther, when Haman, from the line of Agag, threatened to kill all the Jewish civilians of the 127 provinces of Persia. Sometimes we Jews have misplaced mercy, to our historical detriment.
We are commanded to utterly destroy Amalek, Amalek is the enemy in every generation who rises up to kill Jews merely because we are Jews. It is not the land they want, the Arab countries far outnumber in nations and land footage Israel. It wants to destroy a small nation.
Dear Sarah Imeinu as your Neshama/soul could not withstand the loss of one child, may your Neshama in heaven, continue to mourn each and every child, generally, and particularly those who have fallen and have been injured at the hands of the children of Yishmael.
When your name was changed from Sarai, which ends in the letter yud, to Sarah, where did G-d place this yud? When G-d changed Hoshea’s name to Joshua, the devoted servant of Moses, who lead the Jews into the promised land, and conquered those lands, the letter yud from Sarai’s name was attached to Joshua’s name, bridging generations from the mother of all nations, and particularly the mother of the merciful Isaac, we still have the might of Joshua, the conqueror and leader of Israel, and that is the nature of the Jewish nation.
I watched the funeral of Rose Lubin this morning. She was eulogized by her unit as a lioness and hero. Her parents and sister provided a picture of a very determined woman who marched to the beat of her own drum, never having matching socks and never knowing what color her hair would be next. Her father joked that when she joined the army, the family knew that at that point, she would finally have matching socks and natural colored hair.
When she was a child, she had been to Israel twice by the time she was 5, and told her family unequivocally that when she turned 18, she would return to Israel and join the IDF. She was so very determined, that as this little child, she would go to the playground and meet other children and tell them that they could be friends but only for a short time, as she was returning to Israel.
On October 7th she defended the members of her community which bordered Gaza. Those from the border police discussed her determination to integrate into Israel society, and how determined she was to reach her goals in the ranks of the border police. Those who eulogized her from her unit promised Rose that Israel will reach its goal in providing security to the citizens of Israel and that her death would not be in vain.
Bereshit Rabbah 61:7
“But to the sons of the concubines that Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts; and he sent them away from Isaac his son, during his lifetime, eastward, to the east country” (Genesis 25:6).
“But to the sons of the concubines…” – In the days of Alexander of Macedonia, the children of Ishmael came to lodge a claim against Israel regarding the birthright. Two evil families, the Canaanites and the Egyptians, came with them. They [the rabbis] said: ‘Who will go and contend with them?’ Gevia ben Kosem said: ‘I will go and contend with them.’ They told him: ‘Be careful that you do not cede the Land to them.’ He said: ‘I am going to contend with them; if I am victorious, it is well and good, and if not, you can always say: Who is this lowly person, that he should represent us?’ He went and contended with them. Alexander of Macedonia said to them: ‘Who is lodging a claim against whom?’ The Ishmaelites said: ‘We are lodging a claim
against them [Israel], and it is on the basis of their own Torah that we come against them. It is written: “Rather, he shall acknowledge the firstborn, son of the hated wife [to give him a double portion]” (Deuteronomy 21:17). By right, Ishmael is entitled to receive a double portion.’ Gevia ben Kosem said to him: ‘My lord the king, may a person not do as he pleases for his owns sons?’ He said to him: ‘Yes.’ He said to him: ‘Is it not written: “Abraham gave all that was his to Isaac”?’ (Genesis 25:5). They said to him: ‘Where is the document of gifts that he divided among his sons?’ He said to them: “And to the sons of the concubines of Abraham, Abraham gave gifts.” They departed from there shamefacedly.
The Canaanites said: ‘It is on the basis of their own Torah that we come against them. It is written everywhere: “To the land of Canaan,” “the land of Canaan” – let them give us back our land.’ Gevia ben Kosem said to them: ‘My lord the king, may a person not do as he pleases with his slave?’ He said to him: ‘Yes.’ He said to him: ‘What is written? “Cursed is Canaan, a slave of slaves…. [And he said: Blessed be the Lord, God of Shem, and Canaan shall be slaves unto them]” (Genesis 9:25–26). The Land is ours and they are slaves to my lord the king.’ They departed from there shamefacedly.
The Egyptians said: ‘It is on the basis of their own Torah that we come against them. Six hundred thousand [Israelite] men departed from our midst laden with silver vessels and gold vessels, as it is written: “They stripped Egypt” (Exodus 12:36). Let them give us back our silver and our gold.’ Gevia ben Kosem said to him: ‘My lord the king, six hundred thousand people spent two hundred and ten years in their midst, among them silversmiths and among them goldsmiths, who normally receive one dinar a day as wages. The philosophers sat and
calculated and did not even reach one hundred years [of labor] before the land of Egypt would be found to be bankrupt.’ They departed from there shamefacedly.
In last week’s Torah portion, the Jerusalem Talmud recounts the story of Abraham after he unbound Isaac and was looking to sacrifice to G-d. He saw a ram whose horns were caught in thistles and became free, and again was caught in thistles and again was freed. Abraham foresaw that this was the story of the Jews who would be caught in the thistles of the diaspora exile and Abraham asked G-d if his descendants would suffer at the hand of foreign rulers forever, and G-d replied that after the two exiles of Babylon and Rome, He would bring Moshiach and redeem the Jews for eternity with the building of the Third Temple.
Umacha Hashem Elokim dima me’al kol panim/May G-d erase the tears from all of our faces with the bringing of Moshiach bimhayra b’yameinu.
Good Shabbos.
-Suri