Chayei Sarah
by Rabbi Sholem B. Hecht
The 614th Mitzvah
Satanic Disruption
The Midrashic description of the Satan's attempt to deter Avraham and Yitzchak from carrying out the commandment of the Akeida is well known, and because Avraham withstood the arguments of the Satan and went on to carry out the Al-mighty's commandment, his reward was so much greater. Being the 10th trial with which Avraham was faced and tested, when Avraham came through with flying colors he attained a much higher spiritual status and his closeness and the intensity of G-d's love was increased many times over.
When the Satan saw that he could not deter Avraham from going to the Akeida and, in fact, Avraham carried through until he was stopped by the A-mighty and G-d recognized his sacrifice, the Satan still felt that he had another chance. When Avraham returned from the Akeida he first went to Be'er Sheva, where he had left his wife, Sarah, and because Sarah was not there he went to Chevron where he found that Sarah had died.
Altering the Truth
Before Avraham left with his son, Yitzchok, for the Akeida, he had debated with himself whether to inform Sarah of G-d's commandment and, in the end, he decided that it would be wiser not to tell her. Perhaps if he had told Sarah that he was taking Yitzchok to the Akeida she would have supported him whole-heartedly, but Avraham felt that he did not want to take the chance. So, he told Sarah that he was going with Yitzchok to further his studies and to increase his knowledge, being that he had not yet had the opportunity to study at the academy.
The Satan had a relatively easy job when he came to Sarah and said to her that despite the story that Avraham had told her that he had taken Yitzchok to study, he had really placed Yitzchok on the alter and was ready to sacrifice him. The trauma of that story, or the relief after the Satan told her that Yitzchok had actually not been killed, caused Sarah's death. Why couldn't Sarah have lived a little bit longer. Certainly, when Avraham and Yitzchok passed the test of the Akeida, their hearts were filled with happiness and fulfillment and they wanted to come back and tell Sarah about this wonderful accomplishment, that they had passed the different tests which G-d had placed before them.
Selflessness after self-sacrifice
We find that when Avraham returns, he came to eulogize Sarah and to cry, and in the word, Livchosa - to cry for her, the letter chof is smaller than the other letters. Several commentaries mention this, and it would seem that there is a consensus that the small chof indicates in some way that Avraham limited his mourning and his crying. On the one hand, he came to speak of Sarah's greatness and that is why he eulogized her and, yet, there was a certain restricted feeling in his crying. Several commentaries give a reason for this, but perhaps the interpretation is as follows:
We pray, “v'Hoser Satan Milfoneinu u'Me'achareinu” - please take away the Satan, with the evil inclination, from before us and from behind us”. Very often, when we are faced with temptation or with a difficult mitzvah that has to be done, we recognize head on that here we have a test. We recognize that this is something difficult to do - whether it is giving Tzedakah, helping another person, getting up to put on Tefillin, observing Shabbos or keeping kosher, we are very often faced with situations where we are tested to see how strong we are in our faith. This is facing front on. And here the Satan very often comes to us, right in front of us, and tries to persuade us not to do what we have to, or to transgress against some negative commandment. And so we pray to the A-mighty to take the Satan away from in front of us.
Double Jeopardy
But we also say to take the Satan away from behind us. The reason for this is that strangely enough, the Satan gets a second chance. If he is not successful in deterring us from doing the mitzvah, one should not feel secure that therefore it will now be easy sailing. For very often, after the person actually does the good deed, the Satan comes back and puts doubt into his mind, so that after writing a generous check for Tzedakah, the Satan comes to the person and says to him, "Now why did you do that?" and the person begins to have doubts and thinks, "Why did I give so much money, I could have written a smaller check?" Or, after a person does someone a favor he might think, "why am I such a softie, ready to go out of my way to help another person and give up so much of my time and energy?"
The purpose of the Satan is to put regret into a person's mind because, as the Rambam says, when a person does a mitzvah and then regrets doing that mitzvah, the person does not merit to receive the reward for the mitzvah that he did. So, the Satan gets a second chance after the person pushes the Satan away from him and does a mitzvah, the Satan gets a second chance to get the person to regret that he or she did the mitzvah, and then that person would not receive the reward that is due because of the good deed that the person did.
When the Satan saw that he could not convince Avraham and Yitzchok to stay away from the Akeida, he then came to Sara, caused her death by scaring her and traumatizing her about the Akeida, with the hope that when Avraham would return and realize that Sara's death was caused by the Akeida, he would have regrets and would say, “why did I need this whole Akeida, if, in the end, Sarah died because of it?”. Therfore, Avraham was very careful. When he returned and learned that Sarah had died, he realize that the test was still not over, and that he had to be careful in the way he related emotionally to her death. And so the Torah tells us, by putting a small chof in the work v'Livkosa, that Avraham was careful in the way he mourned and cried for Sarah, so as not to allow the slightest bit of regret to enter into his thoughts and into his heart, but to be happy and thankful to the A-mighty for having put him to the test and, still, to mourn for Sarah. Because, for whatever reason it was that Sarah had to die at that time, he mourned for a wonderful, great and gracious princess, which Sarah actually was.
614th Mitzvah – facing the test of 613 Mitzvot
Although in the book of Bereishis we have very few mitzvos, nevertheless, from these stories of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of the Jewish people we learn how one is supposed to approach the observance of Mitzvos and how one must be careful in the attitudes and in the emotions we feel when we are put to a test and when we pass the test. We must remember that afterwards, we have to have the proper frame of mind in order to appreciate the opportunities the A-mighty has given us and not in any way to regret doing good things.
