Chayei Sarah, Chaye Sarah, Ḥayye Sarah, or Ḥayyei Sara (—Hebrew for "life of Sarah," the first words in the parashah), is the fifth weekly Torah portion (, parashah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading. It constitutes Genesis 23:1–25:18. The parashah tells the stories of Abraham's negotiations to purchase a burial place for his wife Sarah and his servant's mission to find a wife for Abraham's son Isaac.
The parashah is made up of 5,314 Hebrew letters, 1,402 Hebrew words, 105 verses, and 171 lines in a Torah Scroll (, Sefer Torah). Jews read it on the fifth Sabbath after Simchat Torah, generally in November, or on rare occasion in late October.
Readings In traditional Sabbath Torah reading, the parashah is divided into seven readings, or , aliyot. In the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible, Parashat Chayei Sarah has three "open portion" (, petuchah) divisions (roughly equivalent to paragraphs, often abbreviated with the Hebrew letter (peh)). Parashat Chayei Sarah has one "closed portion" (, setumah) division (abbreviated with the Hebrew letter (samekh)) within the "open portion" division of the second reading. The long first open portion spans the first five readings. The second open portion coincides with the sixth reading. The third open portion coincides with the seventh reading.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, The Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Bereishis/Genesis (Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 2006), pages 116–34.
First reading—Genesis 23:1–16 In the first reading, Sarah lived 127 years and died in Hebron, and Abraham mourned for her.. Abraham asked the Hittites to sell him a burial site, and the Hittites invited him to bury his dead in the choicest of their burial places.. Abraham asked the Hittites to intercede for him with Ephron, son of Zohar, to sell Abraham the cave of Machpelah at full price.. Before the Hittites at the town gate, Ephron offered to give Abraham the field and the cave that was in it, but Abraham insisted on paying the price of the land.. Ephron named the value of the land at 400 shekels of silver, and Abraham accepted Ephron's terms, gave him the silver, and purchased the land.. The first reading ends here.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Bereishis/Genesis, page 119.
Second reading—Genesis 23:17–24:9 In the second reading, Abraham thus established his title to the land through purchase, and he buried Sarah in the cave.. Abraham was old and instructed his senior servant to put his hand under Abraham's thigh and swear by God that he would not take a wife for Isaac from the Canaanites, but would go to the land of Abraham's birth to get Isaac a wife.. The servant asked if the woman did not consent to follow him to Canaan, should he take Isaac back to the land from which Abraham came?. Abraham told him on no account to take Isaac back there, for God—who took Abraham from there and promised Abraham the land of Canaan for his offspring—would send an angel before the servant and allow him successfully to get a wife for Isaac from there, and if the woman did not consent to follow him, he would then be clear of his oath.. So the servant put his hand under Abraham's thigh and swore to him as Abraham had asked.. The second reading ends here.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Bereishis/Genesis, page 121.
Third reading—Genesis 24:10–26 In the third reading, the servant took Abraham's bounty and ten of Abraham's camels and traveled to Aram-Naharaim, the city of Nahor. He made the camels kneel by the well outside the city at evening, when women come out to draw water.. The servant asked God to grant that the maiden whom he would ask to draw water for him and who replied by also offering to water his camels might be the one whom God had decreed for Isaac.. He had scarcely finished speaking when Rebekah, the beautiful virgin daughter of Abraham's nephew Bethuel, came out with her jar on her shoulder, went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up.. The servant ran toward her and asked to sip a little water from her jar, and she quickly let him drink, and when he had drunk his fill, she offered to draw water for his camels until they finished drinking.. When the camels had finished drinking, the servant took a gold nose ring and two gold bands for her arms and asked her whose daughter she was and whether there was room in her father's house for him to spend the night.. She identified herself and told him that there was plenty of straw and feed and room at her home for him to spend the night.. The servant bowed low to God.. The third reading ends here.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Bereishis/Genesis, page 124.
Fourth reading—Genesis 24:27–52 In the fourth reading, the servant blessed God for steadfast faithfulness to Abraham.. Rebekah ran and told everything to her mother's household.. Rebekah's brother Laban ran out to the servant at the spring, and when he saw the nose-ring and the bands on Rebekah's arms, and when he heard his sister tell the story, Laban invited the servant to their house, had the camels unloaded and fed, and had water brought to bathe the feet of the servant and his party.. But the servant would not eat before he had told his tale.. The servant told how God had greatly blessed Abraham with sheep and cattle, silver and gold, male and female slaves, camels and asses, and a son and sole heir.. The servant told how Abraham made him swear to go to Abraham's kindred to get Isaac a wife and that God would send an angel to make his errand successful.. And the servant told how he met Rebekah at the well.. The servant then asked whether or not they meant to treat Abraham with true kindness, and Laban and Bethuel answered that God had decreed the matter and Rebekah could go and be Isaac's wife.. The servant bowed low to God.. The fourth reading ends here.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Bereishis/Genesis, page 129.
Fifth reading—Genesis 24:53–67 In the fifth reading, the servant brought out silver, gold, and garments for Rebekah and presents for her brother and her mother.. Then the servant and his party ate, drank, and spent the night.. The following day, the servant asked to leave to return to Abraham, but Laban and her mother requested that Rebekah remain for a period of time.. The servant persisted, so they called Rebekah to ask her, and she agreed to go.. So they blessed Rebekah—wishing that her children be thousands of myriads and seize the gates of their foes—and they sent off Rebekah and her nurse with the servant.. Isaac had just come back from the vicinity of Beer-lahai-roi to his home in the Negeb and was out walking in the field toward evening when he looked up and saw camels approaching.. Raising her eyes, Rebekah saw Isaac, alighted from the camel, and asked the servant who the man was.. The servant said that Isaac was his master, so she covered herself with her veil.. The servant told Isaac everything that had happened, and Isaac brought her into Sarah's tent and took her as his wife.. Isaac loved Rebekah and found comfort after his mother's death.. The fifth reading and the long first open portion end here with the end of chapter 24.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Bereishis/Genesis, page 132.
Sixth reading—Genesis 25:1–11 In the sixth reading, in chapter 25, Abraham took another wife, named Keturah, who bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.. Abraham willed all that he owned to Isaac, but to his sons, by concubines, he gave gifts while he was still living, and he sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the East.. Abraham lived 175 years and died old and contented.. Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah with Sarah.. After Abraham's death, God blessed Isaac and he settled near Beer-lahai-roi.. The sixth reading and the second open portion end here.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Bereishis/Genesis, page 133.
Seventh reading—Genesis 25:12–18 In the seventh reading, Ishmael had 12 sons, who became chieftains of 12 tribes.. In the maftir () reading that concludes the parashah, Ishmael lived 137 years and then died.. Ishmael's progeny dwelt in lands all the way from Havilah, near Egypt, to Asshur.. The seventh reading, the third open portion, and the parashah end here.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Bereishis/Genesis, page 134.
Readings according to the triennial cycle Jews who read the Torah according to the triennial cycle of Torah reading read the parashah according to the following schedule:See, e.g., Richard Eisenberg, "A Complete Triennial Cycle for Reading the Torah," in Proceedings of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement: 1986–1990 (New York: The Rabbinical Assembly, 2001), pages 383–418. Year 1Year 2Year 32022, 2025, 2028 . . .2023, 2026, 2029 . . .2024, 2027, 2030 . . .Reading23:1–24:924:10–5224:53–25:18123:1–424:10–1424:53–58223:5–724:15–2024:59–61323:8–1224:21–2624:62–67423:13–1624:27–3325:1–6523:17–2024:34–4125:7–11624:1–424:42–4925:12–15724:5–924:50–5225:16–18Maftir24:5–924:50–5225:16–18
In inner-Biblical interpretation The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these Biblical sources:For more on inner-Biblical interpretation, see, e.g., Benjamin D. Sommer, "Inner-biblical Interpretation," in Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, editors, The Jewish Study Bible, 2nd edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), pages 1835–41.
Genesis chapter 23 Kiriath-arba, mentioned in Genesis 23:2, literally means “village of Arba.” Joshua 14:15 explains that Arba was the great man among the Anakites. Similarly, Joshua 15:13 reports that Arba was the father of Anak, and Joshua 21:11 tells that Arba was the father of the Anokites.
The 400 shekels of silver that Abraham paid Ephron the Hittite to buy the cave of Machpelah and adjoining land in Genesis 23:14–16 far exceeds the 100 pieces of silver that Jacob paid the children of Hamor for the parcel of ground where he had spread his tent outside the city of Shechem in Genesis 33:18–19; the 50 shekels of silver that King David paid Araunah the Jebusite for Araunah's threshing floor, oxen, and wood in 2 Samuel 24:18–24 (but 1 Chronicles 21:24 reports cost 600 shekels of gold); and the 17 shekels of silver that Jeremiah paid his cousin Hanamel for his field in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin in Jeremiah 32:7–9.
The cave of Machpelah in which Genesis 23:18 reports Abraham buried Sarah later became the burial site for Abraham himself (as reported in Genesis 25:8–10) and thereafter Isaac, Rebekah, Leah, and Jacob (as reported in Genesis 49:29–31).
Genesis chapter 24 The story of Abraham's servant's mission to get a wife for Isaac is told twice, once by the narrator in Genesis 24:1–27, and then a second time by Abraham's servant in Genesis 24:34–48. Isaac Abrabanel and other commentators noted a number of differences between the two recountings.See, e.g., Yehudah Nachshoni, Studies in the Weekly Parashah: The Classical Interpretations of Major Topics and Themes in the Torah (Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1988), pages 114–16. Genesis 24:1–27 As Told by the Narrator Genesis 24:34–48 As Told by Abraham's Servant1 And Abraham was old, well stricken in age; and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things.35 And the Lord has blessed my master greatly; and he is become great; and He has given him flocks and herds, and silver and gold, and men-servants and maid-servants, and camels and asses.