A German-Trained American Rabbi in Yorkshire

I am not the first nor even the thousandth to comment on the dissonance between the name of this week’s Parashah and the content—although called “Chayei Sarah” or the “Life of Sarah,” the portion begins with Sarah’s death at the deeply symbolic age of 127 and then proceeds with Abraham’s attempts to procure a proper tomb.   One the one hand, there is no dissonance at all, as the “titles” of weekly Torah portions are not thematic headings, simple the first uniquely meaningful words in the section.   Yet on the other hand, I tend to believe the words of sages that state that every word and even letter in Torah has meaning—I may not believe this for the same reasons they do—but I believe it nonetheless.   Therefore I believe it important to think about the implications of naming a portion “the Life of . . .” where the content is “the Death of . . .” After having officiated at over 40 funerals in the last 18 months alone I have had to spend a lot of time finding meaningf...

             Years ago I worked as a pastoral counselor with a gentlemen who had a remarkable story. About 10 years before I began working with Matt, he had in a short time lost all that at the time had meaning to him.   In the space of several months his wife left him (taking most all of the family friends) after which he fell pray to a Reduction In Force – the painfully euphemistic way of saying “was laid off.”   Quickly the debt piled up until the only phone calls he received were those from creditors.   Feeling alone and without hope, he began to plan his own death.             Two warning signs of how serious a suicide wish is are having a concrete plan and physically writing out the note.   Both had been done, and on the day of the plan he recounted that he had said to himself, “If there is a single person in the world that still cares about me, I will not go through ...