Congregation Shaarey Zedek presents...

8

TORAH

Maestro
Kerry Stratton

Conductor & Music Director
of the Toronto Philharmonica

Conversations
About Music

PORTION

Confronting Our
"Could Haves"

Shabbat Chaye Sarah:
Genesis 23:1-25:18;
I Kings 1:1-31.

ecently, during
past Ground Zero. I was
religious school
unprepared, as this was my
pick-up, I wit-
first time seeing the site.
nessed a frightening
Standing with our teens, I
scene: A child wriggled
reflected that many people
free from his mother's
had died; but what died as
grasp and ran across
well on Sept. 11 was that
parking lot traffic. His
false, innocent sense of
Rabbi Eric
mother got to him,
security, the assumption of
Yanoff
weaving through cars
Special to the immunity from uncertainty
to the other side of the
Jewish News and danger.
driveway. She hugged
For all of us, a misleading
her child close while
veil of security has been
simultaneously berating him: "You removed. We now see the "could
could have been killed!" she shout- haves" that always existed; we now
ed. She scolded, and he cried —
confront a constant underlying
both of them emotional in the
fear that once only occasionally
. realization of his "almost harm."
reared its head to punctuate hap-
What is the source of such an
pier, simpler, more serene times.
outburst? There is trauma in the
In our lives, and certainly on
knowledge of what that they had
that New York trip, the veil that -
averted. The potential was enough
insulates me from the real-world
to cause strain.
fears begins at sun _ down each
The midrashic commentary on
Friday. Shabbat is a time apart, a •
this week's Torah portion features
separation — a "breather" from
a similar fear from "could haves."
the outside world. It raises my
The parshah begins with an
appreciation for what it means to
account of Sarah's death, but
have a Shabbat shalom — a
. according to one version of the
Shabbat of peace. With a realiza-
midrash (Vayyikra Rabbah 20:2),
tion of our basic fragility, but with
Isaac first returns to his mother,
a hope for security and comfort,
Sarah, and tells her of his near-
let this be our prayer: that, unlike
sacrifice in the Akeidah (binding
Sarah, we not be so affected by the
of Isaac), which we read last week.
reality of danger that we cannot
Upon hearing the tale from her
live to appreciate the peace and
alive-and-well son, Sarah dies.
happiness in our lives, this
Rashi explains her death,"kime'at
Shabbat and into the future.
shelo nishchat — because he was
Rabbi Eric Yanoff is a rabbi at .
all but slaughtered" (Rashi on
Congregation Shaarey Zedek in
Genesis 23:2).
Southfield
and West Bloomfield.
In her book Genesis: The
Beginning of Desire, Avivah
Zornberg explains Sarah's death by
quoting the Maharal, another
Conversations
commentator: "This is the human
Does it help to always be
reaction of panic, on realizing that
aware of all of the potential
only a small thing [the literal
dangers in our world, or
meaning of kime'at] separated one
sometimes do we need the
from such a fate." She writes, "For
comfort of a "veil" of security
[Sarah, Isaac's] restoration does
to give us reprieve from the
nothing to neutralize the terror"
ever-present specter of possi-
(Zornberg, 127, 132).
- ble harm? How can we build a
Similarly, two weeks ago on our
sense of safety and shalom in
confirmation class trip to New
a world that is unpredictable?
York, our tour guide walked us

R

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November 24 • 2005 IN_