Chayei Sara | Generational Shift: “The Sun Rises and the Sun Sets”

 

 

Parashat Chayei Sara deals with the end of the era of Avraham and the subsequent generational shift. The parasha opens with the burial of Sara, and at its end, we find the burial of Avraham. In between, we are informed about the founding of the house of Yitzchak through the arrival of Rivka.

 

In corresponding fashion, Bereishit Rabba on Parashat Chayei Sara deals at length with two issues relating to the dimension of time in the history of the people of Israel: the phenomenon of death and the transition from one generation to the next, and the relationships and gaps between the generations.[1] In this shiur, we will address the first issue.

 

 

Let us examine the following derasha relating to the death of Sara in Bereishit Rabba:[2]

 

 

 

This derasha is a petichta reported in the name of Rabbi Abba.[4] The verse being expounded is the first verse of Parashat Chayei Sara: "And the life of Sara was a hundred and twenty and seven years; these were the years of the life of Sara" (Bereishit 23:1). It is expounded by way of the verse: "The sun rises and the sun sets, and hastens to its place where it arises" (Kohelet 1:5). The general idea conveyed is that God ensures continuity in the leadership of His people by introducing a new leader while the previous leader is still in office. In this way, God's rule and His concern for His people become manifest.

 

 

The derasha is artfully constructed. It is comprised of three parts, each one beginning with the words: "Before the Holy One, blessed be He, caused the sun of X to set, He caused the sun of Y to rise," and each part is shorter than the previous one. The first part is comprised of six repeating units, the second part is made up of three units, and the third part has only one unit — for a total of ten units.

 

The motif of sunrise and sunset in the verse appears throughout the entire length of the derasha, only in opposite order: the setting of the sun is mentioned before it's rising. Whereas the rising and the setting of the sun are presented apart from each other in the verse, as two separate actions taking place at different times, the darshan describes them as happening simultaneously. In this way, the derasha creates a rhythm of frequent sunsets and sunrises, the one following the other.

 

In the first part of the derasha, the wording is different from that in the other parts. Each unit opens with the phrase: "On the day that X died, Y was born," thereby adding precision and drama to the sunrise-sunset cycles.

 

 

Each part of the derasha relates to a different period in the life of the nation. The first part relates to the period of Chazal; the second part to the end of the period in the wilderness, the years of the conquest and settlement of Eretz Israel, and the period of the Judges; and the third part to the period of the Patriarchs. However, of the three, only the first part presents an extended period with absolute continuity. In the second part, between the period of Otniel and the period of Eli there is a gap the length of the period of the Judges, of about three hundred years. These two features of the first part of the derasha seem to indicate that it is the darshan's intention to present the period of Chazal as a time of special Divine providence in the history of the people. This finds expression in the absolute continuity in the chain of Tannaim and Amoraim — from the time of Rabbi Akiva, extending for more than three hundred years.

 

Thus, the main topic of the derasha before us is Chazal themselves. The derasha itself is Chazal's reflection upon themselves and their period as a one-time phenomenon in Jewish history since its very inception.

 

"The sun rises and the sun sets" describes the cyclicality of nature.[5] The derasha projects what is found on the natural plane onto the historical-national plane. Unlike nature, however, when it comes to history, the sun that rises today is not the same sun that set yesterday, but rather a new sun that shines forth in the world and will be followed by more new suns in succession, with each new sun appearing just before the disappearance of its predecessor.[6] Perhaps the derasha is hinting at the lack of cyclicality in the history of the people, which bears the actions of those that carry it forward — its great leaders and righteous people who advance the world. In other words, the history of the righteous is progressive and changing, as opposed to nature, which simply repeats itself without advancing. If so, the derasha contains two layers of meaning relating to processes of time: on the one hand, the rise and decline of each righteous person and every generation in itself; on the other hand, the transition between periods. 

 

 

One may then ask the following question: what is the overall process described in the derasha? The answer to this is that the derasha describes not one but three different processes in three different periods.

 

The second part of the derasha refers to the people's beginnings and their maturation, until the establishment of the monarchy, from the days of Moshe to the time of the prophet Shemuel. The verse, "And the lamp of God had not yet gone out," which is cited in the derasha in connection to the overlap between Eli and Shemuel, appears near the prophecy of the destruction of Shilo and the removal of the House of Eli from the priesthood,[7] and it indicates that the situation of "Before the sun of Eli set, the sun of Shemuel rose" relates to the end of an era.

 

The third part relates to the period of the Patriarchs until the establishment of the house of Yitzchak — the entire life of Sara, her barrenness, the birth of Yitzchak, and the creation of continuity for his descendants through the figure of Rivka. Hence, the second and third parts describe a process of advancing from one period to the next.

 

Now we may ask a further question: what is the process described in the derasha that relates to the period of Chazal? To answer this question, we must identify the chain of Sages mentioned here.

 

Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi [Yehuda Ha-nasi] are Tannaim; Rav Ada bar Ahava, Rav Avin and his son are Babylonian Amoraim of the first, second and third generations, respectively.[8] Abba Oshaya of Traya is an Amora of Eretz Israel of the fourth generation. The last figure in this chain is Rabbi Hoshaya bar Shimi, an Amora of Eretz Israel of the sixth generation.[9] The chain begins with Tannaim and ends with Amoraim; it begins in Eretz Israel, shifts to Babylonia, and then returns to Eretz Israel. The intergenerational process to which the first part of the derasha relates is the “setting” of the Torah of Eretz Israel and the “rising” of Babylonia as the Torah center of the people.[10]

 

In the consciousness of the sixth-generation Amora of Eretz Israel, Rabbi Abba, he words "the sun rises and the sun sets" echo the decline of the center in Eretz Israel, as opposed to the establishment of a new Torah center in Babylonia, which arises while the Torah of Eretz Israel is still active. Sunrise is in the east, sunset in the west, in line with Babylonia being east of Eretz Israel. The Geonic tradition that Rabbi Abba himself emigrated from Eretz Israel to Babylonia during the days of Rav Ashi also reinforces the interpretation offered here.[11]

 

This reading of the derasha explains the inner division of the generations and characters mentioned in the first part. We have seven characters divided in the form of 2-3-2 (two Tannaim, three Amoraim in Babylonia, two of the last Amoraim in Eretz Israel), and we have six generations mentioned in the derasha in the six-time use of the phrase: "On the day that X died, Y was born."

 

The cycle of the sun on the day referred to in the derasha likens the six generations from Rabbi Akiva to the end of the period of the Amoraim of Eretz Israel to the last six hours of the day, from noon to sunset. Rabbi Akiva marks the climax of the Tannaitic period, like the sun at noon. That period ends with the death of Rabbi Yehuda Ha-nasi and a new sun "was born," the Babylonian center of the yeshivot of Sura and Neharde'a. The Torah of Eretz Israel continues to exist and to shine, parallel to that of Babylonia in the first generations of the period of the Amoraim, but these are its last hours of grace. At this time, we may say that before God caused the sun of Eretz Israel to set, He caused the sun of Babylonia to rise. In subsequent generations, the light dims and the approaching sunset is evident.[12]

 

The full verse: "The sun rises and the sun sets, and hastens to its place where it arises" (Kohelet 1:5), points to the east not only as the place where the sun rises, but as "its place" to which it hastens so that it may rise once again. In the context of the derasha, Rabbi Abba points to a tendency that exists in the nation, to return to the initial point of Avraham in order to start anew, that is to say, to leave Eretz Israel in order to re-form and to return to it, over and over again. In doing so, he links Rivka's birth in Charan to Babylonia's rise as the center of Torah in the Amoraic period.[13]

 

In the wake of this, we may point to another layer of cyclicality present in the derasha, in addition to the two layers already discussed (the rise and decline of each of the characters and the rising that takes place in each part of the derasha). The three parts of the derasha together constitute one great cycle of rising and setting: the Matriarchs who come from Aram to Eretz Israel in order to give birth to the nation, the people who enter the Land and learn its path and destiny, and the decline of Eretz Israel in the generation of the darshan.[14]

 

From a distance of 1500 years, we view with awe the artistry of Rabbi Abba's derasha and the historical consciousness implicit in it. Indeed, the special Divine providence that gave the Jewish people the Tannaim and Amoraim has allowed us to stand firm in our Torah and in our faith over the course of a long and terrible exile. Eretz Israel has once again become the Torah center of the Jewish people, and we have merited to live in it and see it in its shining glory.

 

 

Let us examine another derasha in Bereishit Rabba on Parashat Chayei Sara, which also deals with the transition from one generation to the next:

 

 

According to Rabbi Simon, there are eras and leaders whose end brings about a retreat from their achievements. Scripture marks them with the words "And it came to pass after the death." The periods thus marked are periods of new beginnings: the arrival of the father of the nation, the formation of the nation at the time of the Exodus and in the wilderness, the beginning of life in Eretz Israel, and the beginning of the monarchy. But is it possible to turn these wondrous life achievements into the permanent reality of the nation, or are we dealing with a rare talent and a transient resting of the Shekhina?

 

The success of these periods on a historical scale is measured by their ability to have a lasting impact. Rabbi Yudan accepts Rabbi Simon's analysis, while relating to the Divine assistance that is required in order for these achievements to be preserved, by way of God's appointing a new leader who will continue the work of his predecessor.[16]

 

Rabbi Yudan's proofs are characterized by the fact that they mark historical progress in the life of the nation as compared to their predecessors. Yitzchak makes greater inroads in the land of the Pelishtim than did Avraham, the people of Israel enter Eretz Israel in the days of Yehoshua, and the kingdom of the house of David is greater than the kingdom of Shaul. There is difficulty at the end of a period, there is difficulty in separating from the familiar order, but "He that called the generations from the beginning" (Yeshayahu 41:4) wants to advance the Jewish people, and the rest of the world after them, towards their destiny. According to Rabbi Yudan, human history is sometimes like the waves of the ocean, where every retreat is a preparation for the wave that will follow, in a way that carries on its power, movement and vitality.

 

Unlike Rabbi Abba's derasha, the derashot of Rabbi Simon and Rabbi Yudan do not offer a panoramic view of the generations as a whole, but rather a discerning eye focused on the transition that takes place in the wake of the death of a great leader in a special generation. Nevertheless, the recurring theme of generational shift, emphasizing the Divine partnership and direction which the Jewish people across the generations merit, is worthy of mention.  It seems that we can assert with a reasonable level of certainty that the manner in which the Amoraim of Eretz Israel read the transition from the period of Avraham to that of Yitzchak reflects their own reality and era. In addition, it provides us with tools to contemplate the enormous changes passing over the people of Israel in our own time, before our very eyes.

 

 

(Translated by David Strauss)