Rabbi Daniel Siegel

Brothers

In this week’s parashah, Chayei Sarah, both the patriarch and matriarch of our people, Sarah and Avraham, breathe their last and in so doing give new life to a lost brotherhood.

Avraham was estranged from his older son, Yishma’el, ever since he forced him out of his home at the request of Sarah. They never spoke again. After Avraham bound his younger son on an altar, as a sacrificial offering to God, Yitschak, spared but traumatised, never again spoke with his father.

Now, the two brothers come together at their father’s funeral, the first time they see each other since they played together as small children.

Before his death, we read in this parashah that “Avraham was old, advancing in years”, but blessed by God “in all things”. Avraham was blessed with a son through Sarah, as he was promised, and had grown wealthy in possessions and land. Yet, we sense a lack of fulfillment.

As the parashah draws to an end, we read that it is only “after the death of Avraham, God blessed his son, Yitschak. And, he settled near the well of Lahai-roi”. This is the site at which Hagar, running away from Sarah who abused her, was promised a son, Yishma’el, the lost brother with whom Yitschak now becomes reunited.

As Yishma’el and Yitschak found their way back together after a long separation, may their contemporary descendants, Arabs and Jews, find a way to come together, as brothers, as well.