Sarah Died Twice on the Same Afternoon

Abraham went down from Moriah with Isaac alive beside him. He did not know that while the knife was raised, while the angel was speaking, while the ram was being slaughtered in place of his son, Ha-Satan had gone to find Sarah.

The story is preserved in the Legends of the Jews, Louis Ginzberg's early-twentieth-century synthesis drawing from midrashic and aggadic sources spanning the Talmudic period, and it is one of the most devastating passages in the entire tradition. Satan came to Sarah in the form of a very old man, meek and humble, and told her: do you not know what Abraham has done to your only son today? He took him and built an altar, slaughtered him, and brought him up as a burnt offering. Isaac cried before his father. His father did not look at him. He did not have compassion.

Satan said this and walked away.

Sarah lifted up her voice and wept bitterly, addressing her dead son: I have reared you and brought you up and my joy is turned to mourning. But then, in her weeping, something remarkable happened. She said: I console myself, it being the word of God. She said: thou art just, O Lord, for all your works are good and righteous. She said: I also rejoice in the word that you commanded. And while her eye wept bitterly, her heart rejoiced.

Then she laid her head on the bosom of one of her handmaids and became as still as stone. She rose again. She went out searching for news of her son, went to Hebron, where no one could tell her what had happened. Her servants searched the house of Shem and Eber. Not there. They searched throughout the land. Not there either.

Then Satan came to her a second time, still in the form of an old man, and said: I spoke falsely to you. Abraham did not kill his son. He is not dead.

And when she heard this, her joy was so exceeding and so violent that her soul went out of her. She died of the news that her son was alive.

This is a tradition that knows grief and joy are not opposites. They are neighbors, and the heart that has been stretched far enough by one cannot always survive the return of the other. Sarah had already made her peace. She had already said: I rejoice in the word of God even while I weep. She had passed through something irreversible. The news of Isaac's survival did not simply undo what the news of his death had done. The wound was there. The relief tore it open from the other side.

The Book of Jubilees, written in Hebrew in the second century BCE, frames Sarah's death as yet another trial for Abraham. He was tested, Jubilees says, to see whether his spirit was patient and whether he would speak no indignant word. He was found patient. He was not disturbed. With patience of spirit he conversed with the children of Heth about a burial place. He did not pray. He mourned and wept. The tradition is careful to note: he spent his time weeping, not asking God why.

The purchase of the Cave of Machpelah is itself a strange affair. Adam had designated it as his burial place centuries before, afraid his body would be used for idol worship. He had buried Eve there, and the patriarchal tradition says he had tried to dig deeper because he could smell the fragrance of Eden nearby, but a heavenly voice called to him: enough. Seth had buried Adam there. Angels had guarded it with fire ever since, so no one dared approach. Then, one day, the ox Abraham was about to slaughter for the three visiting angels ran away, and in chasing it Abraham stumbled into the cave and saw Adam and Eve on their couches, candles burning at their heads, a sweet smell throughout. He knew then that he wanted this cave. Not just for Sarah. For himself. For the generations that would follow.

Ephron had just that day been made chief of the children of Heth, elevated to that position precisely so Abraham would not have to negotiate with a man of low rank. It was arranged. Ephron first offered the field as a gift, which Abraham declined. He insisted on paying. Ephron named a price, four hundred shekels of silver, and Abraham weighed it out in full in the best current coin. A deed was signed by four witnesses. The field and the cave were made sure unto Abraham for all time.

When Abraham entered the cave to place Sarah's body, Adam and Eve tried to rise and leave. They said: we are already ashamed before God because of our sin, and now we will be even more ashamed in the presence of your good deeds. Abraham soothed Adam. He promised to pray for him. Adam lay back down. Abraham buried his wife and carried Eve, resisting, back to her place.

Shem, Eber, Abimelech, Aner, Eshcol, Mamre, all the great of the land, followed Sarah's bier. A seven-day mourning was held. The people came not only to console Abraham but because, the text says, the loss was theirs as well. So long as she was alive, all went well in the land. After her death, confusion. The weeping was universal. Abraham, instead of receiving consolation, had to offer it to others.