Chayyei Sarah 5772 Mitzvah Day every day Rabbi Aaron Goldstein 26 November 2011

It is not written in the Torah that Sarah lived to be 127 year old. It is written that she lived a hundred years and twenty years and seven years (Gen 23:1). Rashi, our most important medieval biblical commentator, comments that [they are written out this way to show that] all of these years were equal in goodness.

The Sefat Emet, the Gerer Rebbe suggests:

It is the way of ordinary people that as you get older your awareness increases and you settle out your ways. The older you get, the more you are able to put aside certain bad qualities and stop doing some of the bad things you used to do. But in that case, the real “days of your life” are only the last minute, the time when you are really whole. And only some merit that chance.

But righteous Sarah, all her days were good and unspoiled. Surely she rose higher in her old age, but not by having to push away anything she had done in her youth. She just grew higher according to the natural course of her being. Every day of our lives we are given [the opportunity of] some special thing to set aright. Thus we can ascend, rung after rung. In Sarah’s case there had been no damage done along the way, no spoiling for which she had to repent in order to behave properly. This is the meaning of “all equal in goodness.”

On this d’var Torah of the Sefat Emet, Arthur Green comments: “For some of us, teshuvah, the return to God [or to good ways], needs to constitute a drastic or even violent change in the way we have been living. But there are those for whom teshuvah is constant throughout life, who are always turned to God, returning energy to the One. For them, teshuvah is as natural as breathing and as indispensable a part of life.”

Now, when we read the biblical stories and their accompanying folk traditions recorded in the midrash, we come to see that no human life is perfect. Indeed, one of the most reassuring aspects of our Torah is the imperfections that we read of in individuals and within the families of our ancient ancestors. We are created in the divine image but we are not Divine ourselves. Sarah is not immune as a biblical character, to actions that we might find questionable or troubling. The stand-out example with Sarah is that in her desire to provide Abraham with an heir, she insists he sleep with her handmaid Hagar. Then when Sarah herself is able to conceive, she pushes Hagar and her son with Abraham, Ishmael out of the household. One might understand them in the context of their times, as the kind of thing that people did; but it is not behaviour, that we would be able to condone and our ancient Rabbis already acknowledged this moral dilemma.

Nevertheless, the episodes that display her good characteristics in our tradition far outweigh the negatives. Sarah was an utterly loyal wife to Abraham, supporting him at every step of their life journey, even to her own cost, being passed to a Pharoah and Abimelech to protect her husband. She seemingly joined his belief in the One, true God and in partnership with God was concerned with the unfolding of the sacred story and Sarah prepared foods along with Abraham to provide hospitality to strangers.

I am not convinced that she was as perfect, every day of her life as the Sefat Emet suggests but I do like the idea of a legendary model in life. I am sure that we have all found ourselves creating legends around a character, most usually a relative whom we have loved so dearly. These legends become aspects of life that we try to emulate in our highest moments, not just occasionally but on a daily basis. In that way, we provide life after death for those who we continue to love, even though their physical presence is no longer with us.

This is the kind of role that I see Mitzvah Day playing in our annual calendar. Mitzvah Day has become an absolute phenomenon. It is praised by our Government, held up as an exemplar for other segments of society. The Hindu Community have adopted it in their Sewa Day that saw groups from the Jewish Community working with the Hindu Community to improve society. Last year, we shared with them a project to bring joy to the lives of those who were in Northwick Park Hospital and the Aron, Miller and Goldsteins found themselves in a field north of St Albans, planting trees alongside Hindu families and youth groups for the Woodland Trust.

A day filled with wonderful mitzvot. Tomorrow our KT class along with the confirmation class from the Roman Catholic church in Hallowell Road, will collect goods outside Waitrose in Northwood, for the Hillingdon Home Start charity. Today we are encouraging members to go and support the AJEX parade tomorrow at the Cenotaph. We will host many of our more mature members and those from local residential homes and schemes for a tea replete with entertainment from our young people.

But what of Monday. Indeed, what of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and so on throughout the year. Mitzvah Day is a true exemplar but its power is in seeding in each of us the desire to perform mitzvot every day of the year.

This morning, the Blustins and Marcuses have performed the religious mitzvot in our Torah service. Being here for a service is a mitzvah as it heightens the joy for those celebrating happiness in their lives and provides comfort and support for those who come into this Sanctuary in need. But our religious impulse goes further. It is quite remarkable the number of members who are involved in Jewish and secular charities, seeking to provide for a better society, a fact of which I am proud.

This Synagogue has prided itself in operating with a small staff team relative to other similar-sized Jewish Communities. However, we are realising that the changing patterns in society makes everyone time-poor. There are so many competing activities for our time, not least family, work and entertainment. The challenge to us as a religious community, is whether we can harness the enthusiasm for performing a mitzvah on one day, into a desire to volunteer one’s precious time, into small deeds on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and so on throughout the year.

Let us pray that this service and the activities of our Community on Mitzvah Day, build in us the desire to continue our acts for good throughout the year and thus play our part as custodians of God’s world.

Amen.