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The Complete Joy of Sarah
Adapted from Sefer Hamaamarim
5679 p. 87; Sefer Hamaamarim Melukat 2:145.
And the life of Sarah was one hundred years and
twenty-seven years and seven years - the years of Sarah's life. (Gen. 23:1)
Opening Channels
Rabbi Yosef Karo (b. 1488), author of the Code of
Jewish Law, was once stumped by a puzzling passage in one of Rambam's writings.
Rabbi Yosef spent much time and effort to solve the riddle but to no avail. One
night, he was struck by an idea that clarified the passage. His joy was great.
The following day he overheard a young Torah student studying the same passage.
To Rabbi Yosef's surprise and chagrin, the student nonchalantly explained the
passage using the same logic that Rabbi Yosef had struggled to develop. When
Rabbi Yosef mentioned this to the angel with whom he would study, the angel told
him not to be upset. The angel explained that once Rabbi Yosef had brought the
concept into the world through his effort it was now readily available to all. ( Chida
on Proverbs 3; see also Maggid Meisharim, Ki Seitzei;
Keter Shem Tov section 256) [In other versions of the story
it is was not Rabbi Yosef's angel but the Arizal, a contemporary of Rabbi Yosef.]  | | " Sarah attached herself completely to life..." | | |
Similarly, the Zohar often introduces the teachings of
the sages with "Rabbi so-and-so opened and said...." This is understood to
mean that through the teaching of the sage, the channels to understanding that
particular concept had been "opened" and were now accessible to the world at
large.
And so it is with the lives and deeds of our
Patriarchs and Matriarchs. Whatever occurred to them, the struggles they
underwent and overcame, "opened the channels," enabling us to more easily
overcome our struggles.
With this in mind, what is the eternal lesson of the
first Matriarch, Sarah? What paths has she paved before us?
Three Attempts
It is written in the holy Zohar (I:122b):
Eve entered the world and became attached to the
snake...Noah entered the world - what is written of him? "And he drank from the
wine and became drunk" (Gen.9:21)
... [Editor's note: This is how the passage is quoted in
Chassidic literature. In the Zohar itself, the comment about Noah comes after
the one about Sarah.]
Sarah entered the world, descended and ascended and
did not become attached...as we read, "And Abram and Sarah went up out of Egypt,
he and his wife and all that he has" (Gen. 13:1)...Because Abraham and Sarah kept
afar from the serpent, Sarah obtained life eternal for herself...as it is written,
"And the life of Sarah was..." (Gen. 23:1), a formula not used in the case of Eve
or any other woman. This is because Sarah attached herself completely to life,
and thus life was made her own.
Importance of Joy
The common goal of these three individuals - Eve,
Noah, and Sarah - was the achievement of a joyous spirit in divine worship. It
is known that the service of G-d must be performed with joy, as King David says
in the verse, "Serve G-d with joy" (Psalms 100:2). Indeed joy is an integral
part of divine service. It is said of the Arizal that he merited the opening of
the gates of wisdom, the revelation of Elijah the Prophet and the Divine Spirit
because of his intense joy in the fulfillment of mitzvot. (Torah Ohr
20b) | | " Joy is an integral part of divine service..." | | |
For where there is joy there is completion. A joyous
mitzvah is a whole mitzvah; one that involves all of the person. A joyous
mitzvah accomplishes all that it must: to reveal divinity in this world.
On the other hand, in the same book of Psalms it is
written, "Rejoice with trembling" (Psalms 2:11). This verse warns of the dangers
of joy gone awry. Together with celebration comes an awareness of self, which
can ultimately lead to further distance from the divine. Rejoicing with a
tremble means that one's joy is tempered with awe, where joy is experienced with
selflessness (and because of selflessness).
It was this experience of joy in purity that Eve and
Noah sought to achieve but failed. Eve's attempt is alluded to in the fruit of
the Tree of Knowledge, which according to the Midrash was a grape: "she squeezed
a cluster of grapes and gave it to [Adam]." ( Bereishit Rabba 19:5.
See Zohar I:36a ) In the Torah, wine is associated with joy: "wine
that rejoices G-d and man." (See Judges 9:13; Berachot 35a | | " By eating of the grape, Eve sought to experience joy in her divine service..." | | |
By eating of the grape, Eve sought to experience joy
in her divine service. Eve, however, tasted self-awareness in her wine. The
result of her eating from the forbidden fruit was that "she saw that the tree
was good to eat and that it was a craving to the eyes," i.e., she no longer
operated in a purely divine-oriented world; she and Adam now inhabited the world
of self.
Noah, as the Zohar says, sought to rectify Eve's sin.
(See Zohar I:73a) So "he drank from the wine and became drunk". By becoming
drunk, Noah avoided the self-awareness that is brought on by wine and
celebration, since a truly drunk man is unaware of his senses. However, his
behavior did not achieve much. For a drug-induced transcendence is not an
achievement; it is an evasion. The goal is to achieve selflessness within
the context of the natural human condition, not to distort one's perception of
reality and thereby escape and avoid human-consciousness. | | " The true rectification of Eve's sin was achieved by Sarah..." | | |
Kabbala (See Kehilat Yakov on Chava and
Sarah) explains that the true rectification of Eve's sin was achieved by
Sarah. For Sarah epitomizes selflessness. Sarah embodies the sefira of
malchut, as alluded to in her name, which connotes rulership. Malchut,
the lowest sefira, receives from the higher ones and thus epitomizes
selflessness.
Thus Sarah was capable of experiencing joy without any
of its negative side-effects. She remained selfless even while experiencing
otherness. Indeed Sarah's joy was a reflection of the ultimate joy, which will
be experienced in the Messianic era - "then will our mouths be filled
with laughter." (Psalms 126:2) [It is this selflessness that allows Sarah to
"descend" to Egypt and "ascend" unscathed. Not only is she not adversely
affected by the impurity of Egypt, she and Abraham manage to leave there heavy
with cattle, silver and gold - an allusion to the sparks of holiness that they
had elevated through their descent.]
Thus Sarah consequently gives birth to Isaac,
so-called because "G-d has made laughter [in Hebrew, "tzchok"] for me."
(Gen. 21:6) Isaac embodies laughter and joy. His is the joy of the
future, Isaac being the Patriarch most associated with the Messianic era, i.e.
"then [in the Messianic era] they will say to Isaac, "you are our
father." (Isaiah 63:16)
Dancing Monarch
King David, also the embodiment of malchut
(royalty), experienced this level of selflessness as well. Thus he is described
as "leaping and dancing before G-d" (with an abandon that embarrassed his wife
Michal, daugher of Saul). Like Sarah, he was able to maintain selflessness even
in the midst of self-manifestation. For when one experiences the ultimate level
of selflessness, there is no room for corruption even when joy is made manifest.
It is with the power of our past, the joy of Sarah and
King David, that we are capable of experiencing the joy that will lead to the
ultimate joy, when "they will come to Zion in song, eternal joy upon
their heads..." (Isaiah 35:10)
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