Torah
Parshat Chayei Sarah
By: Rabbi Noam Koenigsberg
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Ma'arat Hamechpela means "the double cave". Did Avraham chose this double cave as a burial plot only for convenience? Only to ensure that he one day would also be laid to rest beside Sarah? Or is there something greater here? It seems that Avraham was leaving us, his children with a very important message. The marital relationship is often viewed as a one that exists solely on a physical plane. It's a partnership that involves a physical connection, bearing no spiritual aspect to it. In fact those who seek spirituality are sometimes discouraged from marriage. There is, then, no essential reason to for a husband to be buried next to his wife. It may make things easier for loved ones visiting the cemetery, but there is nothing left in death of the bond they had in life.
Yet in Judaism marriage is a physical vessel for an eternal light. It is a physical bond that forges a great spiritual contribution to the world. It is only natural then for the first Jewish couple to seek a burial plot side by side. As if to say, "What we managed to build together in this world will continue to live on way past our lifetimes. And so this bond, through our children, is really an everlasting one, both in life and in death. So Maarat hamechpela teaches us not only about Jewish burial, but also about Jewish Marriage
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| Uploaded: | Friday, November 6, 2015 |