Of the 54 parshiot of the Five Books of Moses, only one is named after a woman. It is called “The Life of Sarah.”
It opens by informing us that Sarah has died.
Yes, this is the life of Sarah. Her true life. Because only in her passing was Sarah’s life fulfilled.
During her lifetime, she and her husband Abraham surveyed the land promised to their children. Only once Sarah died did Abraham make his first actual purchase, publicly and with full payment. Sarah’s burial plot and its accompanying field in Hebron mark the seminal point of the Land of Israel.
During her lifetime, Sarah had only one child, who remained single. From where would come the “offspring more numerous than the stars” that G‑d had promised? With Sarah’s passing, the match between Isaac and Rebecca was made, a woman much like Sarah, through whom the Jewish people would become a reality.
During Sarah’s lifetime, Abraham was not able to guide Ishmael. By divine command, he was compelled to harken to Sarah, who witnessed Ishmael’s corruptive influence and demanded he be sent away. By the end of the parashah, Abraham is following in the ways of Sarah with the rest of his children. Even Ishmael has repented and accepted Isaac as the true heir of Abraham.
It was after Sarah’s passing that Abraham’s vision began to emerge into reality in this world—through the work of Sarah.
This is true life—a life not confined to the years of a physical body, but a life that becomes yet more real after it is released from those confines, and continues to be felt more and more with every year that passes.
Such is the life of a mother. While the rest of us live within a moment that has already disappeared, a mother gives life, nurtures life, and guides that life into eternity.
This is a beautiful lesson. But how can those of us whom Hashem has never blessed wirh children (natural or otherwise) have that same kind of life and meaning? What should we take from Chayei Sarah if her real impact only came after her death and through her child?
In Torah, your students are called your children, and your good deeds are called your offspring.
Plant and sow seeds of kindness and wisdom, Torah and mitzvos, in this world now. Make every moment of your life an eternal moment.
If it's really words and deeds that are one's children and offsprings, then why accord so much value and sentiment to biological children to the extent that Isaac can be named the beginning of the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham concerning Israel?
Couldn't the promise have been fulfilled through the words and deeds of an actor? Or does it need to be fulfilled in both the spiritual and physical world hence the need for a physical human child? And if that's the case, what is the value of a woman whose womb never bore and whose paps never gave suck?
In Sarah's case, there was a need for a child. But the main point of this article is to explain that a person's life is to fulfill their task given to them. That task assigned to you is perpetual, regardless of it being physical or spiritual. Once a person has acended their physical being, the question is whether or not they were able to rectify their part of the world or not. In the case of Sarah, it was more important that the child be Isaac and not someone who didn't go in the ways of Avraham and Sarah. If Sarah gave birth to an offspring that didn't keep the Torah, that wouldn't have been a fulfilment of her vision. The same applies to us, if we have children that turn out to be failures, then we are also dead. If we have students who are successful and upright, then we will alive, eternally.
And that is the main emphasis of the paarashah, we see here that her vision is being fulfilled. Isaac was just one of many kegs in the machine.