Sara Imeinu
The first of the four Imahos, wife of Avraham Avinu and mother of Yitzchok, who was a prophetess and whose passing followed the Akeidah.
Biography
Life
Sara Imeinu a"h is the first of the four Imahos, the Matriarchs: Sara, Rivkah, Rachel and Leah. Chazal identify Sara with Iscah, the daughter of Haran, and explain that she was called Iscah because she could gaze through ruach hakodesh and see what others could not. She is counted among the seven nevios, together with Miriam, Devorah, Chana, Avigayil, Chuldah and Esther. Chazal also teach that Hashem spoke to the other righteous women through an angel, but to Sara through direct communication.
Chazal teach that Avraham and Sara were proselytes. Avraham reached the minds of the people and brought them under the wings of the Shechinah, and Sara did the same with the women. It is told that all the converts and God-fearing people in the world descend from those who nursed from Sara's milk. They also prepared a mikveh for everyone, Avraham for men and Sara for women. Chazal say that at first she was a princess to her own people and then a princess to the whole world.
The Torah's account of her early years includes Avimelech, who took her into his house. He gave her a royal garment and made her a noblewoman, so that no man would approach her, and everyone would know she was a queen and fear her. Chazal also teach that he cursed her for having hidden that Avraham was her husband, saying that she should have sons whose eyes were covered, and this was fulfilled when Yitzchok grew old and his eyesight dimmed. When Avram said, "Now I know that you are a woman of beautiful appearance," Chazal learn that until then he had not known his wife's beauty, which is how other husbands usually come to know it.
Chazal describe Sara as exceedingly modest. They say that all her years passed in gladness and joy, and that at one hundred she was like a twenty-year-old, free of any sin deserving heavenly punishment. They say the whole of Eishes Chayil was said about her, from aleph to tav. The Zohar teaches that the thirty-seven years from the birth of Yitzchok until he was bound on the altar were the years of life the Torah counts for her.
Chazal teach that the letter yud taken from the name Sarai stood and cried for many years until Yehoshua ben Nun came and Hashem added it to his name. The yud said, "Master of the Universe, have You taken me out of the name of the righteous Sara because I am the smallest of the letters?" Hashem answered that in the past it stood at the end of a woman's name, and now it would stand at the beginning of a man's name, Yehoshua. The Yerushalmi adds that the yud, whose value is ten, was divided, with half given to Sara when her name changed and half to Avraham when his name changed.
Her passing
The Torah's account of Sara's death comes right after the Akeidah. Rashi explains that the two are linked because she was told that her son had been prepared for slaughter and had almost been slaughtered, and the shock made her soul leave her. Avraham came to mourn her and weep for her, and Chazal ask where he came from, and answer that he came from Mount Moriah. Her yahrzeit is recorded as the first of Tishrei, and her passing is recorded in the year 2086.
Stories
The Satan Tells Sara of the Akeidah
It is told that when Avraham came down from Mount Moriah, the Satan was furious. He had not achieved what he wanted, which was to stop the sacrifice. So he went to Sara and asked if she had heard what had happened in the world. She said she had not. He told her that Avraham had taken his son Yitzchok and slaughtered him on the altar as an offering.
Sara began to cry and to wail, three wails like the three blasts of the shofar, and her soul left her and she died. Avraham came and found that she was gone. Chazal ask where he came from, and the answer is that he came from Mount Moriah.
Yitzchok Returns to His Mother
Chazal relate that Yitzchok came back to his mother and she asked where he had been. He told her that his father had led him up mountains and down hills. Sara cried out, "Woe for the son of a hapless woman. If not for the angel, you would have been slain by now." "Yes," he answered.
She uttered six cries, like six blasts of the shofar, and had barely finished speaking when she died. As the pasuk says, Avraham came to mourn for Sara and to weep for her. Rabbi Yehudah ben Rabbi Shimon asked where he came from and said that he came from Mount Moriah.
The Satan in Yitzchok's Form
A third account says that at that very moment the Satan went to Sara disguised as Yitzchok. When she saw him, she asked, "My son, what did your father do to you?"
He answered that his father had made him climb mountains and go down into valleys, and had taken him up one particular mountain and built an altar. He set out the wood, bound him on the altar and took the knife to slaughter him. "If Hashem had not called out, 'Do not lay your hand on the boy,' I would have been slaughtered." He had not finished speaking when Sara's soul departed. As the pasuk says, Avraham came to mourn for Sara and to weep for her, and Chazal ask where he came from, and answer that he came from Mount Moriah.
Family & talmidim
C:
Yitzchok Avinu:
Also on 1 Tishrei
All hilulos on 1 Tishrei ›Historical sources
- Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, chapters 31-32
- Vayikra Rabbah
- Midrash Tanchuma
- Rashi on Bereishis 23:2
- Berachos, Megillah, Sanhedrin, Bava Kama, Bava Metzia, Yerushalmi Sanhedrin and Sotah, Bereishis Rabbah, Bamidbar Rabbah, Avos DeRabbi Nosson, Pesikta Rabbasi, Shocher Tov, Lekach Tov, Zohar (as cited in the source bio)