This week's parsha is Parshat Chayei Sarah, and it is awfully a traditional time in which settler violence increases in Hebron because of the connection to the physical place described in the parsha, Ma'arat HaMachpelah, the Cave of Machpelah that Abraham purchases to bury his wife Sarah. At the time of this recording, when Rabbi Brent and I recorded this episode, we were still in the middle of summer, and of course, the genocide in Gaza was ongoing. And this week, now that this episode is about to come out, I'm recording the day before on November 1st, we're witnessing increased both settler and state violence from the Israeli military and Israeli settlers on Palestinian farmers in the West Bank in the midst of the olive harvest. I encourage you to go follow Green Olive Tours, the International Solidarity Movement, the Center for Jewish Nonviolence, Rabbis for Ceasefire. Please follow the link in the show notes to sign a petition calling for the release of Hassan Najjar, Land and Farming Cooperative, who has organized olive harvesting. He was assaulted and arrested on October 27th and is currently being held indefinitely without charge or trial. Please add your name to the call for his immediate and unconditional release, contact your lawmakers, and join the call for humane treatment and protection from torture while he is held. Please add your voice and your dollars this week to support Palestinians who are living, farming, and surviving the brutal ongoing occupation of this land that is so sacred. May the words of our Torah offer an aliyah for the sacred work of Palestinian organizers, farmers, and those in solidarity with them.

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This week's parsha is Parshat Chayay Sarah, Bereshit 23:1 through 25:18, and I am thrilled to be joined today by Rabbi Brant Rosen. Rabbi Brant Rosen is the founding rabbi of the anti-Zionist congregation Tzedek Chicago, established in 2015. He is the co-founder of the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council and the Jewish Fast for Gaza. Rosen's book, Wrestling in the Daylight: A Rabbi's Path to Palestinian Solidarity, from Just World Books, was published in 2017. His book of liturgy, As We Say These Words, with Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, will be published in the fall of 2026. His writings are posted regularly in his newsletter, Shalom Rav, and he has contributed op-eds and essays to a variety of newspapers, magazines, and anthologies. Thanks for teaching us Torah, Brant.

Rabbi Brant Rosen: Thank you, Ariana. Thanks so much for having me.

AK: So I am wondering if you can start out by giving us a quick rundown of what happens in this week's Parsha

BR: Yes, I would love to. So I really appreciate the opportunity to talk about Chayei Sarah. I think it's probably my favorite portion in the Torah, or if not, it's high on that list. And I love it because it really-- it is very artfully composed from beginning to end and thematically unified. And, the, the way that these Parshiot were codified and canonized I don't think was with any attention to the literary, structure of them. Who knows how they were codified? But so I think it's just by happenstance that it turns out this way. But I just love that it has central themes, a, a very-- a strong narrative arc and bookends at the beginning and end. So, yeah, I appreciate the opportunity to do my best to go through a summary of the portion as quickly as possible so we can talk about it. Just to give you the context, it begins after Vayeira, which ends with the binding of Isaac, with the near-- Abraham's near sacrifice of Isaac. So it begins in the wake of that trauma. The Akedah is many things, but on a familial level, certainly it has to be a terrible trauma. And Chaye Sarah, even though it literally means the life of Sarah, begins with the death of Sarah. And I think the two-sided coin between life and death the, the unified nature of life and death is one of the main ongoing themes in Chaye Sarah. So it begins with the death of Sarah, and then proceeds to a a section, a longish section in which Abraham attempts to purchase a burial plot for her that will become a familial plot. And it's the land of the Hittites. And he negotiates with this man Neph- Ephron, the Hittite. And they go back and forth, and it's full of lots of kind of customary negotiating language. And Abraham insists on paying the highest price, and he ends up purchasing it. And one of the things I just have to say, and we can talk more about this later, is that this portion sadly and actually tragically, is often wielded by Christian and Jewish Zionists, particularly right-wing religious Zionists, as the de- the deed of sale to this particular land, which is in-- is just today Hebron in the West Bank. And they s-- and they point to it and they say, "Look, we have the record of the negotiation. It's a-- it is the contract to this land." And that sense of using the text as an entitlement is so to me counter to what I think is the ethical core of this section of the portion, which is about neighborly relations between different peoples and good faith negotiation and trust and respect. And I think those are ongoing themes as well that will carry through the portion. I think Those themes writ large are how do we live in the wake of trauma and loss? How do we honor the past? And Abraham finding a burial place for his wife, Sarah is about honoring his love and also his, the, his, the past, but also ensuring the future because it becomes the, the familial, the fa- familial burial site. And then it switches to ensuring the future and that is procuring a wife for his son, Isaac. And it proceeds to what becomes the longest chapter in the Book of Genesis. It's chapter twenty-four. It's sixty-seven verses which is really amazing. And Abraham charges this nameless servant of his, who his name might be Eliezer it might be the same Eliezer or domestic Eliezer that was referred to in an earlier portion. It's not quite clear, but this servant is charged with finding a a wife, a suitable wife for I- for their son for Abraham and Sarah's son, Isaac. There's a long section at a well where the servant says, "God, give me a sign. Say, I don't know, I'll go up to a woman and ask for wa- ask her to help me get some water, and she'll say, 'Oh I'll get you water, but I'll get water for your camels too.'" And then that is absolutely what happens. He meets Rebecca, who is this amazing woman who just ver- treats him with g-graciousness and respect. Again, those, those themes. It really... What I love about this scene is even though that it's very granular in the way it plays out, is that there are other scenes at the well where husbands meet wives or in this case, a surrogate for a husband. There's a scene with Jacob and Rachel where Jacob is does this kind of display of male power where he moves the stone away from the well, you know. And then there's also Moses meets Zipporah at the well in Midian, and he also is this paragon of male heroism, and he drives away these, people who are harassing her. And here it is Rebecca is the one who is front and center, and she just she is a paragon of graciousness and respect and all those things we've been talking about. And strength. It's no small thing to much water, so Yeah, physical strength. Yeah Doing the act of strength. Yeah, she's a very strong character, both emotionally, physically, and as we'll see in th- the next week, the portion after this, she really looms large in many ways. And so yes, I just love that she ta- Rebecca is the one who takes front and center at this well episode. And the servant immediately is like, "Thank you, God." And they go back to to her brother Lavan's house, where apparently is where she's living. Her mother is mentioned as well. And they talk, and the servant explains that he's there to find a a wife for his master's son. And what's also interesting about this is that Rebecca is given agency. They say, stay for 10 days, and and we'll discuss it more." And the servant says, "No, I've gotta get back. I've gotta get back." And so they say, "Okay let's ask Rebecca what she wants," which is astonishing. And so she has this agency, and it's up to her. They don't just sell her through... to Abraham through the servant. They say do you wanna go with this man?" And she responds with the word eleh, "I will go," which is a little bit of a hint to the text that I chose for the Haftarah. Uh, So just park that in the bike rack for a moment. And so they go back. And then there's this great moment where she meets Isaac, and it's very beautiful. It says that Isaac is goes out to the fields at twilight. It says lasuach. It could be to, It could, might mean to meditate at the twilight hour or to to just go back and forth. He's kind of this lone figure, and she goes up with her camel and says to the servant, "Who is that man?" He says, "That's my master Isaac." It's this, this perfect Hollywood thing. And then there is what I think, and at least one of my biblical studies teachers has described as the only pure sen- the only pure episode of slapstick or moment of slapstick in the Torah. And it says, "Vatipol m'ha'gamal." Which is usually translated as she alighted from her camel. But I went to the Brown-Driver-Briggs Biblical dictionary and looked it up in preparation for this session, Ariana, and it is full... it says it says, "Gently alighted" is the only time it's used is in this one episode, but it literally means to fall. Anyone who knows even modern Hebrew about tipol means to fall, so. so she looks at the... I have this image of her looking at Isaac across this beautiful twilight, pastoral setting, and she goes, and just falls backward off the camel, she's bowled over. I hear awooga, I don't- and then she falls off. Love it. Yeah, for sure. And it's great 'cause it could be this, this very beautiful Hollywood scene, and there's just something about, a-adding that possibility that I really love. And anyways then the text goes on to say we don't really... And we could talk about this. It continues into the, the portion after, until Dot. At the end of this very long chapter, the very last verse, the sixty-seventh verse of Genesis twenty-four says, "Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother, Sarah, and he took Rebecca as his wife. Isaac loved her and found comfort after his mother's death." So again, we go to, the healing power of love in the wake of loss and grief and for the Freudians among us could-- they could have a field day with the image of his mother's tent. We don't know anything about his relationship with his father at this point. He never speaks to Abraham again after... They never speak together after the prev-- end of the previous ep-episode at the Akedah. But we know and-- but we know about this deep grief that he has over his mother's death and that Rebe-Rebecca kind of fills this void. So let's see. Then it goes on. There's a short section where we hear about a new wife for Abraham, Keturah. There's a long genealogy one of many in the Book of Genesis. What's really interesting about it is that one of the children that Keturah and Abraham give birth to is Midian so is the father of the Midianites. That is a very complex relationship with the Israelites. But just a reminder that these are all children of Abraham. And then it ends with the death of Abraham. So it's-- it bookends the death of Sarah at the beginning, the death of Abraham at the end. And it mentions, and there's almost a, you know, blink or you'll miss it verse that it says "He was buried by his sons, Ishmael and Isaac." And Ishmael and Isaac are brothers of different mothers sons of Abraham, but because of circumstances that they had nothing to do with, are set at odds with each other. But yet it ends with this coming together of these, these brothers who have this perhaps estranged or at the very least, deeply complex relationship coming together to bury their father. And it's just a beautiful bookend to the to the portion and I think takes all of those themes that we talked about living with love in the wake of loss and respect and trust and loyalty and all of those things. It's just a perfect grace note to the end of Chay Sarah, I think. Beautiful yeah, that's what I have to say, and I would love to hear what you think of this amazing portion Thank you so much. That's a lot of ground to cover, and sometimes when I'm, I'm prepping to teach the parasha, I will feel this obligation to hit every point, and to give myself and our listeners permission that wherever our attention is called at any particular year, that is the facet of Chaye Sarah, or whatever parasha we're learning that is calling us to pay attention to it. And some, because of who we are or what's happening in our lives or in the world, there might be many years in a row that the only thing we can read is about Hebron. And then there are parts of who we are that we will always see our relationship with X family member in the family unit, and so we will always see that. But the Torah doesn't change, we change. And so just giving myself, I don't think you need permission, Rabbi Brandt, but giving myself and our listeners permission that if it's a lot of detail and you're zeroing in on one, or you feel like you can't catch all of it, that's okay, and that is a part of, I think, how Bereishit challenges us. We get, it gets a little easier to pick what you're gonna focus on when we get to Deuteronomy. But for now, it's an overwhelming bounty. All, books of yeah I would say that Chei Sarah contains multitudes in ways that other portions probably don't Yeah. I'm really the book ending of death and Avraham's death feels like such a potent place for us to begin because the descendants of Ishmael and the descendants of Yitzchak the, the war that was established between brothers is the inheritance of the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people and displacement in the land of Israel-Palestine. And and so in thinking about the purchase of Ma'arat HaMachpela, the cave of Machpelah that Abraham buys for Sarah, and then the descendants of Sarah, and Hagar being the ones to bury him, I wonder if you can talk to us a little bit about the, the implications of buying land. You touched on it briefly, but the, the implications of buying land in a place, this is the first moment that we as a Jewish people interact with the land and our right to it human court. what the current state of land in that place and the cave of Machpelah in particular is now. Yes. No, these are very important questions for sure. I wanna preface it by saying I am not a fan of using the Torah or the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh, you know, as in such a literal way as a tool of entitlement to the land. There is a deep land tradition in the Torah, there's no question. Land is deeply important in the Torah, and and it teaches us so much about right relationship to the land and how peoples live on the land together. But when we get into modern political, contemporary political understandings and use-- and grounding it in this ancient book that was written thousands of years ago in a utterly different context with theologies that may or may not be particularly palatable to us, and somehow using it as a as a way to gain entitlement to the land in the current moment, I think is, let's just say, enormously problematic. But I think, I think the, the... Yes, this is the first time you really see this kind of negotiation and and the, the idea of of human beings going into a contract over land. But I think, the-- oh gosh, Arianna, there's so much to say. I'll just say this. The very first verse in the Torah has the word aretz in it, right? That are-are in the beginning, God created Shamayim va-aretz, the aretz. And it-- the word aretz means both the earth writ large and this one particular piece of land that God bequeaths to the Israelite people. It's the same word. But the t-text of Genesis makes it very clear that the whole earth belongs to God. And the text over and over drives this home. And then when we get into the talking about the sliver of land part the text also reminds us that it, it-- we're temporary sojourners in it. Or anybody who lives on it is a temporary sojourner on it. That there's a very famous line in the Book of Leviticus, "All the land is mine, and you are gerim in me." And ge- ger means a temporary resident. I think the most important concept for any understanding of the land tradition, and in particular when we get into negotiations among human beings, or negotiations being God and the Israelites when we get to the covenant, is that- At best, we are, we have we're leasing the land from God, and there is often lots of very specific stipulations about how we behave on that land, lest the contract is up and the land vomits us out in the colorful language of Leviticus. So I think that's, that's a really important context that's unstated that I think is part of this negotiation It's a hard question to articulate and a hard question to answer because of the depth of emotion in thinking about the violence that is done this week in particular. God forbid it should happen again this year. But the violence that is done by Israeli settlers in Hebron during Parshat Chayei Sarah, because of the discussion of the land, of the cave, and of the purchase Israeli settlers will, Wage just terrorism against the Palestinian residents of the city, especially around Ma'arat HaMachpelah. And there, we have many colleagues who created the beautiful proj- Sarah to this week in particular, talk about settler violence, to talk about right relationship with h- how, right relationship with this sacred land that is sacred to many people and grappling with a, a legacy of of how the Cave of Machpelah has been a, a flashpoint. But the way you set up the Parsha is actually maybe our balm and soothes, at least for me, a piece of the the spike in emotion and thinking about Torah and contemporary violence, which is that you said the purchase of the Cave of Machpelah is neighborly and it is loving. in the same way that our colleague and teacher Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg says all land is sacred and teaches about the, the land of Israel-Palestine in this way, everyone should have a place to live. And land that is negotiated between equals The conversation between Avraham and Ephron the Hittite is a legitimate business transaction that they're allowed to make on land that they are on. And so I think that at least for me I retroject the the immense pain of seeing what is done now onto this interaction, which is yeah, no one... The God, the land belongs to God, but since humans are on it, they're gonna negotiate with each other. What a normal interaction. A Jew says, " No, I need a place to bury my dead," and the person who owns the land does a whole shticky thing back and forth about they're actually trying to sell it for the full rate, and they're doing the kindnesses of the time. And so I think that the, this moment of buying and selling land, even though it is used for such violence, is actually a beautiful example of what could be possible, which is people trying to find places to live and bury their dead Yeah. Yeah, that's really well said, Ariana. I think, so much of this goes to what is our relationship to the text? how do we contextualize the text as if we consider it a sacred text? And what is the text and what isn't the text? And, I'll just come clean. I I think this is not a history book. This is not a record of accurate historiograph. I'm-- and I'm sorry to break it to any listeners here, but Abraham probably didn't exist, and Ephron the Hittite probably didn't exist, and this conversation probably didn't exist. And so it just shows the, just the nonsensical almost sacrilegious nature of treating this text in such a hyper-literal way that you can call it a deed of, a Jewish deed of sale to the land. And so for me, my relation to the text is what you're saying what is sacred and eternal about this, and what is temporary, a-and belongs to thousands of years ago? And, what is temporary is this concept this perhaps happened in a certain way or pr-- maybe there's some kind of oral tradition about this negotiation that was handed down. Who knows? But when you get beyond the hyper-literalism, what is eternal and sacred about it is the respect and neighborliness of two parties. And particularly, Abraham is an other, by the way. He's in the land of the Hittites. So they could just chop him up into little bits, and they don't. They receive him graciously, and they enter into a, a good faith negotiation. And to me, that is what is sacred about it. That is the eternal sacred core of this text, not the kind of literal entitlement that, that comes from a text that it shouldn't be treated, in my opinion, literally. There's something much deeper than-- And the literal dimension is one dimension of it, but to get stuck in that, I think is very-- can be very idolatrous in the end, among other things So you're referring to this parsha as novella. Oh And the book ending of the purchase of the, of Sarah's and death and Avraham's death, the purchase of the land, and I think the bookend of Yitzchak and Ishmael coming together, because this is also the end of this parsha is the inflection point in which we're about to come into a new season, a new generation, the Yitzchak and Rivkah, the Isaac and Rebecca generation. And so it's really neatly wrapped up for us the Masoretes who divided the se- text of the Torah into parshiot, into weekly readings, thank you because the, it ends really neatly here at least. The Yitzchak and Ishmael burying Avraham together is so emotional, and it gets more than a single passuk, maybe two. Just a short verse, yeah single passuk in that in which brothers who are ripped apart by the violence of their parents, of their father, of this man that they're burying, come together to bury him. And, Andrew Ramer has a, a whole thing about the romantic relationship between Isaac and Ishmael, and builds a whole world of that intimacy in, in the text he wrote, Sarah Deathless. Or Deathless, a book about Sarah. Regardless of what your canon is about if Isaac and Ishmael had, whatever relationship before the split, I'm wondering if you can jump in with your Midrashic mind and think about what's happening for Isaac and Ishmael in, at graveside on this land burying Sarah, who is the one who sent Ishmael away and the meaning it could have for us that is, again, not us putting our contemporary feelings about the cave onto the cave as it is in the text. What are we learning about Isaac and Ishmael? What are we learning about Teshuvah? What's happening for them you imagine them coming together? Yeah. No, that's great. I always appreciate the opportunity to exercise my Midrashic mind. It's also... I should point out that it also mentions that Jacob and Esau, who are twin sons of Isaac, who are set at odds with one another come together to bury their father, Jacob, later on down the line. Spoiler, sorry. So the t- the Torah seems to love the trope of estranged brothers coming together to bury their common father. But it's obv- they're both fleeting. You have to really be paying attention or you're gonna miss it. And, the... So thinking about Ishmael, Ishmael has every right to be completely estranged from this From this very dysfunctional family. And, we don't know anything, the text doesn't tell us anything about their relationship at all. It I think it only mentions before this that they were playing together when they were children, which is what enraged Sarah. We know a lot more about Jacob and Esau's relationship, and we have a very explicit demonstration of their teshuva, of their reconciliation, which is just a m- emotional high point of the Book of Genesis to me. But we have to fill in the gaps with Ishmael. And I just imagine Ishmael and Isaac, they're both children who were traumatized by circumstances that they had no control over. They're both, you know, I- Isaac I- Ishmael was also victimized by Abraham. His mother was sent away, and Abraham says, "Do whatever you want," to Sarah. Just washes his hands of it. They both have complicated relationships with Abraham and I would love to have an episode similar to the Jacob and Esau embracing with love in in a later portion of Genesis. Have a similar kind of Midrash about the two of them coming together as, as brothers who have a common experience of being in the same family but also very different experiences. But learning how to respond to it with love and not through division. And that any family therapist will take, tell you that's the goal. So someone out there should write this Midrash. It probably has been already many times. Oh, yeah it can't be written enough Yeah, you know, I, I think because Isaac is the chosen brother in the end by our Torah I the immense violence that is done to Isaac. So both of these boys are burying their abuser or someone who did abuse against them, depending on, on how they would see it. I have this, least what's moving through me, with Jacob and Esau, which we'll get to and and we'll hear from Elliot Basadak, who has lived inside of Esau's life for decades now That'll be a, good one gotten to know him. It's an incredible conversation. that teshuvah, that repair, from one person who's done the healing and one person who is brand new to the situation. Esau, right? I don't wanna scoop us for a couple weeks. But the relationship between Isaac and Ishmael, I think about it as one where they both just... They're like, "We're not gonna fix that one." is a sense, there's a sense for me that they come together, they're like, "We're not... We don't need to get into it. Let's just do the thing we have to do. We're not gonna be able to time travel and fix this one for either of us." Yeah. some, there are some hurts and some lifetimes that you don't actually wanna go digging through, and I offer, wanna offer that between Isaac and Ishmael as just another model, that, sometimes you can't have the big dramatic repair. a- and Ishmael thrives. Ishmael, out of the entire family tree, at least from a psychological harm perspective he moves out, mom's doing great. like, Moved back home. He- generations flow through him, and in the Torah version, he wasn't sacrificed at the top of the mountain. But we know in the Quran, the sacrifice at the top of the mountain, the Akedah, is between Abraham and Ishmael. In the, yeah, I- Ishmael has a great life, and he just doesn't Yeah in this, this point, pain point That's beautiful. Yeah. I-- another thing that occurs to me as I'm listening to you is that th-this, the site of the burial is Machpelah. So that's another bookend, that it takes place where we started. And, the word Machpelah, by the way, means doubling. And Juicy y- you know, the tragedy, the fucking tragedy of the time we're living in when I think about the horrors that have been committed in that cave in, in the name of this book that we cherish, the-- that the real legacy, the true sacred legacy of Machpelah is about the relationship between the lo- the trusting, loyal relationship between Ephron and Abraham's love for his wife, and then it comes full circle to Isaa- to Isaac and Ishmael. I don't know if Ishmael, according to the Quran or Islamic tradition, is buried in Machpelah or not. I'm guessing yes, but I'd love to know that. But certainly not in the Torah. It's for a particular line of Abraham's. But the fact that moment occurs at this place, sacred place of doubling, which is a very different kind of doubling than what we're seeing going on today shows what the true legacy of Machpelah really is underneath all of the horror Beautiful. Where is Ishmael buried? Quran All you listeners out there, please write in and let us know The internet says according to Muslim tradition, Ishmael was buried at the Hijir near the Kaaba inside the Okay. Okay. So So that's even more, so that's even more powerful in a way that this is the place that he has no future in. It's a different line of his family, a line that has treated him poorly, to put it mildly. And yet the power of that place and the power of his relationship in this family allows them to come together in this moment of honor to Abraham, their mutual father Are you getting pulled into the Wikipedia wormhole of Ishmael? How dare you accuse me of what I'm doing? Maybe year we should be so lucky to study the Torah again. We'll do multi-faith progressive parsha study, and so we can bring on a Muslim comrade who is listening now and screaming at their headphones with- I, I absolutely would be down for that. So we are in the process of building a Haftarah Beyond Conquest, one that does not hinge on texts of war and displacement. And so I would love to know, Rabbi Brant Rosen, what text you would add to our Haftarah for Parshat Chayay Sarah Maybe this is just because of the moment I'm personally in because I'm working on a new translation and commentary on the Book of Ruth because, it's something for me to do. And I love the Book of Ruth. As much as I love Chayei Sarah, I really love the Book of Ruth, and it's a subversive counter-narrative to the whole Tanakh, the whole Hebrew Bible, and just turns everything on its head. And but it reminds me of Chayei Sarah and, the word elech when r- when Rivka, Rebecca says elech, and she's given her own agency to do that. That's the word that r- of course, that Ruth says to Naomi "Wherever you go, I will go." So it's the same word. And often in Haftarah... I know I could've p- picked I don't know, a great Jewish movie for the Haftarah perhaps. I-- maybe on future episodes I'll do that. can get, any time we can get Ruth and Naomi in here, I think it's bonus points. Yeah. points to listeners if you caught the hint earlier and you knew where we Yes. Yeah, Ruth is all about these things that we're, we've been talking about in Chaye Sarah, about love, about loyalty in a time of horrible violence and turmoil and pandemic and all kinds of other horribleness, and the way through it. And also, I should mention, God is in the background in Chaye Sarah, almost nonexistent. And God is also in the background of the Book of Ruth, almost nonexistent. Not nonexistent, but that God works, is peeking behind the scenes, behind the curtain, and working through the actions of just love and kindness and graciousness of human beings who are trying to do right by each other in very difficult times. And that's what Chaye Sarah is about. I think that's at the core what Ruth is about, and these little redemptive moments that are just so small and human. The thing I love about Ruth is that the final verse of Ruth tells us that these small acts of loyalty and kindness and graciousness can have cosmic repercussions, because this Moabite woman, who we learn in other parts of the Torah, comes from a people that are arch-villains of the Israelites basically marries Naomi and becomes the great-great-great-great-great-grandmother of King David, who, through whom Jewish tradition would have it, the Messiah will come. That these small acts, redemptive acts can have much larger redemptive significance if we would only allow ourselves to understand that. So I think, it's the same in Chaye Sarah. They're doing their best with one another, but it's to secure this God's plan. Even though God isn't so apparent in the portion, the context of it is fulfilling this redemptive plan that God has for this people. And so I just love, I love the real human stories that point toward something larger. I just love that interplay, and I think Ruth would make a fine Haftarah for the book of or for the portion of Chaye Sarah. Beautiful. I can't wait to read this translation. That's, you. I can't wait to finish it. If people wanna follow your teaching and writing and organizing, where can they follow your work? right now I'm working on all kinds of different writing projects that hopefully will see the light of day. But my newsletter is Shalom Rav, shalom-rav.com. There's also rabbibrant.com, which is my earlier blog, which has a wealth of all kinds of stuff that I've written over the decades. And yeah, those are the primary places. There's also liturgy that I've written that's on a different blog called Yiddin Nefesh, which is ynefesh.com, and yeah, other places too, but those are the main ones Thank you so much for the, the invitations into the cave that are things that deal life, not death, right? We could have read Chayei Sarah and lingered in the places of what tears people apart. And with Ruth, with Isaac, with Ishmael you're inviting us into a source of life in this parsha. So thank you so much for opening it up for us. Thank you, Rabbi Ariana, and thank you for this opportunity and for this podcast, which will be one of my go-tos. I'm so glad you're doing it and can't wait to hear these conversations that you're gonna be having Thank you. And an 📍 early Shabbat Shalom to everybody listening Thanks so much for listening to this week's episode of Left at Sinai on Parshat Chayay Sarah with Rabbi Brant Rosen. Your support for Left at Sinai will allow us to put out episodes weekly for the coming year. Please head to our GoFundMe link in the show notes to contribute whatever you can to the show. If you give at the sponsorship level, that took me a few takes, um, to support the show, you can dedicate an episode of learning in honor of a loved one, an upcoming celebration, or a yard site, and your support is so appreciated at every level. Transcripts, source sheets, and show notes can be found at arianakatz.com/leftatsinai. Please subscribe and leave a comment to the show and send us your thoughts. Email leftatsinai@gmail.com, and bonus points if you send me an audio file we can play on the show. Please share this with someone who you think might like it. Left at Sinai was edited by Ev Bowen. Music by Molly Baygot. Art by Leora Ostroff. I'm your host, Ariana Katz. Follow the show and me on Instagram at leftatsinaipod and at rabbiariana. Take care

Ariana Katz

Parshat Chayyei Sarah with Rabbi Brant Rosen

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