יִּהְיוּ֙ חַיֵּ֣י שָׂרָ֔ה מֵאָ֥ה שָׁנָ֛ה וְעֶשְׂרִ֥ים שָׁנָ֖ה וְשֶׁ֣בַע שָׁנִ֑ים שְׁנֵ֖י חַיֵּ֥י שָׂרָֽה׃
Sarah’s lifetime—the span of Sarah’s life—came to one hundred and twenty-seven years.
וַתָּ֣מׇת שָׂרָ֗ה בְּקִרְיַ֥ת אַרְבַּ֛ע הִ֥וא חֶבְר֖וֹן בְּאֶ֣רֶץ כְּנָ֑עַן וַיָּבֹא֙ אַבְרָהָ֔ם לִסְפֹּ֥ד לְשָׂרָ֖ה וְלִבְכֹּתָֽהּ׃
Sarah died in Kiriath-arba—now Hebron—in the land of Canaan; and Abraham proceeded to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.
This week’s portion, Chayei Sarah, tells of Sarah’s death. The repetition of the word year, or ’shanah’ in Hebrew, emphasises the importance of all her life and the equity of all parts. Her husband Abraham is also the first person ever, in Torah, to offer a eulogy, in Hebrew a hesped. That’s how we learned to mark our loss and express our grief, by sharing it with others. Remembering and mourning is our duty, honouring whole lives of those we recall and loved personally but also generations who went before us.
This week is the anniversary of ‘Kristallnacht,’ known as the November Pogrom, 9/10 November 1938. 1,200 synagogues were desecrated and thousands of Jewish businesses and homes looted. Following the assassination of a junior diplomat in Paris by a young Polish Jew, the Nazi Party incited mass anti-Jewish violence, claiming it as a spontaneous popular ‘retaliation’ against the ‘enemy within’. 90 people were killed and over 25,000 Jewish men were arrested and deported to Dachau, Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen. Alfred Wiener and his colleagues at the Jewish Central Information Office in Amsterdam collected over 350 testimonies and reports. This doctor’s report below is from the Wiener Library collection.
On the notorious Thursday evening when the synagogues burned and the shops and homes were wrecked, I was arrested by the Gestapo with the explanation, “We must take you into Schutzhaft in connection with the events of this day.“ I was transferred to the remand prison and remained there one day. Treatment there quite correct, perhaps it could even be called friendly. Released towards evening, so that at first the thought occurred to us that we would be released to go home… Arrival in Buchenwald: order to get out. Even louder and cruder shouts and hail of insults. Order: “Hats off.” Again herded at top speed and then a proper running of the gauntlet. We had to pass between two lines of SS men, one punched and kicked, the other beat us with knuckle-dusters and whips. .. Again it was the case that agile younger men got away with a couple of blows whilst the older men, some of whom were suffering acutely, emerged from the alley bleeding and limping..Basically in Buchenwald there is no treatment of wounds for Jews. They have no claim to bandaging material, to medication or to any medical help whatsoever.
We will light a yahrzeit candle into our shabbat service this Friday, making space for honouring these memories.
Shabbat Shalom
Rebecca
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