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Torah readings

Torah reading Chayei Sarah (חיי שרה): Genesis 23:1-25:18

It’s all too easy in today’s crave-the-cutting-edge lifestyle to forget who got us to where we are today. Abraham is called “father of us all” because his trust in God is the model for saving faith in God’s Son, Yeshua haMashiakh (Jesus the Christ) (Rom. 4:16–5:2). In this week’s Torah portion, חַיֵּי שָׂרָה Chayei Sarah (“Sarah’s life,” Gen. 23:1–25:18), we learn how important Abraham’s wife Sarah is in The Way from our old way of life to our new one in Mashiakh.

Readings

  • Genesis 23:1–25:18
  • 1Kings 1
  • Matthew 2:1–23
  • Matthew 8:19–22 (Luke 9:57–62)
  • Matthew 27:3–10
  • John 4:3–14

Chayei Sarah discussions

The following are notes and recordings of studies by Hallel Fellowship teachers on Chayei Sarah and related passages.

Lost tribes and messianic restoration: Jeremiah's message of hope to Rachel (Genesis 24; Matthew 2; Jeremiah 31)

Lost tribes and messianic restoration: Jeremiah’s message of hope to Rachel (Genesis 24; Matthew 2; Jeremiah 31)

This study on the Torah reading חַיֵּי שָׂרָה Chayei Sarah (“Sarah’s life,” Gen. 23:1–25:18) explores biblical principles of respect, property ownership and the hope of resurrection. It centers around the stories of Abraham and David, emphasizing their sorrow and the significance of their real estate transactions in the history of the people of Israel, finding resting places for Sarah and the presence of Heaven. Chayei Sarah also has important connections to prophecies to the events surrounding the birth of Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ), exploring messianic themes and emphasizing the continuity of these prophecies in early Jewish writings.
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Have you built a resting place for God? Lessons from Abraham's and David's approaches (Genesis 23:1-25:18; 1Chronicles 21:7-22:1)

Have you built a resting place for God? Lessons from Abraham’s and David’s approaches

In the Torah reading חיי שרה Chayei Sarah (“Sarah’s life,” Gen. 23:1–25:18), we see the lengths Abraham goes to buy this final resting place for his wife Sarah, including his refusal to bury her on a Gentile’s property and his insistence on paying full price (or more) for a solid guarantee of ownership. It’s a lesson not lost on Abraham’s descendant King David, who 1,000 or so years later needed to buy a resting place for God Himself.  It’s because of the Son of God — Yeshua (Jesus) — that Abraham, David, and all those who love God will receive…
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Rivkah, Ruth, Photini (Samaritan woman at the well): How one act of kindness can change your life (Genesis 24-28; John 4)

How 1 act of kindness can change your life: 3 great women of faith

The legacy of Abraham’s wife Sarah, the focus of Torah reading חיי שרה Chayei Sarah (“Sarah’s life,” Gen. 23:1–25:18), is not only her future daughter-in-law Rivkah (Rebecca) but also distant relatives Ruth and the Samaritan woman Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) met at the well. These women, just as Sarah before them, extended acts of kindness and mercy to a stranger who would change their lives forever and they were rewarded for their kindnesses to strangers with a permanent connection with the Messiah.
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Money and Messiah: How Heaven teaches us to respect others and ourselves

Money and Messiah: How Heaven teaches us to respect others and ourselves

A section of the Torah reading חיי שרה Chayei Sarah (“Sarah’s life,” Gen. 23:1–25:18) makes a big deal about a real estate transaction Abraham did for a burial plot for his wife Sarah. Rather than an arcane factoid from ancient times now long gone, this deal is a key lesson on the Golden Rule — how highly Heaven values humanity, and how people should similarly respect others and ourselves. Rather than “he who has the gold makes the rules” or “do unto others before they do it unto you,” the Golden Rule and related instructions on property rights teach us to find…
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How to live a life worth remembering (Genesis 23:1-2)

Why a life is worth remembering respectfully (Genesis 23:1–2)

Ancient views on the opening verses of Torah reading חיי שרה Chayei Sarah (“Sarah’s life,” Gen. 23:1–25:18) about the funeral for the pivotal matriarch of Israel remind us that we all go through phases of our lives. Like Sarah, Abraham and other key leaders of the people of God, we get a new name — character, reputation and legacy — when we are delivered from our old life of bondage to things that keep us separated from the Kingdom of Heaven. In this study, we explore why embracing our “new name” as a “new creation” of Heaven is essential to…
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Genesis 23:1–25:18: How Abraham got a peace of the action in Canaan

“‘You have heard that it was said, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy” (Lev. 19:18; Deut. 23:3-6). But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.'” (Matthew 5:43–45 NASB) We can learn from Abraham, the father of our faith in God, how to put these words of Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ) into action in the…
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Genesis 23:1–25:18: A time to rebel and a time to trust

God put a degree of rebelliousness in all of us because sometimes we have to have a rebellious spirit. When the culture around us, whether it’s in our own family or our national culture, is wicked and evil, we have to have the fortitude to rebel against that and stand firm in living the way that is right. The name of the Torah portion חיי שרה Chayei Sarah means “life of Sarah,” but it starts with the matriarch’s death. We see how Abraham works hard to find a final resting place for her, but her death had a huge impact on…
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Genesis 23:1–25:18: Sarah’s ‘lives’ and our ‘new creation’

When we are pushed to our limits, God promises us that the ways of the Kingdom of God are far more profitable in the long term than trying to avoid pain. That’s what Abraham and Sarah learned over many years of their lives. It’s all the more relevant today for increasing social and physical pressure put on believers in the Holy One of Israel and the Anointed One of God. This lesson of faith is the backdrop of the Torah section Chayei Sarah (“life of Sarah,” Gen. 23:1–25:18).
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Genesis 23:1-25:18: Believers’ bargain bonanza from Sarah and Rivkah

Why did Abraham the nomadic “father of faith” pay so much for a tomb for his wife Sarah? What’s the connection between Abraham’s and King David’s picking a certain son as the successor over other, older sons? Are does the symbol of a well in the account of Yitzkhak marrying Rivkah and in Yeshua’s encounter with the Samaritan woman teach us about the Mashiakh’s work of bringing new life out of death? These are questions tackled in this discussion of the Torah portion Chayei Sarah (“life of Sarah”), covering Genesis 23-25.
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When Yitzkhak met Rivkah (Genesis 24)

God had a wife in mind for Yitzkhak. Although the servant Abraham sent to find her didn’t know who she was or whether she would respond to the call, God knew who He had chosen, and Abraham had faith that God would send His angel ahead of the servant.
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Genesis 23: Abraham buys grave cave from Hittites to bury Sarah

This chapter sounds like a drawn-out real estate transaction, but it shows two things: Abraham was so important that Hittites, people of a major international power at the time, had great respect for him. Abraham’s first title to land in Canaan was to bury Sarah, who was very significant as the mother of the promised son by way of God, Yitskhak.
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Lying for lentils and how to inherit the blessings of God (Genesis 25–26)

After Sarah’s death Abraham had other children as well and we learn how his estate was divided up between his heirs. We also learn how Yiskhak (Isaac) deals with his status as a wealthy patriarch in a hostile land and how his two sons start fighting over Yiskhak’s estate before they are born and continue fighting over it when they are adults. The fight appears to end with Esau “despising” his birthright. But does this really end the dispute?
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Yitskhak meets his wife (Genesis 24)

We learn about the Near Eastern customs of how to find a wife for a prominent family. From Abraham’s request to Rivka’s acceptance, Isaac is not a part of this story until the very end when Isaac greets Rivka as acknowledges her as the wife God has chosen for him.
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Negotiations for Sarah’s burial and the deed to Hebron (Genesis 23)

The events around Sarah’s death are not mentioned simply as a marker of time. She was a prominent person in her own right. Her Biblical biography is the only one of a woman that mentions her age at the time of her death as well as the elaborate negotiations surrounding the location of her final repose. The negotiations for her burial place have implications into the present day.
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Who is Malakh YHWH (the Angel of the LORD)?

A common perception of an “angel” is a cute winged chubby baby, something as innocuous as a fairy, or a passive messenger. “The angel of the LORD” — Malakh YHWH in Hebrew — is a quite different figure that shows up throughout the Bible with massive power and authority. Who is he?
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