Chayei Sarah
Life continues, even – or especially – when it seems to pass away.
Sarah, the mother of every Jew, passes away at the age of 127. Abraham, in the first documented real estate deal in history, purchases a double cave in Hebron in which to put his beloved wife to rest. Isaac, the consummate scholar, is not getting any younger. Eliezer, the butler, is sent to discover the perfect girl for Isaac. Thus was the matchmaking industry born. Rebecca wasn’t just beautiful and lovely, she was kind and refined. Isaac and Rebecca marry, the second link in the chain of the Jewish people. At the age of 175, Abraham passes from this physical plane and is laid to rest next to his wife Sarah in Hebron, by his sons Isaac and Ishmael.
Is There Life after Death? Eternal Lessons from our Matriarch Sarah
In this week’s Torah Portion, Chayei Sarah, we discuss the passing of Sarah, and yet the whole portion is named The Life of Sarah. Let’s take a moment to pause and reflect on the meaning of life itself.
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Giving Yourself Spiritual Self Care
Discover how to get an x-ray of your soul and identify which parts need strengthening. Learn exercises and “vitamins” that nourish and nurture the “muscles” of your soul’s different faculties.
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Are You Grateful? The Power of Gratitude Thanksgiving Workshop
Join Rabbi Jacobson in this Thanksgiving workshop as he unearths the earliest roots of gratitude and  how it can reveal your deepest resources and transform your life.
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Two Conflicting Voices: The Battle of the Twins
Discover the dichotomous forces in our psyche and dissect the roots of our inner conflicts, demystifying and defanging the confusion and fear they create.
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The Mysterious City of Chevron
The mysterious city Chevron holds the secret of integration: finding harmony in a divisive universe, both in our personal lives and the the world at large.
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Eternity in a Second
Redefine your life and reshape your relationships by discovering how to bring every moment to life and turn every second into eternity.
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Can East Meet West? Transcendent Integration
Learn how can we bridge the schisms between people, communities, nations, cultures and faiths and how to achieve harmony between conflicts within us.
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The True Meaning of Life
Much can be learned from advertising. What exactly does it mean to be alive? Chayei Sarah reveals for us a completely new definition and dimension of life. A true life is a spiritual life.
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Messenger or Matchmaker
Ultimate commitment is when an independent thinker chooses to dedicate himself to a cause greater than himself, to be a messenger and extension of it.
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Chayei Sarah: Ishmael – How Does it End?
It was Sarah’s banishing Ishmael that ultimately caused him to return to the right path.
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Chayei Sarah: The First Jewish Mother
This week’s Torah portion is about the first Jewish mother, Sarah: The embodiment of an Aishet Chayil.
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Eliezer’s Story
When we speak, we emulate G-d’s speaking the world into being. We extend ourselves beyond our own existence in the minds, hearts and deeds of others.
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A Knowing Ignorance
Said Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov: One who finds an immense treasure … his distress is greater than his happiness.
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The Return of Hagar
Dealing with the “Hagars” and “Ishmaels” in our lives—the raw and unruly elements in our nature, society and environment.
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Nothing II
The story is told of a chassid who met with a childhood acquaintance after many years of disrupted contact.
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A Day in the Life of an Old Man
A lifetime of seeking and achievement, of trials and triumphs, did not diminish Abraham’s thirst for life.
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The Married Life
The ultimate manifestation of divine truth requires a union of the spiritual and the physical.
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Separatism
A divorce of deed from faith and feeling is obviously antithetical to the very essence of Judaism.
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Day in the Life of an Old Man
It is Abraham’s greatness that as he grew old, he continued to enter into his days.
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Eliezer’s Story
Eliezer’s story is a classic example of the “toil of speech”—of the manner in which we apply our creative and communicative skills to create a world in partnership with G-d.
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The Return of Hagar
Three years after Sarah’s death, Abraham remarries Hagar. Learn the significance of the return of Hagar, spiritually and as an historical event.
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Father and Son: Abraham and Isaac
Despite the fact that Abraham and Isaac embodied different approaches to life, the father and son had a respectful and symbiotic relationship. Learn a quick lesson on parents and children from this Torah story.
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Chayei Sarah: Can East Meet West?
Abraham surely knew how religious zealotry can breed intolerance, condescension, judgmentalism and prejudices of all sorts — feeding into the ugliest elements of human nature.
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Growing Old: The Folly and Opportunity of Retirement
The weakened physical state of growing old is not a sentence of inactivity, but a challenge to find new–and superior–venues of achievement. Or how not to retire.
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Chayei Sarah: Birth of a Revolution
Is your ultimate purpose self-actualization, the need to express yourself and be “recognized” by others, or is there something more to life?
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Chayei Sarah: Beyond Self-Interest
The model of shlichus – that an individual, or a couple, leave their comfort zone and self-orbiting life and go out to build communities – is a model for us all: the ultimate antidote to modern-day self-indulgence.
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Chaya Sarah: Tattoos
Man can transcend seemingly permanent scars or wounds – both physical and psychological – and access the inner recesses of his soul.
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Chayei Sarah: America Speaks
A commentary on the 2004 election of President George W Bush from a spiritual Jewish perspective.
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