There is always room for dessert - Religious School Shabbat - Hayei Sarah 5785

Shabbat Shalom, everyone; Shabbat Shalom, dear parents; Shabbat Shalom, dear kids.

I have a question for you, children: What do you want to do when you  grow up? Some of you might want to become doctors, lawyers, policemen, firefighters, astronauts, or soccer players…

I wanted to be a Rabbi, and here I am.

Now you, adults… What do you want to do when you get old?

You might answer: “We are already big, we are already old, we are done!”

Really? Are you sure?

As we say, “There is always room for dessert after dinner.” Let me tell you that there is always room for something else in our lives, and I’m glad we are learning this particular Shabbat together and celebrating with the Religious School.

At the beginning of this Parashah, our beloved foremother, Sara, passes away. Abraham remains alone, yet he seems satisfied, blessed, and done.

“Abraham was now old, advanced in years, and Hashem had blessed Abraham in all things.”

(Bereshit / Genesis 24:1)

He had everything he needed, that’s it. Hashem blessed him in all things. But we know Abraham, he couldn’t stay calm, sitting, he had shpilkes in tuches. All his life was an ongoing journey. So immediately after he is finally resting, enjoying life, sitting quietly, and being old and advanced in years, the Torah says:

“And Abraham said to the senior servant of his household, who had charge of all that he owned, “Put your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by Hashem, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell, but will go to the land of my birth and get a wife for my son Isaac.”

(ibid. 2-3)

Abraham could have enjoyed his “third age,” but he knew that as the founding father of our great people, he had to ensure continuity. That’s why he ordered his servant to find a wife for his son, Yitzhak. He wasn’t only concerned about his son being lonely; he wanted the naches of grandchildren!

What a great and accurate lesson for this evening. You can’t be a good Jew, for sure not an elder Jew, if you sit down and enjoy; you first need to make sure not only your children will be Jewish, but mainly your grandchildren. Now, please tell me if this isn’t what is happening here tonight. Children, parents and grandchildren, altogether celebrating the first Jewish festival, the Shabbat. It comes to my mind the popular phrase that defines genealogically and educationally who is a Jew? The one who has Jewish grandchildren!

Yet, that doesn’t happen only through magic or just by sending them here to the religious school. It will happen as long as we don’t sit and wait but actively educate our children and grandchildren on Jewish tradition.

Singing with them the prayers, playing with them on Ḥanukkah, eating with them Matzah on Pessaḥ, and doing with them Tzedakkah. The continuity of the Jewish people is not a genetic thing passed from one generation to the next but an active work of education, investing, and funding the future of the Jewish people. That’s how we ensure these children will teach their children what shpilkes mean.

This week’s Parashah is the transition between Avraham and Sara to Yitzḥak and Rivka. This will happen only after Avraham decides it is time to act, move, not have a seat, and look at how things happen. He decides to make things happen.

And that’s why we are also here tonight, to make things happen.

Shabbat Shalom.