This week’s Parasha is entitled “Hayyei Sarah,” the life of Sarah; yet it focuses on her death and burial. A Talmudic teaching has it that the righteous are called living even after they have died. Memorial plaques and gravestones testify to the lives of those who have passed away. But they also have the capacity to inspire the living, to evoke memories, to link the generations.

The future of Israel and the Jewish People will be secured by those who share the dream of a Jewish homeland that strives to be a “light unto the nations.”  The goal is to make Israel as great as humanly possible. For Jewish critics to demand the impossible is not only unrealistic: it is dangerous and self-destructive.

The unprecedented pogrom of November 9-10, 1938 in Germany has passed into history as Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass). Violent attacks on Jews and Judaism throughout the Reich and in the recently annexed Sudetenland began on November 8 and continued until November 11 in Hannover and the free city of Danzig, which had not then been incorporated into the Reich.

The first and the twentieth centuries were tumultuous times for Jews: the destruction of the Temple and the beginnings of exile on the one hand; the Holocaust and the foundation of the State of Israel on the other. The major common denominator is the rupture of a long status quo and the need to adapt to new circumstances.

We need to develop a shared language with like-minded people of different backgrounds, since our belief in family as the cornerstone of a righteous community and society is relevant to everyone. The Book of Genesis lies at the heart of that language.

Janet Kirchheimer offers poignant thoughts on the passing of her beloved mother, on the nature of grief, on the resilience needed to move forward with life.