Questions on Parshas Chayei Soro to think about and discuss:

1. What was the last nisoyoin of Avrohom?
2. Why is Yitzchok not mentioned at all at the beginning of Parshas Chayei Soro at the events of the burial of his mother Rivka? Why was he not present?
3. Soro lived for 127 years. What merit did this serve the Jews many years later?
4. Why is it called Meoras Hamachpeile?
5. How long should have Avrohom lived?
6. We find that Yitzchok sent Yakov to find his own wife. Why did Avrohom not also sent Yitzchok to find his own wife? Why sent Eliezer?
7. What characteristic was Eliezer looking for in a wife for Yitzchok and why?
8. Did Avrohom have any daughters and why?
9. When was Rivka born and how was she family to Yitzchok?
10. When referring to Rivka the possuk many times has a קרי וכתיב of נער נערה, where the word “lad” it is written in the male form whilst read in the female form. Why?
11. What possuk from Parshas Chayei Soro is said by the bedekin and why?
12. How could Rivka manage to go against the evil influences of the rest of her family and place? Where did this stem from?
13. Why during the episode of finding a wife is Eliezer called “the servant (of Avrohom” and not simply by his name Eliezer?
14. What is the connection between the beginning of Parshas Chayei Soro with the death of Soro and the end of Parshas Vayeira with the birth of Rivka?
15. What were the main years of Soro’s life and where is there an allusion to this?
16. What is the significance in that the first seeing of Rivka and Yitzchok took place at Mincha time?

Ideas for answers on the general parsha:

1. Most commentaries hold that the last of the ten trials of Avrohom was the Akeida. However, Rabbeinu Yona (Pirkei Avos, 5:3) says that the last one is found at the beginning of Parshas Chayei Soro where Avrohom needs to sort out the burial arrangements for Soro and pay an exorbitant amount without questioning Hashem.
2. (See suggestion in Rabbeinu Bechai.)
3. The Midrash brings that Queen Ester merited to rule over 127 provinces in the merit of Soro who lived 127 years.
4. It literally means a double cave. The Gemora (Eruvin 53a) brings two opinions how it looked. Either one cave inside another or one cave in front of another.
5. All the three Avos should have lived to the age of 180. Avrohom died at 175, five years earlier, so that he should not see Esav go astray (Rashi, 25:30). Yitzchok died at 180 (35:28). Yakov died at 147, 33 years were taken away from him (See Daas Zekeinim to 47:8).
6. Perhaps because we find many times that Yitzchok had a special status after the Akeida where he was told not to leave Eretz Yisroel. Rivka was situated outside Eretz Yisroel and he could not go there himself. But why then did Yitzchok himself not send a messenger? Why was it Avrohom who sent a messenger? …
7. The midda of kindness. Perhaps because Yitzchok was the midda of gevura, strict justice, therefore he required a wife of kindness to balance it.
8. The Ramban (24:1) brings different opinions. Some say he had a daughter and this was a blessing and others say it was a blessing not to have a daughter. Why? Since a woman is under her husband’s authority and she would have to marry someone from the other nations.
9. See the end of Parshas Vayeira. She was born soon after the Akedia (see Rashi, 22:20). Avrohom had a brother, Nochor, who married his niece (Horon’s daughter) Milka (Soro’s sister). She had a son Besuel who had Rivka.
11. The possuk of (24:60) where Rivka’s family bless her when she leaves them to go and marry Yitzchok that the blessing of Avrohom of of multiplying descendants should be through her. …
13. Perhaps it is alluding to the fact that his whole success and protection was not in his own right as would have been implied by just using his name Eliezer. By instead calling him “the servant of Avrohom” it is emphasising that the true power behind his success was through Avrohom, his master.
14. The Sforno (23:1) explains that this is because when one righteous person does then another comes in their place. Therefore Rivka was born and Soro died. We see this specifically with Rivka taking the place of Soro in Rashi (24:67) that when she married Yitzchok certain things that had stopped with Soro’s death came back again.
15. Rabbeinu Bechai (23:1) says that the main years were the 37 years from when she had Yiztchok (at 90) until she died (at 127). This is alluded to in the first possuk of Parshas Chayei Soro in the word ויהי”ו that has the gematria, numerical value, of 37, were “chayei soro” the main years of life of Soro. (A similar idea is found at the beginning of Parshas Vayechi – see the Baal Haturim, with the life of yakov. His main years were when he was together with Yosef, seventeen before he was sold and seventeen after he came down to Mitzrayim. These 34 years are seen in the gematria of ויח”י.)