Sarah's Obituary

This week in class, we wrote an obituary for Avraham. This included all events and life experiences right up just before the Akeida. During my exploration of Avraham's character, I discovered a lot about Sarah's character as well. As we all know, she died right after the Akeida. So what if I was write an obituary for her? Here it is:

Sarah, wife of Avraham, was quite a unique woman. Little is known about her childhood. Her "history" really began when she met and married Avraham. Near the beginning of their marriage, they realized that Sarah was barren. Even so, she remained with Avraham (for the rest of her life). Afterwards, Avraham, Sarah, and Lot moved to the land of Canaan, led by the word of G-d. When a famine struck Canaan, the three moved down to Egypt in search of food. As Sarah was extremely beautiful, Avraham told her to tell the Egyptians that she and Avraham were brother and sister. Just like Avraham had predicted, the Egyptians kidnapped Sarah and gave her to Pharaoh to marry. G-d struck the house of Pharaoh. When Pharaoh found out that he had taken a married woman, he let Sarah go and sent them back to Canaan with a fortune. When they returned to Canaan, Sarah greatly aided Avraham in spreading ethical monotheism. When G-d first made the promise of the Land and numerous descendants, there was a question about whether Sarah would be included in this promise. After giving the original promise and restating it twice, Avraham and Sarah realize that the descendants will come from both Avraham and Sarah. In the time between the promises, Sarah gave Hagar to Avraham as a wife. This caused Hagar to act inappropriately towards Sarah. Sarah became jealous and it took a tremendous amount of faith in G-d and Avraham to stay true to herself. After the final reiteration of the promise, three angel men came to Avraham and Sarah's tent. They welcomed the men in. The angel men then told Avraham and Sarah that Sarah would become pregnant and have a child in exactly one year's time. At this, she laughed. Within that year, Sarah is kidnapped by Avimelech, king of Gerar. Once again, she told them that she was Avraham's sister. Once Avimelech found out what he had done, he immediately let her go and gives them more wealth. After this, Sarah gives birth to a son, who they name Yitzchak. She was ninety years old. As he was growing up, Sarah saw that Yishmael, Hagar's son, is an increasingly bad influence. Sarah went to Avraham and asked him to send them away. He did exactly that.

So, to sum up Sarah's life: She was the wife of Avraham, the proponent of ethical monotheism. He helped him spread their beliefs and educate the world about their one G-d. She was ninety years old when she finally had a son. She protected him and always looked out for her family. She was an extremely faithful woman and all generations of Jewish women have looked at her as an example of how women should behave as ethical monotheists. As nobody is perfect, she did make mistakes. It is the job of future generations to learn from her mistakes and emulate her strengths in order to become better people.