Last week communities around the country celebrated Shabbat Olamit under the international Shabbos project. The success of the international project exhibits the value and beauty of Shabbat even [and perhaps especially] in our modern world. In a beautiful Midrash, the gift of Shabbat is traced back to the home of Sarah, and is continued in the home of Rebecca.

And Isaac brought her [Rebecca] into the tent [of] Sarah his mother; he married Rebecca, she became his wife, and he loved her; and thus was Isaac consoled after his mother. (Genesis 24:67) The eleventh century biblical commentator, Rashi, quotes a midrashic source which draws on the strange grammatical wording of the Hebrew words (into the tent of Sarah) to present us with the following insight.

For all the time that Sarah was alive, a lamp would be alight continuously from Sabbath eve to Sabbath eve, and a blessing would be found in the dough, and a cloud would be stationed over the tent. But once Sarah died, they stopped. And when Rebecca came they returned. (Rashi Genesis 24) Rebecca’s home, our sages are teaching, is a duplicate of Sarah’s. The values and beauty of Sarah’s home, which are symbolised by these miracles, were introduced by Rebecca into her own home. Sarah’s legacy lived on. This was a source of consolation to Isaac after the passing of his mother.

Our sages additionally associate some of the spiritual beauty and part of the miraculous nature of the magnificent tabernacle with the legacy of Sarah. The tent of Sarah was blessed with miraculous light, dough, and a cloud. Correspondingly, the western flame of the Menorah in the tabernacle never went out. Additionally, the Show-bread (bread of surfaces) on the Shulchan (Table) of the tabernacle remained fresh all week. Finally, the cloud which signified the dwelling of the divine presence of G-D, rested above the tabernacle. The Jewish tabernacle, become a symbolic embodiment of Sarah’s sacred dwelling. The dough in Sarah’s tent and in the tabernacle corresponds to physical prosperity. The light symbolises eternal spiritual beauty.

Finally the cloud represents divine presence. Just as Sarah’s tent was aconstant source of generosity and kindness, similarly our communal home – the tabernacle, was created only by generous voluntary contributions of time, talent, and wealth Each Jewish home is a symbolic embodiment of Sarah’s sacred dwelling. When a Jewish home incorporates the values introduced to us by Sarah’s legacy, we are effectively staging another part in this long scene. Just as
Isaac and Rebecca lovingly created their own home spiritually identical to that of Sarah’s, we too do the same in our individual homes.

Every Shabbat table brightly lit by Shabbat candles, adorned by Challa, and basked in divinity, is a home which pays tribute to the legacy of Sarah in her never- ending story.