Summary of the Parasha
Despite its title, “the life of Sarah”, the parasha opens with her death at 127 in Kiryat Arba (Hebron). According to Rashi, her soul left her when she heard of the Akedah. Abraham mourns her, then negotiates with the sons of Chet and buys the Cave of Machpelah from Ephron for 400 silver shekels. It is one of three places the Torah records as bought at full price, along with the Temple Mount and Joseph’s tomb in Shechem (Midrash).
Abraham, old and blessed “with everything”, makes his servant Eliezer swear not to take a Canaanite wife for Isaac, but a woman from his family in Haran. At the well, Eliezer prays and asks for a sign: the girl who gives him water and also waters his ten camels. Rebecca arrives at once and does exactly that. He gives her jewelry and meets her family, Betuel and her brother Laban. He tells the whole story; Rebecca is asked whether she wants to go, and she answers: “I will go”.
Isaac returns from Be’er Lachai Ro’i and goes out “to meditate in the field” toward evening: from this our Sages learn that he instituted the Minchah prayer. Rebecca sees him, dismounts and covers herself with her veil. Isaac brings her into Sarah’s tent, marries her and loves her; according to the Midrash, the Shabbat light, the blessing in the dough and the cloud return to the tent.
Abraham then marries Keturah (Hagar, according to Rashi) and has more children, to whom he gives gifts before sending them east; his whole inheritance goes to Isaac. Abraham dies at 175; Isaac and Ishmael bury him together at Machpelah. The parasha ends with Ishmael’s descendants, his twelve princes, and his death.
Summary of the Haftara
“V’HaMelech David Zaken” (“King David was old”)
Text in I Kings 1:1–31
King David is old and weak. His son Adonijah proclaims himself king with the support of the general Joab and the priest Abiathar. The prophet Nathan and Bathsheba come to remind David of his oath: Solomon is to reign after him. David renews his commitment, and Bathsheba bows: “May my lord King David live forever!”
Parasha-Haftara Connection
Both texts open with a patriarch who is “old, advanced in days”: Abraham and David. Each, at the end of his life, makes sure the legacy passes to the right son, Isaac in one case, Solomon in the other, even though another son could have claimed the place.