By Marco Del Monte
The Parashah begins paradoxically by speaking of the lives of Sarah in order to describe her passing.
The Chachamim explain that even when a Tzaddik passes away, they are actually considered alive. Precisely for this reason, there are discussions in Halachah as to whether proximity to the grave of a Tzaddik imposes the same restrictions as proximity to the grave of an ordinary person, such as wearing tefillin or allowing a Kohen to approach. Or Hachaym Hakadosh explains to us why a Tzaddik always remains alive, noting in particular that in the second verse of the Parashah, the city where Sarah ascended to heaven is mentioned: Kiryat Arba, "The city of four". Or Hachaym explains that the word "four" refers to the four elements from which the human body is created: Air, Water, Earth and Fire. Or Hachaym writes as follows: The reason the city was mentioned and so named is to tell us that it was built upon the four basic elements. Death normally implies a parting or disintegration of the four basic elements of which a body is composed. When the Torah adds that "Kiryat Arba" is also known as "Hebron", this is an allusion to the word "Chibur", something that is joined together. The message is that when the righteous "die", this is not to be seen as a process of disintegration. The righteous are still called "living" even when they have ceased to function in regular bodies on this earth. [...] All of this means that while the righteous are alive in this world, the four basic material elements of which every human being is composed are transformed into something spiritual and become bound to their souls through the good deeds that such people perform during their stay on earth. [...] Maimonides illustrates this in some way in the fourth chapter of Hilchot Yesodey HaTorah where he describes that one element is capable of transforming into another element similar to it. [...] When the human being unites with G-d, all his elements are transformed. One of the teachings that this episode provides us with is that, with the right intention, every "material" act can be transformed into a "spiritual" act. For example, eating purely for a physiological urge is a bestial act, whereas eating accompanied by a Berachah, by an act of meditation that leads us to recognise that having food is not something to be taken for granted, that it has been given to us by Hashem, that we are even able to ingest and digest it, to take the good part and expel the unnecessary part, and that this will give us strength to serve Hashem—such an act transforms every single crumb of food into sparks of holiness that we internalise within ourselves, which then become part of what is called the Neshamah-Soul. The concept of transformation is a very powerful element in Judaism: every simple act we perform, if done with the right intention and following the rules of Halachah, transforms the world and ourselves to the point of making even our body, our materiality, completely Spiritual and Immortal.
This is why Halachah touches every aspect of life in the smallest details, in the minutiae of the particulars, precisely so as to succeed in making every little thing, every small gesture, even the most mechanical one, an almost mystical experience.
With the wish that each of us may succeed in transforming this world and ourselves to increase Kedushah in all the worlds!
Shabbat Shalom
Translated from the Italian with Google Gemini. The Italian text is the original.