Rav Soloveitchik zt”l points out something striking regarding how the Torah presents Avraham Avinu’s life. There are three pashiyos in the Torah which focus on Avraham Avinu- Lech Lecha, Vayera, and Chayei Sarah. Each of these three parshiyos span roughly thirty to thirty-eight years of Avraham Avinu’s life. Parshas Lech Lecha is full of descriptions of Avraham’s activities. Hashem speaks to Avraham, he goes to Eretz Yisroel, he goes down to Mitzrayim, the fight between the shepherds of Avraham and the shepherds of Lot, Avraham fights a war, the bris bein habesarim, and Avraham is given the mitzvah of bris milah. Parshas Vayera is also full. Avraham greets the three mal’achim, he davens for Sedom, the episode with Avimelech, Avraham sends away Hagar and Yishmael and of course, akeidas Yitzchok. Then we come to Parshas Chayei Sarah. The Torah describes that Avraham eulogizes Sarah and buries her, then the Torah describes that Avraham Avinu began the process of finding a wife for Yitzchak. And then he drops off the map. At that point Avraham was 137 years old, and the Torah basically ignores the last 38 years of his life. The Rav writes[i],

Avraham outlived Sarah by 38 years, yet no events of his life in this period are recorded with the exception of the purchase of the burial plot for Sarah and the acquisition of Rivkah for Yitzchak. The latter was important, not for Avraham’s sake, but rather because of Rivkah.

The question, of course, is why? What happened to Avraham Avinu? Why does the Torah basically ignore the last 38 years of his life?

The Rav explains as follows. Hashem made a bris, a covenant, with the avos. The Rav explains that this bris that Hashem made was not between Hashem and the avos alone; rather, it was between Hashem and the avos together with the imahos. It was the covenant between Hashem and the avos-imahos unit. The covenant cannot be carried on by the avos alone. This idea is expressed in the pesukim in Lech Lecha when Hashem promises Avraham Avinu that he will have a son. Avraham responds (Bereishis 17,18-19), “Lu Yishmael yichyeh lifanecha,” “O that Yishmael might live before you.[ii]” Hashem responds to Avraham, “aval,” which means “no,” “Sarah ishticha yoledet lecha bein.” Hashem is conveying to Avraham that the covenant here in the bris bein habesarim, is not a bris between Hashem and Avraham. Rather, it is between Hashem and the Avraham-Sarah unit. Terefore, Yishmael does not count. The bris will be fulfilled ad carried specifically by a son from the two of you. The Rav writes,

The bris cannot be carried on through Yishmael, who represents only Avraham. It requires Yitzchak who represents both Avraham and Sarah; no bris is possible without her. 

This is a major yesod in Chumash Bereishis. The bris is with the avos-imahos unit. The Rav explains that this might be the p’shat as to how the Torah presents Avraham’s life.

When Sarah died, Avraham not only lost his wife, but he realized that he completed his covenantal role… No other events related to Avraham are recorded, because his task had been completed.

Avraham Avinu’s role as one of the avos was somewhat diminished after Sarah died.

What is Avraham Avinu’s new role? To help Yitzchak start the process of taking over as the next of the avos. Therefore, what does Avraham immediately do after Sarah’s death? He starts the process of finding a wife for Yitzchak. That is basically all that Torah records about Avraham.

This idea which the Rav develops so beautifully might be hinted at in the midrash. The Torah writes[iii], “V’Avraham zakein bah bayamim,” Avraham was old. The implication is that suddenly now, Avraham is old. Why now is he old? The answer is, the mdirash[iv] explains, because Sarah died. The midrash writes, “kishemisah Sarah,” ‘when Sarah died,’ “kavtzah ziknah al Avraham,” ‘old age came upon Avraham.’ When his wife died, he was not the same person anymore and, as the Rav explained, his role as one of the avos was somewhat diminished[v].

We learn from this the Torah’s approach to the role of women in Judaism. A woman’s role, although certainly different than the role of a man, is equally important. And that equal importance is emphasized in the very beginning of the founding of the Jewish people[vi].

The Rav, in his comments, ignores one episode in the Torah. Near the end of Parshas Chayei Sarah[vii] the Torah records that Avraham Avinu remarries, has children, gives a few presents to those children and sends them away, and gives his yerusha to Yitzchak. I always wondered how that fits into the Rav’s approach to Avrahm’s life. The truth is, that entire episode is difficult to understand. Why does Avraham get remarried? What was the point? The Abarbanel raises this question and presents six answers as to why Avraham thought it was important to remarry and have more children. It is very striking is that four of the Abarbanel’s answers explain that Avraham remarried in order to help further the development of Yitzchak. Avraham Avinu was trying to solidify Yitzchak’s role as his main yoreish, that he would be the next of the avos, and that is why he remarries[viii]. Based on this, it works out beautifully. The Torah records that Avraham helped find a wife for Yitzchak, because as the Rav explained, Avraham was trying to build up Yitzchak. Then, the other episode the Torah mentions at the end of Avraham’s life also relates to Avraham trying to build up and develop Yitzchak in his role as one of the avos.

[i] ‘Shiurei Harav’ p.120-121
[ii] See Rashi and other meforshim for explanations of the exact intent of Avraam’s response.
[iii] Breishis Chapter 24
[iv] Midrash Tanchuma on this posuk
[v] The Rav, as far as I am aware, did not quote this midrash, but I think that this midrash addresses the idea which the Rav developed.
[vi] The Rav’s approach to Avraham, Sarah, and Parshas Chayei Sarah is presented beautifully by Rabbi Dr. Menachem Brayer zt”l (The Jewish Woman in Rabbinic Literature, p. 199-200.) He presents the Rav’s approach very clearly and I thought it would be worthwhile to include it here.

Concerning this point, Rav Soloveitchik once made the following interesting observation. The Torah, after it records the passing of our matriarch Sarah, gives no further details of the life and experiences of our patriarch Avraham, except for a detailed account of how he purchased the Cave of Machpelah as a burial plot for his wife Sarah, and how he charged his servant Eliezer to find a suitable wife for his son Yitzchak. This fact is indeed strange when one considers that Avraham outlived Sarah by 38 years. Why is it then that the Torah chooses to tell us nothing further of his activities during this long period of time? The answer to this question is that when Hashem entered His covenant with man and woman, it was with Avraham and Sarah. It was for this reason that the covenantal promises made to Avraham concerning his descendants for all generations could not possibly be realized through Yishmael. It was not sufficient merely to be a descendant of Avraham. One had also to be a descendant of Sarah. Hence, when Avraham asked of Hashem, ‘O that Yishmael might live before thee,’ Hashem replied by saying, ‘Sarah, your wife shall indeed bear for you a son, and you shall call his name Yitzchak, and I will established My covenant with him, for an everlasting covenant and with his generations after him’ (Breishis 17,18-19). The covenantal community could only be carried on by Yitzchak, who was Sarah’s son as well. Both Avraham and Sarah assumed equally the awesome responsibility of the establishment of the covenantal community, and both were needed for its success. For man and woman differ not only physiologically, but also metaphysically and existentially. They have two existential human destinies, which are different yet complement each other, and when fused together form a complete, covenantal community in its relationship with Hashem. Thus, when Sarah died, Avraham realized that his mission as the founder of the covenantal community had come to an end, and it was time to pass it on to the next generation, to his son Yitzchak, and to Yitzchak’s wife. Avraham immediately set about his one remaining important task, that of finding a suitable mate for Yitzchak, so that the two of them could together carry on the mission of founding the covenantal community. It was therefore, this episode alone, a detailed description of how Avraham went about choosing a wife for Yitzchak through his servant Eliezer, that the Torah deemed necessary to record concerning the remainder of Avraham.
[vii] Chapter 25
[viii] See the Abarbanel. I will mention one of the six pshatim, just as a sampling of the Abarbanel’s approach. The Abarbanel writes that Yishmael was going to claim that he should be the primary yoresh of Avraham Avinu. Avraham wanted to make it clear that Yitzchak was unique, Yitzchak was special, he was the son of Sarah. Therefore, Avraham married Keturah, which Chazal say was Hagar. And he had children, and he gave them presents and sent them away. That is what the pesukim describe. Avraham was showing that they received presents, but not a yerusha, and they were sent away. Any child who is not born from Sarah is not a real yoresh. So by having more children and treating them in this particular way, Avraham Avinu is showing that Yishmael should be grouped together with these children. This made it clear that Yitzchak was the true heir of Avraham, he would be the one who would inherit Eretz Yisrael and receive all the other brachos. Yishmael, however, was just another child like these other children from Keturah and this showed the world and Yishmael who the real yoresh is. The Abarbanel offers three other pshatim along these lines.