Akedah and Aftermath: Sarah's Death

...Abraham was not happy in this world of Mine and you seek to be happy! A son was born to him when he was a hundred years old, and in the end the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: “Take now your son… and offer him… for a burnt-offering” (Genesis 22:2)! Abraham went a distance of three days journey. After three days he perceived a cloud resting on the top of a mountain. Said he to Isaac: ‘ My son, do you see what I see?’ ‘Yes,’ he answered him. ‘ What do you see?’ he inquired. He told him: ‘I see a cloud resting on the top of the mountain.’ He said to Ishmael and Eliezer: ‘Do you see anything?’ ‘No,’ they answered him…

He took Isaac his son and led him up mountains and down hills. He took him up on one of the mountains, built an altar, arranged the wood, prepared the altar pile, and took the knife to slay him. Had not an angel from heaven called him, Isaac would have already been slain. There is proof that this is so, for Isaac returned to his mother and she said to him: ‘Where have you been, my son?’ Said he to her: ‘My father took me and led me up mountains and down hills,’ etc. ‘Alas,’ she said, ‘for the son of a hapless woman! Had it not been for the angel you would by now have been slain!’ ‘Yes,’ he said to her.

Thereupon she uttered six cries, corresponding to the six blasts of the shofar. It has been said: She had scarcely finished speaking when she died. Hence it is written, And Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her (Genesis 23:2). Where did he come from? Rabbi Judah son of Rabbi Shimon said: He came from Mount Moriah...

And he saw the place from afar off. Abraham had asked himself: What shall I do? If I tell Sarah all about it, consider what may happen. After all, a woman’s mind becomes distraught over insignificant matters; how much more disturbed would she become if she heard something as shocking as this! However, if I tell her nothing at all, and simply steal him away from her when she is not looking, she will kill herself. What did he do? He said to Sarah: “Prepare some food and drink that we may eat and rejoice.” “But why is this day different from other days?” she asked. “What are you celebrating?” He replied: “When a couple our age has a son, it is fitting, indeed, that they should eat, drink, and rejoice.” Whereupon she prepared the food. While they were eating, he said to her: “When I was a child of three, I already knew my Creator, yet this child is growing up and still has had no instruction. There is a place a short distance away where children are being taught, I will take him there.” She answered: “Go in peace.”