Comentários de Citação sobre II Samuel 1:23

ויבא אברהם לספוד לשרה ולב-כ-ותה, “Avraham came to eulogise Sarah and to weep for her.” If it had been the intention of the Torah to inform us that Avraham came from elsewhere, i.e. from another town, the Torah would have written: “he came from such and such a place.” The meaning of the word ויבא is simply that Avraham roused himself (from his shock) in order to eulogise Sarah. When a person rouses himself to undertake a certain activity, this is described as בא אליה, “coming to it, i.e. coming to grips with the planned activity.” The Talmud in Tamid 4,3 when discussing the skinning and cutting up of of animals which had been slaughtered in preparation for being offered on the altar, uses the expression בא לו לגרה והניח שתי צלעות, בא לו לעוקץ וגו', “when the officiating priest got ready to deposit two ribs near the neck, etc.” The expression בא לו cannot mean “that he came to a certain location,” as a single animal is discussed. All parts were in the same place. It must refer to something different. In Bechorot 20 we encounter Rabbi Akiva saying: לא באתי למדה זו, and it certainly cannot mean “I have not come to this measure,” or something similar. It is clear that the meaning of the word is: “I have not (yet) begun to work on this subject,” or something similar. In our verse too, the Torah describes that now Avraham would attend to the task of eulogising his wife. Had the meaning been that Avraham came from afar, the Torah would have written ויבא אברהם ויספוד את שרה, “Avraham came and eulogised Sarah.”
The two words לספוד לשרה i.e. mentioning her name which was well known to all those present, need clarification. We would have expected simply לספדה ולבכותה, “to eulogise her and to weep for her.” The reason the Torah did not write this abbreviated version is that it is the custom of the professional eulogisers to again and again mention the name of the departed whom they eulogise. We find that when David eulogised King Shaul and his own intimate friend Yonathan, that he spoke of שאול ויהונתן הנאהבים והנעימים, “Shaul and Yonathan the beloved and the cherished ones.” Seeing that in the same chapter (Samuel II 1,18) David already had mentioned both Shaul and Yonathan by name, he could have now referred to them by the pronoun “they.” Nonetheless, during the course of that eulogy David mentions both Shaul and Yonathan by name no fewer than six times.
In our verse, all the Torah had to write was that Avraham set out to “weep for her, and to bury her.” After all, burial is the principal act of true kindness one performs for one’s dead and concludes the acts of eulogising and weeping. Burying a human being is one of the great acts of kindness which G’d Himself performs on occasion. Had the Torah written the sequence of the words we mentioned, the impression this would have created amongst the readers would be that all these activities occurred one immediately after the other. The truth is that whereas eulogising and weeping occurred consecutively, there was quite an interval before Sarah was finally laid to rest. Avraham first had to secure a plot of land in which to bury Sarah.

ויספדו שם מספד גדול וכבד מאד. There are 9 different kinds of eulogy. They are:מספד, נהי, צעקה,היליל, נידה, מרזח, קינים, הגה, והי. All these expressions are documented in Scripture. The expression מספד (as here) occurs in Kings I 13,30 ויספדו עליו הוא אחי, “they lamented over it, saying: “alas” my brother.” The word נהי meaning eulogy, appears in Jeremiah 9,18, whereas the expressions צעקה and היליל meaning different types of eulogy occur in Ezekiel 21,14. The expression נידה occurs in Jeremiah 48,17 also meaning eulogy. The word מרזח is used in this sense in Jeremiah 16,5, whereas קינים occurs in that sense Ezekiel 2,6. When the Torah here uses the expression מספד גדול, a great mourning, the meaning is that the various types of eulogies to which we have referred were all used on that occasion. Basically, the Torah teaches that nine different groups of people all participated in the funeral cortege for Yaakov and each made its particular contribution to eulogising and demonstrating their appreciation of the contribution this man had made to mankind, not only to his family. A eulogy is a register of the positive contributions made by the deceased during his lifetime. An example of such a eulogy are the words spoken about King Sha-ul and his son Yonathan by King David: in Samuel II 1,23: הנאהבים והנעימים בחייהם ובמותם לא נפרדו, “who were beloved and pleasant and even in death refused to be parted from Him.” A properly composed eulogy contains elements describing the personal relationship between the survivor and the deceased such as David saying of Yonathan in that same chapter: צר לי עליך אחי יהונתן, “my brother Yonathan you were most dear to me, your love was more wonderful to me, more than the love of women.” King David also taught us something about a eulogy even for people who not always saw eye to eye with the one eulogising him, i.e Avner, at one time almost David’s arch enemy. Nonetheless, in Samuel II 3,33 David proclaims: “Should Avner have died the death of a churl? Your hands were not bound, your feet were not put in fetters; but you fell as one falls before treacherous men!” These examples teach that when eulogising one has to list the good people did, their contributions to life generally, emphasising that with the death of the deceased the survivors have been deprived of those values the deceased stood for. The prophet Ezekiel was even instructed by G’d to eulogise the city of Tzor (Tyre), (Ezekiel 27,2-3) although the major part of that eulogy bemoaned the abuse made by those people of the gifts and luxuries they had enjoyed thanks to G’d’s largesse. The exploits of these people are extolled in spite of their not finding favour in the eyes of the Lord. In verse 27 of that eulogy the fact that all these people, G’d’s creatures, were swept away in the prime of their lives is bemoaned. [The prophet Ezekiel did not say “good riddance.” Ed.] In Moed Katan the Talmud elaborates on the eulogy over the passing of Rabbi Pedot, the speaker commencing with describing the very day on which the sage died as a day which is difficult for the entire Jewish people, as difficult as the day when the sun set on the land of Egypt. This was a reference to Amos 8,9 “Shall not the earth shake for this, and all that dwell in it mourn? Shall it not all rise like the Nile, etc., etc.? I will make the sun set at noon, I will darken the earth on a sunny day, I will turn your festivals into mourning, and all your songs into dirges.” The demise of the power of Egypt was, of course, no reason for the Jewish people to mourn, but it was a reason for all the nations who considered Egypt as their patron to do so. There is sort of a formula of how the president of the Sanhedrin has to be eulogised, [to ensure one is not guilty of being remiss in eulogising him sufficiently, a grave sin. Ed.] Part of the formula contains the words: “the finest spices have been buried in the earth (where they cannot give off their fragrance) a man who knew all about the most intricate parts of Torah law such as the various skin eczemas, etc. and ritual impurities connected with oholot, a man able to remove any doubts which bothered Torah scholars of lesser stature. Someone able to explain all manner of hidden depths contained in the Torah.” The mourner continued to liken the deceased to the most outstanding judges in Israel such as Othniel. [The above is an example of a eulogy worthy of the name. Ed.]