Haye Sarah (חַיֵּי שָׂרָה – the life of Sarah)
Genesis 23:1 – 25:18 – I Kings 1:1 – 1:31
Sarah dies, and Abraham purchases the field of Machpelah[1] to bury her. He sends his servant Eliezer to find a wife for his son Yitzhak. Rivkah, Abraham’s grandniece, agrees to the marriage. Abraham passes his inheritance to Yitzhak, marries Qetura, has several children, and then dies. Yitzhak and Yishma’el bury him beside Sarah.
In the haftara, King David, now old, appoints Shelomoh as his successor and orders that he be anointed king.
Genesis 23:4
גֵּר-וְתוֹשָׁב אָנֹכִי, עִמָּכֶם; תְּנוּ לִי אֲחֻזַּת-קֶבֶר עִמָּכֶם, וְאֶקְבְּרָה מֵתִי מִלְּפָנָי
I am a stranger and a resident among you; grant me the possession of a burial site among you, that I may bury my dead before me.
The Jewish cemetery of Almaty was founded at the beginning of the 20th century, when the city was still called Verny[2]. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson[3] rests in this cemetery, where the local community paid him their final respects. Exiled by Stalin to Kazakhstan, he continued to teach and transmit the Torah despite persecution. His son, The Rebbe[4], carried this mission forward on a global scale.
Just a few streets away from the cemetery stands the Chabad synagogue, inaugurated in 1997. It is named Beit Menachem. The building houses a synagogue, a mikveh, a Jewish school, a kosher store, community offices, and guest rooms. On the façade one can read: “Jewish Center. House of Menachem. Chabad Lubavitch.”
In November 2025, Kazakhstan signed the Abraham Accords[5]. This country, once a land of exile for Jews, became a participant in regional dialogue. Where a rabbi once taught in exile, a synagogue now rises, and a diplomatic agreement opens a new chapter.
[1] The field of Machpelah, in Hebron in the Judean hills, purchased by Abraham to bury Sarah, represents the first Jewish acquisition in the land of Israel.
[2] Verny, founded in 1854 by the Russian Empire, became Alma-Ata in 1921, then Almaty in 1993 after Kazakhstan’s independence. The current name comes from the Kazakh word for “apple” (alma), in reference to the orchards of the region.
[3] Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson (1878–1944), a kabbalistic scholar, author of profound Torah commentaries, and rabbi of Yekatrinoslav (today Dnipro, Ukraine). In 1939, Soviet authorities arrested him for defending Jewish practice. After more than a year of torture in Stalin’s prisons, he was exiled to Chiali, then transferred to Almaty, where he died in 1944.
[4] The title “the Rebbe” refers primarily to Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902–1994), the seventh leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement (present in over 100 countries), son of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson. He was not present at his father’s burial, as he was living in New York and communication with the Soviet Union was extremely difficult. The synagogue inaugurated three years after his death bears his name.
[5] The Abraham Accords are diplomatic normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab and Muslim countries, initiated in 2020 under U.S. auspices. Signed first by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, later joined by Morocco and Sudan, they aim to establish bilateral relations in economic, cultural, scientific, and security fields. In November 2025, Kazakhstan joined this framework, marking a new stage in rapprochement between Israel and the Muslim world.