#5 Haye Sarah  (Maqam Hijaz)

Maqam Hijaz - named for a region within modern Saudi Arabia, is associated with death and other mournful occasions. 

Begin the life of Sarah       

with the death of Sarah

Abraham traveling to an unfamiliar place

to negotiate for her burial plot.                 

I will give you everything you ask for --

I want this land.       

This land this land

everyone wants

this land.

What remains unfinished in the living

Abraham is working out in the dying --

So much patch-up to do;

a river of tears will be spilled over this land

but here

it’s not about land --

Isaac and Ishmael

come together once more

to bury father Abraham                  

And Rebecca is born before Sarah dies                                               

the healing will come from the future.

Days will come to Abraham

he is granted a vision of the All     

and long into the future

the generations of Abraham Sarah and Rebecca

will draw a line in the sand and say

this stops here.

Chayei Sarah [the life of Sarah]

Maqam Hijaz  D    E-flat     F#    G

Genesis 23: 1-4, 23:16, 25:9, 22:23, 24:1