Lovely example of the Torah of the Acharonim
For this week's parashah, there's a great example of the way Acharonim come up with great ways of twisting the meaning of Midrashim and older perushim to make them fit with their religious outlook, which obviously to us (but not to them) wasn't shared by the old ones.

This is from the anonymous commentary in the "Chumash Rav Peninim", right at the beginning of Parashat Chayei Sarah.

‫‫ויהיו חיי שרה וגו'. פי' רש"י ז"ל, ונסמכה מיתת שרה לעקדת יצחק, לפי שע"י בשורת העקדה שנזדמן בנה לשחיטה וכמעט שלא נשחט פרחה נשמתה. ‫וקשה והלא אברהם היה טפל בנביאות לשרה ואיך לא עמדה בנסיון? ועוד שהיה לו לרש"י ז"ל לכתוב וכמעט שנשחט פרחה נשמתה. כי עבור השחיטה פרחה נשמתה, לא על שלא נשחט. ‫‫ויוכל היות שכונת המאמר הזה הוא להיפך. ששרה שמעה בשורת העקדה והיתה לה שמחה גדולה. ומיד אח"ז שמעה שנשחט תמורתו איל, ונתעצבה מאד כי שמא נמצא איזה פסול ביצחק שאיננו ראוי להקרבה. ושאלה אם יש עכ"פ איזה חבלה בגופו להיות עכ"פ התחלה במצוה גדולה זו, גם יהיה לזכרון תמיד לפני ה', והטפת דם קרבן זה יהיה לרצון כאלו כל דמו נזרק. וכיון ששמעה "כמעט לא נשחט" פי' אפי' מעט לא נשחט ואפי' טפת דם אחת לא יצא מיצחק, אז אמרה הרי ברור הוא שיצחק לא נרצה לה' לקרבן. או שאין אני או בעלי זכאים בעיני ה' שיקבל ממנו קרבן כזה. והעיקר תלתה החטא בה בעצמה שהיא אינה כדאי לזה. ומרוב צערה מתה.

"And these were the lives of Sarah, etc. Rashi o.b.m. explains, why does the death of Sarah follow the binding of Isaac? Because the news of the binding, that her son was given for slaughter and almost didn't get slaughtered, her soul flew away. This is difficult, for Abraham was lesser than Sarah in prophecy, so why didn't she survive the trial? And also, Rashi should have written that he was almost slaguhtered, not that he was almost *not* slaughtered, for it's because of the slaughtering that her soul left her body, not because he *wasn't* slaughtered. It's possible that the intention of this commentary is the opposite. When Sarah heard the news of the binding, she had great joy. And immediately afterwards she heard that a ram was slaughtered in his place, and she became very sad, worrying that perhaps something unfit had been found in Isaac and therefore he wasn't worthy of being sacrificed. And she asked if, at least, *some* type of damage had been done to his body, so that there would have been at least a *beginning* of this great mitzvah, and that too would be an everlasting memory before God, and spilling some of his blood might be considered by God as if all his blood was spilled. But when she heard that "he almost wasn't slaughtered", meaning that even a little bit wasn't slaughtered, not even a drop of blood left Isaac, she said that it is clear that Isaac wasn't desired by God for a sacrifice. Or perhaps I or my husband are not worthy enough in God's eyes for Him to receive a sacrifice like this from us. But for the most part, she blamed her own sin for making her unworthy, and due to her great pain, she died.

I'll just add that a lot of this commentary is based on a misunderstand of the language style of the time. Double negatives are used differently in Hebrew, and are even proper to be used in modern Hebrew. For instance, you say,


Verbatim translated, "I will not do this until you don't bring me that", but it actually means that I won't do it until you DO bring me that. Just the way Hebrew works differently than Western languages.

It is clear that Rashi means "he was almost slaughtered" (or "he was almost, but not slaughtered") by כמעט שלא נשחט.

Furthermore, it is clear that Rashi is not making this idea up, but basing it on a Midrash that appears in the Tanchuma and in Kohelet Rabbah, which says:

The Satan went to Sarah and appeared to her in the image of Isaac. When she saw him, she said, "My son, what did your father do to you?" He said to her, "My father took me over hills and through valleys until he took me up to the top of a tall, steep mountain, built an altar, arranged the wood, bound me on the altar, and took hold of a knife to slaughter me. And had not the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him "Do not send your hand", I would be slaughtered by now." He did not succeed in finishing telling her all this before her soul left her body."

Here it's pretty clear that Sarah's death is connected to the possibility of her son being slaughtered, no? I guess in a stretch, you *could* try to read it the way that Rav Peninim did, but clearly that's not what's meant.

But how is it possible that a righteous woman like Sarah would NOT want her son sacrificed to God, right?

Another error being made by this commentary is mixing up of midrashim. Traditional Achronim, and most modern-day Ortho scholars, like to see all the midrashim, all the commentaries, all the authorities, as agreeing on everything, so if there seems to be a contradiction, a way of explaining it must be found. Just saying that they disagree doesn't work. But clearly that is wrong. The midrashim don't all fit together. The fact that in one place God tells Avraham to listen to everything Sarah tells him, and the midrash learns from there that Sarah was greater than Avraham in prophecy, doesn't mean that the author of *this* midrash thinks of Sarah that way, too! The author of *this* midrash is perfectly legitimate in seeing Sarah as someowhat lesser in her dedication, or let's not even call it that, let's just say she was human, and that the thought of her son being killed was enough to give her a heart attack. So the question, again, is just wrong.