The Righteous Are Called Living in Their Death

"Sarah's lifetime was one hundred and twenty-seven years - such was the life of Sarah." (Genesis 23:1) 

The portion that announces Sarah's death is called "Chayei Sarah," the life of Sarah. The paradox is deliberate. The Torah wants us to ask what it means for a life to continue even after death.

The Talmud, in Berachot 18a, teaches: " Tzaddikim b'mitatam kru'im chayim - the righteous, even in their death, are called living." Their actions continue to generate life; their vision continues to animate others. To be called "living" in death is to have built something that outlasts one's years.

Sarah is remembered not only for her personal faith, but for establishing the pattern of covenantal life itself. She shapes the household that becomes the model of the Jewish people: rooted, dynamic, and imperfect, yet bound by moral and spiritual purpose. Her laughter, her struggle for justice, and her partnership with Abraham all continue to reverberate. Her story ends, but her influence does not. Chayei Sarah - the life of Sarah - means a life that still lives.

Throughout Jewish history, certain figures have embodied this same quality, remaining alive through the institutions, ideas, and communities they shaped. One such trailblazer is Lily Montagu (1873-1963), the founder of Liberal Judaism in the United Kingdom alongside Claude Montefiore and Rabbi Israel Mattuck.

Montagu, born into a distinguished Anglo-Jewish family, became a pioneering religious reformer and social activist. She was the first woman to preach formally in a British synagogue, a bold act that redefined women's spiritual leadership at the turn of the 20th century. Her influence extended far beyond the pulpit: she championed the cause of spiritual fulfilment for working women, instituting afternoon Shabbat services so that young women employed in London's West End could participate. Her work made Jewish prayer accessible to those whose lives had previously left no space for it.

Montagu's vision, however, reached well beyond Britain. One of her great achievements was bringing together Progressive Jews from around the world to create the World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) in 1926. At a time when Jewish religious authority was almost entirely male and traditional, she forged international cooperation among Reform and Liberal communities, ensuring that their shared ideals would have a collective voice and structure. She understood that ideals endure only when they are given a home. Just as Sarah and Abraham together gave the covenant a household and a lineage, Montagu ensured that Progressive Judaism would have a living framework able to renew itself generation after generation.

Her motivation was spiritual as much as institutional. In her 1899 essay, "Spiritual Possibilities of Judaism To-Day," she wrote:

"For many years, self-consciousness has been growing among English Jews, and they have expressed, in whispers to one another, dissatisfaction with their spiritual state. [...] Surely, we English Jews can have no excuse for continued indifference and waiting. For our own sakes, we must revive Judaism and, having reconciled its dogma with our highest conception of truth and beauty, allow it again to bind us to the God who cares for us."

If Berachot 18a calls the righteous "living" because their deeds continue to bear fruit, then our Progressive Movements are all part of Montagu's ongoing life. Institutions can feel abstract, yet they nurture spaces for our communities to bring Judaism to life, infusing it with spirituality and meaning. They are the modern equivalent of Abraham's tent: open on all sides, welcoming, inclusive, and sustained by the people who inhabit them.

Today, movements sustain the legacy Montagu helped to shape. In North America, the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) ensures that Progressive Jewish values are promoted within and beyond its congregations. Across Europe, the European Union for Progressive Judaism (EUPJ) strengthens congregations from London to Lisbon and from Prague to Paris, ensuring that the spirit of early Liberal and Reform pioneers still finds new expression. Each of these movements exists because people before us refused to rely on borrowed spaces; instead, they built their own. They survive only because new generations continue to fill those spaces with meaning.

This truth particularly resonates as we approach 2026, when the WUPJ will celebrate its centenary. One hundred years after Montagu and her colleagues first gathered to give a global voice to Progressive Judaism, we will mark not only the endurance of their vision but its renewal. In that same year, Reform and Liberal Judaism in the UK will unite as one Movement - a living testimony to Montagu's conviction that Jewish life must be inclusive, principled, and progressive. The celebration in London in June 2026 will not simply commemorate history; it will invite us to recommit ourselves to the work that keeps our movements alive.

As Parashat Chayei Sarah reminds us: institutions are not static memorials. They are breathing embodiments of faith. The righteous are called living because their values remain active in the world. Sarah's life continued in her descendants who carried the covenant forward. Montagu's life continues in every Liberal and Progressive Jewish community that opens its doors in her spirit.

This endurance is not automatic. Movements and institutions are living only when people infuse them with purpose. They depend on us and our willingness to give time, energy, and heart. The question for our generation is whether we will step forward to sustain the structures that sustain us.

Parashat Chayei Sarah challenges us to ensure that our faith, like Sarah's, remains a living force - not nostalgic, but renewed. The true measure of a life are the lives it continues to generate.