This week's Torah portion is called Chaiei Sara (The Life of Sarah). Along with other Torah portions, primarily from the Book of Genesis, it is one of the parashot that do not contain specific commandments. That is to say, we learn different things from each portion, from each story, since the Torah itself is a book of life lessons, but there are portions that do not contain any particular commandments, such as respecting one's father and mother, observing Shabbat, or not stealing, and other such precepts.
Moreover, when the Torah is analyzed as a whole, it becomes clear that narratives of stories and events are more abundant than the commandments themselves. The Torah uses far more detail to recount the lives of the patriarchs and their adventures, and the journeys of the Jewish people through the desert with their comings and goings, than to describe the specifics of any commandment. Some commandments are not explicitly and directly mentioned but rather alluded to through some indication or derivation, while the story of the encounter between Eliezer (Abraham's servant) and Rebecca (Ischak's future wife) is recounted twice and in great detail. This, obviously, must have some significance.
One possible idea is that observing the precepts of the Torah does not guarantee proper behavior. That is, there are laws and precepts that guide a person's conduct, but even so, their emotional qualities, while improved and refined by Torah observance itself, require independent and focused dedication to develop in a positive way.
Becoming what people commonly call "a good person" depends not only on observing the Torah, but primarily on the good qualities with which a person lives their daily life. That is why the Torah uses much more detail, so to speak, to tell us about the good conduct of our patriarchs and their refined qualities so that we may learn from them, and when it comes to a practical precept, it explains it in a concise form.
The key is not to read the Torah as a simple history book, but as a book of teachings, even in the most trivial matters of life; if the Torah relates them, it is because it wants to show us how to carry them out in a proper way.