This week’s parsha begins with tragedy
as the Torah tells us of the death of Sarah Imeinu. The pasuk tells us that she
was 127 years old when she died, but the real lesson is learned from the how
her age is written. “וַיִּֽהְיוּ֙ חַיֵּ֣י שָׂרָ֔ה מֵאָ֥ה
שָׁנָ֛ה וְעֶשְׂרִ֥ים שָׁנָ֖ה וְשֶׁ֣בַע שָׁנִ֑ים שְׁנֵ֖י חַיֵּ֥י שָׂרָֽה” “And
the life of Sarah was one hundred years and twenty years and seven years; the
years of the life of Sarah.” (Bereishis 23:1). Why did the pasuk write out
each set of years separately?
The classic
explanation comes, as usual, from Rashi. He explains that each set of years is
meant to make a point. First, when she was one hundred, she was like a twenty
year old in terms of sin. Until the age of twenty, a person is not liable for
punishment from Heaven for any sins they may do; even at the age of 100, Sarah
had not sinned in any way to require punishment from Heaven. Secondly, when she
was 20, she still had the pure beauty that is attributed to a little girl; in
this example, a seven year old. The pasuk breaks down each level separately to accentuate
these ideas.
Rav Samson Rafael
Hirsch asks another question on this pasuk, how come the pasuk needed to write “the
years of the life of Sarah” at the end? Isn’t it obvious that’s what we’re discussing?
In fact, that’s the entire pasuk! To explain, he expands on this medrash.
The three ages of 100,
20, and 7 that are broken down in the pasuk, are representative of the three
stages of a person’s life: youth, adulthood, and old age. Chazal teach us that
the best way for a person to live their life is to act their age in each one of
these stages. What is meant by this?
As a person lives and
goes through these life stages, the lessons learned from each stage should be
internalized and used to be successful in the next stage. So theoretically, the
mistakes and lessons a person learns as a child should affect how he lives as
an adult, and the happenings of an adult should teach and influence him how to
live his life as an older person. What should end up happening is that the
older person has the most life experience from which to draw wisdom and insight
into events in the world, while in turn the adult has more wisdom and
experience than the youth. When life follows this pattern, with a person accepting
and internalizing past experiences and building upon them in the next stage of
life, Chazal say this is a true life.
This brings us back to
the medrash and the breakdown of Sarah’s life. To read the medrash simply sounds
ridiculous. The lack of sin on the part of the 20 year old is due to what is
called the “innocence”, read- naiveté, of the youth. You can’t hold an unknowledgeable
person responsible for their actions! And there’s no pride in being compared to
that kind of innocence. (But people actually think there is!) In reality, the true
conqueror of sin is the one who has been faced with the challenges of life, the
attraction to depravity, the desires for shallowness, slowly building up experience
and knowledge throughout their adult life until they come out shining on the
other side. The real comparison you want drawn is the 20 year old should be
clean from sin like the 100 year old, the one who has faced those challenges
and come out on top!
The same is true when
it comes to beauty. As an innocent, ignorant child, it is easy to maintain the
pure, clear beauty of youth. But the one who has faced peer-pressure, possibly derision,
and the expectations of the outside world, yet still maintained that pure
beauty, both inner and outer, upon reaching adulthood, that is someone to be
admired. This is a stage that is meant for those in the prime of life when the
thoughts of others are stronger on the consciousness and the physical body is
in peak condition. And it is one that can be conquered by them. This person is to
go through these challenges, come out shining on the other side and is to be
compared to a young child who knows nothing of such things!? It’s insulting.
Sarah was someone who
embodied this “true life”, taking the lessons of her youthful beauty to service
her as an adult, and the lessons on avoiding sin into her later years. This is
why the pasuk breaks down her age into these three stages, represented by the
numbers 100, 20, and seven. So while these 127 were indeed “the years of the life
of Sarah”, they were also “the life of Sarah”; they tell the story of her
journey through the stages of life until she left this world, fully
accomplished, having perfectly completed the sum of the purpose of her entire
life.
May this understanding
of our amazing ancestor be an inspiration to us all, and teach us how we should
view each portion of our lives. Any challenges we face are only there to make
us stronger, and our lives are only complete when we can use everything we have
learned, our lives can only then be called “truly lived”, when we have reached the
final stage.
Shabbat Shalom!
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