Shabbos Parashas Chaye Sarah - 5775

Shabbos Parashas Chaye Sarah - 5775 Rabbi Hal Miller

And these are the days of the years of Avraham's life which he lived: one

hundred years, seventy years, and five years. [Bereishis 25:7]

Numerous times in our parsha there occurs an interesting form of explanation regarding the length of a person's life. We can certainly count; the Torah does not need to be doing that for us. What is behind these descriptions?

First, in the very beginning of the parsha [23:1] we read, "Sarah's lifetime was one hundred years, twenty years, and seven years,the years of Sarah's life."

At the end of the parsha, [25:17], "These were the years of Ishmael's life: one hundred and thirty seven years, when he expired and died and was gathered to his people." In the middle, our verse. To understand them, we can look at the similarities and differences.

The verses for Avraham and Sarah both split up the age into multiple parts,

the verse for Ishmael does not. Both Avraham's and Sarah's are followed in the succeeding verse with an announcement of death, whereas Ishmael's announcement is contained in the same verse. Avraham's verse adds the

clause "which he lived", Sarah's contains "the years of Sarah's life". Ishmael

gets neither.

It seems as though the Torah is telling us something similar in the cases of Avraham and Sarah, but something different with Ishmael. If so, why did it include Ishmael's age at all? In Megillah [17a], R'Chiya bar Abba asked, "Why were the years of Ishmael enumerated? To reckon, by means of them, the years of Yaakov." Since we know when the brothers were born relative to each other, and by this verse we know how old Ishmael was when he died, we also know how old Yaakov was at that time, and can put dates to the various events in Yaakov's life from that time forward. Rashbam adds, "The Torah mentions Ishmael's age at death also as a form of tribute to his father Avraham." Thus the reason for his verse is definitely different, and the format need not be the same as the other two verses.

So what do these differences tell us about Avraham and Sarah? Many commentators discuss the number breakdowns, along the lines of "this many years for such-and-such, that many years for something else". All well and good, but I find the other item more interesting. What does it mean that these were "the years of Sarah's life", and "the years of Avraham's life which he lived"?

Malbim asks this, and answers, "A person's life cannot be described in simply quantitative terms, as the number of years he existed, only the time that was used properly for serving G-d can really be termed the time that was 'lived''.

From this one would think that any righteous person should have a similar

phrase used in the Torah. We know that at the end of his life, even Ishmael

was considered righteous, having done teshuvah, yet he does not have this

dedication to his life. Malbim points to the "uniqueness' of Avraham's life, that he passed the great tests he had been given. He continues, "This is the Torah's message here in the words 'which he lived', that all of Avraham's 175 years were 'lived' in the deepest spiritual sense."

Rav Moshe Feinstein explains that this demonstrates the beauty of Sarah's deeds, that the "years of her life" were ones dedicated to holy activities.

Rav Hirsch tells that Sarah's good deeds were carried over from one of these periods to the next. What she learned in one part of life, she used to

good benefit in the next part. He adds, "Avraham too lived days and years, every day full of importance and all together one individual whole."

The Torah by these verses is giving us a roadmap on how to live our lives.

All that counts is the time we spend doing mitzvos. We must carry on each thing we learn to the rest of our lives. And, we should look to these righteous people as models for our daily living.