Rabbi Eytan Feiner
The Life of Sarah
ויהיו חיי שרה מאה שנה ועשרים שנה ושבע שנים
Sarah’s lifetime was one hundred years, twenty years and seven years… (Bereishis 23:1)
Rashi, citing the well-known Midrash (Bereishis Rabbah 58:1), asks why the Pasuk repeats the word “years” after each period of Sarah’s life mentioned. After all, the Torah could have just said, “Sarah lived for 127 years”?
The Midrash answers that it is to teach that when Sarah was 100 years old, she was like a 20-year-old in relation to sin, who is not subject to Heavenly punishment (1), and when she was 20 years old, she was like a 7-year-old in terms of her beauty.
What is the meaning behind this Chazal that at age twenty Sarah was as beautiful as a seven-year-old?
Rav Mottel Katz zt”l¸ the late Telz Rosh Yeshiva, explains that Sarah’s greatness was that she viewed her own beauty with utmost purity and innocence. At the age of 20, when one’s beauty is normally used to impress others, Sarah maintained the untainted and unadulterated beauty of a 7-year-old. (2)
Looking Back, Looking Forward
The Ben Ish Chai in his sefer Od Yosef Chai notes a further incongruity within this Pasuk. Why are the years of Sarah depicted, as per the precise, literal translation of the words, “One hundred year, twenty year, seven years”? Why does the Pasuk begin with the singular usage of the word שנה (year) and then conclude with the plural usage of שנים (years)?
When a person reaches one hundred years of life, it is easy to look back in life and feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment, and in turn be led to feelings of conceit and complacency. Yet when one reflects at what they were like at the age of one, feelings of humility set in. By contemplating what life was like at this age – i.e. how one was a helpless child who solely depended upon his parents – one will be led to self-effacement. Sarah, thus, always looked back at her life as a one-year-old and never grew conceited. (3)
Yet, it is less novel to say that someone as old as one hundred, which as per the Mishnah (Avos 1:28) is often already no longer alive, is not overly conceited as compared to someone in the peak of their youth. What about when a woman is 20 years old, at the height of her beauty; will she remain humble and modest then, recognizing that her beauty is a gift from G-d?
For that reason, the Pasuk reiterates the word “year” when stating Sarah’s age of 20. Even as a 20-year-old, she looked back to her infantile past and never grew overly haughty or proud of her accomplishments.
However, as a 7-year-old child, one mustn’t look back, but always aspire to the future. There is so much yet to accomplish. There are so many “years,” as the verse alludes, to grow and achieve. This is why the term “years” in the plural is used when describing the “seven years” of Sarah’s life.
Sarah thus possessed this dual perspective. As a 100-year-old and 20-year-old, she looked back to the past and remembered what she once was, and how she must never grow content and haughty. At the same time, as a young 7-year-old, she aspired to greatness and looked to many future years of accomplishment. It is this attitude in life which leads to the attainment of true greatness.
In a similar vein, Rav Moshe Eisemann explains the opinion of R’ Yitzchak in the Gemara (Berachos 6b) that one who benefits from the festive meal of a chassan and kallah and fulfills the mitzvah of making the newlyweds happy is considered to have built one of the ruins of Jerusalem. What does Yerushalayim have to do with the rejoicing of a chassan and kallah?
The Midrash (ibid. 56:10) states that Malki-Tzedek, king of Yerushalayim, named the mountain upon which Avraham later brought Yitzchak up as a sacrifice “Shalem.” Avraham himself, though, named it “Hashem Yireh” [“Hashem will see”] (Bereishis 22:14). In deference to both Malki-Tzedek and Avraham, Hashem combined both these names and named it Yerushalayim.
What does this mean? Malki-Tzedek’s naming of this area – Shalem – is insufficient as it implied shleimus, perfection. Such an attitude – that one has attained perfection and need no longer work on achieving more – can lead to feelings of arrogance. At the same time, Avraham Avinu’s name of “Hashem will see,” a description which looks to the future, can lead to an oversight of one’s past accomplishments.
Hashem therefore synthesized both names –Yireh and Shalem – to form Yerushalayim. The lesson is that one must look both to his or her past accomplishments as well as to the future and see how much more they have yet to achieve.
We thus tell the chassan and kallah that they too must carry this perspective with themselves. We may sing their praises and focus on all that they have done, yet they can never forget what lies in the future. The rejoicing of a chassan and kallah must therefore incorporate both a look to their past and a look to the future. Hence, the statement of R’ Yitzchak, “One who makes a chassan and kallah happy is as if he rebuilds one of the ruins of Yerushalayim.”
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1. See comment of Mizrachi who questions how this can be true. Isn’t a boy and girl held responsible for their actions starting at bar and bat-mitzvah ages of 13 and 12? [See Teshuvos HaRosh (17:1) who writes that the designated ages of 13 and 12 are a halacha l’Moshe Mi’Sinai, a handed-down tradition from Sinai.] The Mizrachi answers, based on Shabbos 89b, that an individual is held accountable for their actions after bar or bas mitzvah, yet they are not subject to Heavenly punishment until they are fully mature at age 20. Along these lines, the Maharal writes that the brain is still developing and does not maximize its full maturity until reaching twenty years old. See further Time Magazine (February 12, 2007, p. 56) which similarly reports that the brain’s neuroplasticity is still developing until it reaches its peak and culmination at age 20.
2. This is notwithstanding that Sarah leads the list as one of the four most beautiful women (Megillah 15a – Sarah, Avigail, Rachav and Esther) and was named Yischa because she saw with Ruach Hakodesh (Divine Inspiration) and drew the looks of everyone towards her (ibid. 14a). She nevertheless used and displayed her beauty with utmost innocence.
3. See John Lloyd and John Mitchinson in 1,339 Quite Interesting Facts to make your jaw drop (New York: Crown, 2010, p. 161) who concluded based upon their own research that Sarah is the only women in the entire Bible whose age is recorded.
