The Torah tells us (24:1): בימים בא זקן ואברהם, "And Avraham was old, advanced in days..." Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say the בשנים בא זקן ואברהם, "And Avraham was old, advanced in years"? The pasuk discusses Avraham's old age, so it should mention years, not days! The word ימים sometimes means clarity.
As such, writes the Noam Megadim, the pasuk can be translated as (24:1) בא זקן ואברהם בימים, "And Avraham was old, growing in clarity." Avraham, in his older years, attained ימים, clarity. The clarity was that את ברך 'וה בכל אברהם, that everything he had was Hashem's blessings. He clearly understood that even things that seemed bad were Hashem's brachos because everything Hashem does is for the good.
Mishmeres Isamar zy'a writes that with this idea, we can explain the pasuk (23:3) ויקם מתו פני מעל אברהם, "Avraham arose from before his dead." מתו, his dead, represents his challenges and difficult times.
מעל אברהם ויקם מתו פני, every "death," every tough time, resulted in ויקם, that he rose to higher levels. The pasuk continues פני מעל אברהם ויקם לאמר חת בני אל וידבר מתו, "Avraham arose from before his dead, and spoke to the sons of חת, saying." חת represents the people who go through difficult times, as it states (Devarim 1:21) תחת אל, and Onkelos translates it תתבר ולא, don't break. So חת symbolizes the broken people, people who went through hard times. וידבר חת בני אל, Avraham would speak to them and encourage them and tell them that everything is for the good. The pasuk states חת בני אל וידבר לאמר, and it is known that לאמר is רכה אמירה, kind, soft words. Avraham would speak to חת בני, the people who went through hard times, לאמר, and tell them that ultimately all will turn around and become very good for them.
On the words שרה חיי שני, Rashi (23:1) writes, לטובה שוין כולן, "all of Sarah's years were good." This means that Sarah lived with the outlook that everything was good. However, the picture isn’t so rosy when we study Sarah's life. Sarah was barren for ninety years and suffered from Pharaoh, Hagar, and Yishmael. How can Rashi say לטובה שוין כולם, that all her years were equally good? The answer is that she lived with this attitude. She knew that the good and harder years were all similarly good years.
One year, on Shabbos parashas Chayei Sarah, the Yesod HaAvodah zt'l (Slonim), couldn't stop talking about this Rashi. He shouted, געווען גוט שטענדיג איר איז'ס, "Life was always good for Sarah!" Because with this perspective, life is genuinely always good.
The Baal HaTurim writes that ויהיו is gematriya 37, a hint that her final thirty-seven years (after Yitzchak was born) were the primary years of her life. Those were the good years of Sarah’s life. So how can Rashi write לטובה שויים כולם, that all of Sarah's life was equally good? Rebbe Yankele of Pshevorsk zt'l replied that the roshei teivos of לטובה שוים כולם, is שכל, intelligence. When one thinks with his intelligence, he finds goodness even in the hard times.
The Chida (P’nei Dovid) notes that the first word of the parashah, ויהיו, is a palindrome (it reads the same backward and forward) to imply that even when Sarah's days were backward and filled with difficulties, she considered them good days - לטובה שוין כולן, "All of Sarah's years were equally good." Externally, only her final 37 years appeared good. But they were all equally good years to Sarah because, with her שכל, she understood that everything Hashem does is for the best.
Story of the Chasid and the Ripped Coat
A chasid who once had a very successful day in business. He earned twenty-five rubles that day, much more than usual. But his coat ripped on the same day, and a new coat cost twenty-five rubles. The chasid went to his rebbe, the Yesod HaAvodah of Slonim zt'l, and asked him to explain what was happening. Why did he have to earn extra money only to lose it to an unexpected expense?
The Yesod HaAvodah revealed that it was decreed upon him to die r”l. But the decree was sweetened and changed so that his coat would rip instead. (The first decree was on the clothes of the neshamah, and the second decree was on the clothes of the body. The clothes of the neshamah is the human body. At first, it was decreed that the body should be removed from the neshamah – death. But the decree was changed that the body’s clothes should be taken away, which is why his coat ripped.) But since he didn't deserve a financial loss, it was decreed that he would earn an extra twenty-five rubles – the cost of a new coat.
Let us learn from this episode that everything is for the good. It was upsetting to the chasid when his expensive coat ripped, and the entire day’s profit went towards buying a new coat. But it was all for his benefit because the ripped coat saved his life.
