Days That Endure Forever
וִי ה
ו חַי י ש נָה ו שֶ בַ
י שִָר
ע ש נ
ה מֵָאָה ש נָה ו ים שָׂנ חֵַי י
עְֶׂשִׂרִים י שִָרָה.
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)
DAYS THAT ENDURE FOREVER
The Midrash (Bereishis Rabbah 58:1) interprets the years of Sarah Imeinu’s life, as enumerated in the pasuk, in light of the words in Tehillim (37:18), יודע ד׳ ימי תמימים ונחלתם לעולם תהיה – “Hashem knows the days of the wholehearted, and their inheritance shall be forever.” Chazal explain that “Just as [tzaddikim] are whole, so are their years whole.”
The Ohr HaChaim (Bereishis 23:1) also offers insight into this pasuk, emphasizing that “Tzaddikim give life to their days, while the days of the resha’im give life to them.”
Both interpretations require further explanation.
The Creation of Time
The Bnei Yissaschar (Sivan 5:19; see also Agra D’Kalah, Bamidbar) teaches that time itself is among Hashem’s creations. It did not exist before Brias HaOlam as an independent reality, chas v’sholom.
Just as the physical world is constantly created by Divine will and sustained only for as long as Hashem wills it to exist, so too is time created by Hashem— from a realm that is lema'alah min hazman—and descends into this world for the particular duration He allots to it. When that measure of time has elapsed, such as when a day draws to its close and evening approaches, it returns to its source and is no longer accessible. Subsequently, a new unit of time emanates from that realm, bringing the next day into existence.
And so it continues every single moment, day after day, week after week, month after month. What we experience as the uninterrupted flow of time is, in truth, a constant act of creation. Every day is newly given, every moment is newly generated. Once a time passes, it no longer exists; a new moment takes its place.
When Days Become Eternal
This is perhaps the meaning of the Ohr HaChaim's teaching that tzaddikim “give life to their days.”
For an ordinary person, a day ends, returns to its source, and is no longer part of his present existence. Whatever happened during that day may remain as a memory, but the day itself has passed.
A tzaddik, however, “gives life to his days.” Through his Torah, mitzvos, tefillah, and dveikus to Hashem, he elevates the very time allotted to him, giving it an existence no longer confined to its original duration. The sun may set, and the day may cease to exist in its original form, but it is not lost. Every day remains, and every subsequent day is added to the accumulated existence of all the days that preceded it.
The Zohar HaKadosh (I:129a) expresses a similar idea in explaining the pasuk (Bereishis 24:1), ואברהם זקן בא בימים:
Avraham did not draw near to Hashem in a single day or at one particular moment. Rather, his deeds brought him closer to his Creator throughout all his days, advancing him from one madreigah to the next, until he ascended through these madreigos.
In other words, Avraham Avinu’s days did not simply come and go; each remained “whole,” adding to the days that came before it. Therefore, he continued to ascend with his entire life accompanying him, every day of his avodah remaining an enduring part of his journey toward Hashem.
Think of the extraordinary moments that was the life of Avraham Avinu. The day he was cast into the furnace of Ur Kasdim, choosing to surrender his life rather than bow to an idol. The day he left his land, his birthplace, and his father’s house at the word of Hashem. The years in which he opened his tent on every side, to every passerby, welcoming strangers with boundless kindness, nourishing them, and awakening their hearts to the existence of the Borei Olam. The morning he rose early, saddled his donkey, and bound his beloved son upon the Mizbe’ach. None of those days were lost when the sun set upon them. Every single day of his holy life brought him closer to Hashem, and each moment became the spiritual foundation upon which Klal Yisrael was built.
Coming with His Days
Perhaps this is also why the Gemara (Bava Metzia 87a) teaches that until Avraham Avinu, the phenomenon of old age had not existed. Considering that the generations preceding Avraham lived for extraordinarily long periods, some for hundreds of years, this is particularly striking. Surely, they, too, experienced the physical process of aging. What, then, did Avraham Avinu introduce into the world?
Perhaps Chazal are referring to a deeper dimension of ziknah, one that is not defined merely by amount of time that elapsed since a person was born.
Before Avraham Avinu, a person's days passed and disappeared. Each day was its own creation, and when its allotted time was complete, it returned to its source; all the person had was the present moment in which he lived. He may have lived for hundreds of years, but that passage of time did not accumulate into an enduring existence.
Avraham Avinu introduced an entirely new dimension of existence. He was בא בימים, one who literally “came with all his days.” Through his avodah, he gave life to his days, allowing them to endure beyond their original time. Every moment remained in this world, and together they formed a treasury of days, years, and decades of avodah and kedushah that accompanied him as he grew older.
This is why the Midrash emphasizes, “Just as they are whole, so too their years are whole.” The wholeness of a tzaddik's years is not merely that he filled them with meaningful accomplishments. It is that those years themselves remain present, alive, even after their allotted time has elapsed.
This is also the meaning of the continuation of the pasuk, “And their inheritance shall be forever.” The inheritance of tzaddikim is not only the legacy they leave in the hearts of those who remember them. It is the very days and years they transformed through their avodah—days and years that do not disappear with their physical passing, but remain for future generations to reclaim.
This is precisely what the Ohr HaChaim derives from the words שני חיי שרה. Sarah Imeinu imbued each of her 127 years with life, bequeathing every moment as an eternal inheritance to her children.
The Royal Inheritance of Sarah
The Midrash (Bereishis Rabbah 58:3) teaches that Rebbi Akiva was once surrounded by his Talmidim, teaching them Torah, when he noticed them begin to drift into slumber:
Wishing to rouse them, he said, “What did Esther HaMalkah see that she should reign over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces? Rather, let Esther, the granddaughter of Sarah, who lived one hundred and twenty-seven years, come and reign over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces.”
The obvious question is, aside from the numerical correspondence, what connection is there between the years of Sarah Imeinu and the provinces over which Esther HaMalkah ruled.
But perhaps the question Rebbi Akiva sought to address goes much deeper. Esther lived in a time of hester panim, when the Divine presence was concealed, and Klal Yisrael found itself in the depths of galus. Indeed, the only allusion to Esther that Chazal (Chullin 139b) find in the Torah is the pasuk (Devarim 31:18), ואנכי הסתר אסתיר את פני ביום ההוא – “And I will surely hide My face on that day.”
Esther's very name reflects the concealment that characterized her generation. Even within the royal palace of Achashverosh, she could not reveal her identity or disclose her people (Esther 2:10). She was surrounded by the splendor of a foreign kingdom, yet her true identity remained hidden in galus.
Against this backdrop, Rabbi Akiva's question becomes especially meaningful. If Esther's existence was characterized by hester panim, how did she ascend to such an openly exalted position? And even more profoundly, how could Sarah Imeinu, who lived with a revealed Divine presence, provide the spiritual foundation for Esther, who lived in such profound concealment?
To this, Rebbi Akiva answers, "Let Esther, the granddaughter of Sarah, who lived 127 years, come and reign over 127 provinces." Sarah Imeinu, whose name expresses the idea of שררה, dominion and royalty, lived her days in such a way that they remained a part of creation, giving them an existence beyond their time. She endowed each of those 127 years withmalchus, enabling them to linger through the generations.
Thus, when Esther arose in galus Bavel, she was not standing alone; she inherited Sarah's 127 years. The actual moments that Sarah infused with Torah, avodah, chesed, and malchus were still alive, and ultimately became the spiritual source from which Esther's royalty—and the entire neis Purim— could emerge even in a generation of hester panim, fulfilling the promise of the pasuk, “And their inheritance shall be forever.”
The Days That Never Passed
This idea carries a powerful message of chizzuk for our own generation, as we stand at the conclusion of a long and difficult galus, in the generation of Moshiach.
We live in a period marked by spiritual decline, weakness, and an overwhelming sense of hester panim. The light of kedushah often seems distant, and the challenges of our times can make it difficult to find the strength to persevere. As Chazal (Sotah 49a) say, אין לך יום שאין קללתו מרובה מחברתה – “There is no day whose curse is not greater than the day before it.”
And yet, even within these difficult times, we are not alone. The days of the Avos HaKedoshim have not disappeared. The generations that preceded us, generations illuminated by the presence of our Rebbes and exalted tzaddikim, remain very much alive.
Perhaps this is the meaning of the pasuk (Koheles 7:10), אל תאמר מה היה שהימים הראשונים היו טובים מאלה – “Do not say, ‘How was it that the earlier days were better than these?’” Do not regard the earlier days as memories of a more elevated past, as something beautiful that once existed but can never again be reached. The days of the tzaddikim endure. Their moments of kedushah remain present, and their years of spiritual influence are still accessible to those who seek to attach themselves to it.
Anyone who longs to draw close to the “tzaddikim fin amol” can still enter their world. You can step into their generation and live sheltered beneath the shade of even the Baal Shem Tov himself. By learning his Torah, following his ways, and attaching yourself to the kedushah he brought into the world, you can access a reality that, in truth, has never ceased to exist.
Yes, the world may have changed, and the generations may have descended into ever deeper concealment, but the earlier days have not diminished. The tzaddikim gave life to their days, and those days remain alive for us to make a part of our own.
May it be Hashem's will that we merit to dwell beneath the shelter of our holy tzaddikim, whose inheritance endure forever. May their days illuminate the darkness of this final galus, until we merit the complete redemption, with the coming of Ben Dovid, speedily in our days, through Hashem's abundant mercy and kindness.
