At the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Chayei Sarah, the Torah states the number of years in the life of our Matriarch Sarah. However, the verse seems to contain several redundancies: “Sarah’s lifetime was one hundred years, twenty years and seven years. The years of Sarah’s life.” The Torah could have simply said, “one hundred and twenty-seven years.” Why does it repeat the word “years” several times? And the ending phrase, “the years of Sarah’s life,” is seemingly unnecessary?
Rashi explains that these repetitions come to teach us, as the Sages expound: “At one hundred, she was like twenty in regard to sin” (just as she was free of sin at age twenty, so too she was without sin at age one hundred), and “at twenty, she was like seven in beauty.” The concluding phrase, “the years of Sarah’s life,” comes to teach us that “they were all equally good.”
Differences Between the Periods
The ending phrase — that all her years were “equally good” — actually seems to say something different from the beginning of the verse. The ending implies that all of Sarah’s years were equal, without distinction between different stages of life. But the beginning of the verse explicitly divides her life into three separate stages — “one hundred,” “twenty,” and “seven.”
Moreover, the expression “at one hundred, she was like twenty in regard to sin” implies similarity, not absolute identity — “like twenty.” There is a fundamental difference between the period before twenty, when a person is not yet held punishable for sin, and the period after twenty, when one is subject to punishment. Although Sarah was sinless even at one hundred, it is still not the same as the time in life when one is not yet held accountable for sin.
Likewise, in the comparison “at twenty, she was like seven in beauty,” we also see a difference between age seven and age twenty. By age twenty, beauty already begins to fade — it is not the same as the beauty of a seven year old. The Torah says that even at twenty, Sarah was “like seven” — similar to, but not exactly the same as, a seven year old.
Furthermore, how can we say that Sarah experienced no decline in beauty when she herself said, “After I have withered”? Similarly, regarding the matter of sin, the Torah also relates that something of this sort occurred with Sarah — such as “Sarah laughed” and “Sarah denied.” How then can the Torah claim that “all her years were equally good?”
Even Descents Were for the Good
The phrase “they were all equally good” expresses an even deeper idea. True, Sarah experienced descents, but even her descents were ultimately for the good. Just as there is greatness in avoiding sin — the service of the righteous — so too there is greatness in confronting and overcoming descents. And through this, the Divine purpose of creation is fulfilled.
The same applies to our own service of G-d. There are two complementary dimensions: the general acceptance of the yoke of Heaven — which transcends the distinctions between individual commandments — and the specific intent and focus unique to each mitzvah. A Jew must be complete in both aspects. On one hand, he must serve with acceptance of the yoke of Heaven, seeing all mitzvot as equal; on the other, he must fulfill each commandment with its unique meaning and intention. It is the synthesis of these two paths that brings about the ultimate purpose — making a dwelling place for G-d in the lower realms.
(Likkutei Sichot, Vol. 5)
