Sarah Had It All Together – Throughout Her Life

Rather than simply stating that Sara our Matriarch died at the age of 127, the Torah says that Sarah lived 100 years and 20 years and 7 years. Rashi on this pasuk [verse] states that she was as free from sin at 100 as she was at 20 (there is no liability for divine punishment until 20) and she was as beautiful at age 20 as at age 7. The pasuk concludes “shnei chayei Sarah” – these are the years of the Matriarch Sarah. Here Rashi comments – all equally good (kulan shavim l’Tova).

Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, zt”l, commented that a person goes through different stages of life – infancy, childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle age, and old age. In general, when we finish one stage of life and move onto the next stage, we leave the earlier stage behind. We may have fond memories, but that period of our life is closed. When a person is 100 years old, they have already acquired great wisdom, wisdom that only comes with life’s experience. At 20, a person is in the stage when they are full of energy, vitality, and idealism. The age of 7 represents an age of innocence and purity.

Rav Soloveitchik said that Chazal are trying to tell us that regardless of how old Sarah was at any point in her life, Sarah had within her the attributes of a seven year old (purity and innocence), the attributes of a twenty year old (vitality and idealism) and the attributes of a 100 year old (wisdom and experience).

Seven year olds have a wonderful and pure understanding of the Ribono shel Olam. G-d is a reality to them. When you want something, you ask Hashem for it and most of the time, you are answered. Their prayers are pure. Unfortunately, most of us no longer have that innocence when we daven. We have already become jaded by the vagaries of life in this world. The 20 year old is full of idealism and the 100 year old is full of wisdom.

“They were all equally good” means that when Sarah was 45, she had the purity and innocence of a 7 year old – her belief in the Almighty was real and untainted. At that same age (and at every other age), she had the youthful idealism and energy of a 20 year old. Throughout her life, she was wise beyond her years – even in her youth and even in her middle age, she had the wisdom of an old lady. She never left behind the stages of life that she “outgrew”, but rather took the positive attributes of each stage in life along with her while she aged.