The First Twenty Generations
came to eulogize Sarah and to weep for her” (Bereishit 23:1–2).
The Midrash Tanchuma (Chayei Sarah 4) teaches that when Avraham Avinu stood beside his wife’s bier, he began to weep over her and recited: “Who can find a woman of valor?” (Mishlei 31:10) — continuing to eulogize and recite the entire chapter.
In that eulogy, Avraham Avinu opened a small window for us, allowing us to glimpse something of Sarah Imeinu’s greatness and exalted stature as an Eishet Chayil.
The Midrash goes on to explain the verses of Eishet Chayil, showing how each verse illuminates another facet of Sarah Imeinu’s character.
But now we wish to focus on a different point.
The First Twenty Generations
In the year 1948 from Creation, Avraham Avinu, the towering spiritual giant with whom the Jewish people began, was born.
Avraham Avinu was the twentieth generation from Creation, as the Torah portions of Bereishit and Noach detail.
In Parashat Bereishit, chapter 5 contains thirty-two verses listing the heads of the first ten generations: Adam, Sheit, Enosh, Keinan, Mahalalel, Yered, Chanoch, Metushelach, Lemech, and Noach.
Each of these was born to the one before him; each was the son of his predecessor. When we examine the verses closely, we find that generally, the Torah gives three verses: one verse records his birth, another tells us that he fathered the next generation, and a third concludes with the words “and he died.”2
Once the Torah completes the list of these ten generations, it begins the account of the Flood — a passage that ends with virtually all of Creation wiped away, aside from those who were sheltered in the ark under Noach’s protection.
Noach and his sons emerged from the ark in the year 1657 from Creation. Two years later, in 1659, Arpachshad was born, as the verse states: “These are the descendants of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old, and he begot Arpachshad two years after the Flood” (Bereishit 11:10).
At the end of Parashat Noach, the Torah lists the ten generations from Noach to Avraham (Bereishit 11:10–28). Here too, the relationship is father to son: Shem, Arpachshad, Shelach, Ever, Peleg, Re’u, Serug, Nachor, Terach, and Avraham.
When we examine this second list, we discover a striking difference from the first. Regarding each of these figures, with the exception of Terach, the Torah gives only two verses: one verse records his birth, and another tells us that he fathered the next generation. But in this entire section, the Torah never says of any of them, “and he died.”
Why?
Rabbi Yitzchak Tzvi Bernfeld offered the following explanation.3
The first ten generations sank to an astonishing level of wickedness. Their deeds belonged entirely to the realm of death, and for that reason the Torah says of them, “and he died.” It is teaching us that nothing enduring remained from those generations.
The second set of ten generations, however, possessed an element of tikkun. Therefore, the Torah does not say of them, “and he died.”
Still, although the wisdom of the first ten generations was lost, Avraham Avinu was able to bring about a tikkun for them as well.4
That tikkun was accomplished when he eulogized Sarah Imeinu and recited Eishet Chayil.
Let us explain:
This week’s parashah opens with the verses:
“The life of Sarah was one hundred years and twenty years and seven years; these were the years of Sarah’s life. Sarah died in Kiryat Arba, which is Chevron, in the land of Canaan, and Avraham came to eulogize Sarah and to weep for her” (Bereishit 23:1–2).
The Midrash Tanchuma (Chayei Sarah 4) teaches that when Avraham Avinu stood beside his wife’s bier, he began to weep over her and recited: “Who can find a woman of valor?” (Mishlei 31:10) — continuing to eulogize and recite the entire chapter.
Through reciting this chapter, Avraham succeeded in rectifying the first generations.
As stated above, Arpachshad was born in the year 1659 from Creation, and from that point onward there was already an element of tikkun. Avraham, who wished to rectify the generations that came before that point, joined the Explicit Name — the Name Havayah, whose numerical value is twenty-six — to each of those years. Thus, 1,659 multiplied by twenty-six equals 43,134.
Now the combined numerical value of all the verses of Eishet Chayil — according to the keri, the way the words are read, rather than the ketiv, the way they are written — is exactly 43,134. Therefore, by reciting the verses of Eishet Chayil, Avraham was able to bring about a tikkun for all of the years that were damaged by the first generations.
But this immediately raises a simple question. Why was this rectification and tikkun accomplished specifically through Eishet Chayil, and not through some other set of verses? And why did it happen specifically at the time of Sarah’s passing, not earlier?
Before we answer this matter, we must introduce another idea.
Wellsprings of Wisdom
2. Rabbi Shalom Meir Wallach notes in Ma’ayan HaShavua (Bereishit, p. 45) that every year, when we begin the cycle of the weekly parashah again, we are given a new opportunity to draw pearls from the inexhaustible spring of Divine wisdom. Yet at the very beginning of the Torah we are also reminded how little we grasp.
The Torah’s account of the ten generations from Adam to Noach is a striking example. The breaks between parshiyot, marked in the Chumash by the letters samech or pei, were given so that Moshe Rabbeinu could pause, reflect, and absorb what had been taught to him.
Now, some parshiyot contain many verses written in one continuous flow. Yet in the account of the ten generations from Adam to Noach, there is a break after every three verses. This teaches that each generation represents a distinct spiritual essence, a new development, and an entire stage in the unfolding of Creation. It was impossible, so to speak, for Moshe Rabbeinu to receive Keinan and Mahalalel, for example, as one continuous unit without a pause for contemplation.
Indeed, the ten generations correspond to the ten sefirot, each one an entire world unto itself. We have no true grasp of the depth contained in these verses, and can only catch a small glimpse into the depth and exaltedness of the holy Torah.
3. Meisharim Maggid on Mishlei.
4. Avraham Avinu labored to bring about a tikkun even for the earlier generations because this was his way: to seek out the good within every person.
Rabbi Yoram Michael Abergel explains in Imrei Noam (Lech Lecha, maamar 1) that the Torah says, “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth behibaram — when they were created” (Bereishit 2:4). Chazal expound that behibaram contains the letters of beAvraham, teaching that the heavens, the earth, and all they contain were created in the merit of Avraham Avinu. This was because Avraham embodied the attribute of chesed, and the entire world was created for chesed, as the verse states, “The world is built with kindness” (Tehillim 89:3).
From Avraham’s chesed flowed his extraordinary ayin tovah. He looked at every human being with a good eye. Whoever he met, he saw within him the Divine spark that gives him life. He always remembered that “G-d made man in His image” (Bereishit 9:6), and that every person is therefore beloved and worthy of dignity, as Chazal teach, “Beloved is man, for he was created in the image of G-d” (Avot 3:14).
For this reason, Avraham loved every person and felt a sacred obligation to help him both materially and spiritually. Materially, he opened his tent wide and welcomed everyone with warmth and joy, providing food, drink, and lodging generously and free of charge. Spiritually, he used every encounter to teach people about the Creator of the world, in Whom one must believe and Whom alone one must serve, until he brought them beneath the wings of the Shechinah.
Avraham Avinu did not look for people’s faults or hurry to condemn them. He knew how to find points of goodness in every person. This is the meaning of Chazal’s teaching on the verse, “You loved righteousness and hated wickedness” (Tehillim 45:8): “You loved to justify My creations, and you refused to condemn them” (Bereishit Rabbah 49:9). Because of this, Hashem chose to speak with Avraham and chose him from among all of the generations from Noach until his time.
The Baal Shem Tov famously taught that the other person is essentially a mirror. What a person sees in others often reflects what is found within himself. One who constantly disqualifies others and finds fault in them must examine himself, for Chazal say, “Whoever disqualifies others does so with his own blemish” (Kiddushin 70a).
Therefore, a person must train himself to look at others with a good eye, judge them favorably, and seek their virtues rather than their shortcomings. As Chazal teach, “One who judges his fellow favorably is judged favorably from Heaven” (Shabbat 127b).
This was the path of Avraham Avinu: a life of chesed, ayin tovah, and love for Hashem’s creations.
