Measuring the Years of Life
Pharaoh asked Yaakov how old he was, and he replied (47:9) שנה ומאת שלשים מגורי שני ימי חיי שני ימי היו ורעים מעט, "The days of the years of my sojourning are one hundred thirty years. The days of the years of my life have been few and miserable."
The Malbim explains that Yaakov told Pharaoh that the years of one's life can be divided into two categories. One category is the number of years that one actually lived. About those years, Yaakov said that he lived 130 years. He called those years מגורי שני, the years he lived on earth, but they weren't שני חיי, the years of his life, which are the years which in them he served Hashem. About חיי שנות, the true years of one's life, Yaakov humbly said that they were מעט, few years, ורעים, because he didn't consider them as good as the years of his parents, as he said, אבתי חיי שני ימי את השיגו ולא.
The Malbim elaborates, "The years of one's life should only be counted as the years that he served Hashem. Those are the years of his life. But the years that he lived like an animal aren't counted among the years of his life. His body lived, but his mind and soul, which are unique to human life, were dead. These years are called מגורי שני but they aren't called חיים שנות.
"Pharaoh considered all a person's life to be years, and Yaakov replied that Pharaoh didn’t resent the question accurately. If you ask me about my age, I am 130. But if you want to know how many years I have been alive, they were few and bad years. My spiritual life, which are the true years of a person's life, and those years don't compare to the years that my parents received. They had many more years because they served Hashem and attained spiritual greatness."
The father of Reb Meir Premishlaner zt'l saw a heavenly vision in a dream. He saw heaven calling young people "old" and old people "young," and he asked them why. Heaven explained, "Here we view people according to how long they serve Hashem. We don't look at the age they lived; rather, we measure them according to the amount of time they served Hashem. Some young people are cautious with their time, and in the few years of their life, they spend more time in Hashem's service than elderly people. So, we call them old. Whereas, the old people who hardly spent time serving Hashem, we call them young."
A similar story is told about a person who came to a graveyard, and he read on one grave, "Here lies a person who was niftar at the age two." Another grave says, "Here lies the rav who was niftar at seven years." There wasn't anyone in the graveyard who had lived more than ten years. He asked, "What happened in this city? Was there an epidemic, and everyone died young?"
Most people didn't know the answer, but after asking around enough, he found an old person who supplied the explanation. "In this city, they didn't write the number of years one lived. They wrote on the tombstone the number of years he served Hashem because only those are considered years of life. Some lived until eighty years or more, but on the tombstone, they wrote that he lived a few years because that was how long they served Hashem."
The Hint from the Pasuk
The hint is from the pasuk ימים שנתיים מקץ ויהי. Sometimes, from שנתיים years of life, all that was used was ימים, a few days’ worth of time in Hashem's service.
Many people live a life without a purpose. They eat to be able to work and work to be able to eat. It is a cycle that doesn't go anywhere. But the Jewish nation works so they can earn money to serve Hashem.
It states (45:27) ...יוסף שלח אשר העגלות את וירא אביהם יעקב רוח ותחי, Yaakov saw the wagons (עגלות) that Yosef sent, and this lifted his spirits.
The Chasam Sofer explains that when Yosef sent the עגלות, which also means wheels, Yaakov understood that Yosef was expressing to him the foolishness of this world, how people live a life that goes around in circles, working to eat and eating to work. This lifted Yaakov's spirits because he understood that even after living many years in Mitzrayim, his son, Yosef, perceives the truth of life.
