CHOCHMAS NASHIM: CHAYEI SARAH:MONEY V. DAYS
By: Suri Davis
This week’s torah portion, Chayei Sarah, starts with a recitation of the years Sarah lived.
וַיִּהְיוּ֙ חַיֵּ֣י שָׂרָ֔ה מֵאָ֥ה שָׁנָ֛ה וְעֶשְׂרִ֥ים שָׁנָ֖ה וְשֶׁ֣בַע שָׁנִ֑ים שְׁנֵ֖י חַיֵּ֥י שָׂרָֽה׃
Sarah’s lifetime—the span of Sarah’s life—100 years, 20 years, 7 years, the years of Sarah’s life.
Why didn’t the torah merely say that Sarah lived 127 years. The famous commentary tells us that each day of Sarah’s life was so dedicated to Torah and good deeds, the word years written three times is to highlight how each moment of her life counted.
The rabbis teach us that man worries about money and not about the passing of his days, yet money is of no use ultimately in the world to come, and one cannot reclaim the lost moments of his days,. The opportunity every minute of every day, to own how we spend our days dedicated to G-d.
The Lubavitch Rebbe expounds on this verse. There are two ways to look at a person’s life. Either looking at it on a micro level, where every minute and every day count, or looking at a person’s life as a whole. Either way you look at it, Sarah was accomplished.
What does this examination do for those who are baalei teshuvot, those who in their youth were not Torah focused, and then became Torah focused. Are they to mourn the loss of the days in their youth that they did not follow Torah laws?
The answer, says the Rebbe, is that those who are righeous, improve on themselves daily, they may look at yesterday and mourn that they did not learn or do as much as they did today, in that sense, we are all baalei teshuvahs, every day we return to G-d in more dedicated practice.
One can mourn the past, but that is spilled milk, rather use a review of the past to inspire and motivate one’s self to greater avodat Hashem/service to G-d.
This is the story of Sarah. Making every minute of every day count. Netflix v. Zoom shiurim.
Shabbat shalom.
-Suri