Nov 6, 2026 · 5 min · 3 segments
Avraham and Sara both pass away in this week's Torah, Chayei Sara (in the book of Bereishis), and the Torah uses expressions that emphasize the way they made use of each and every day and year. We…
Yosef EdelsteinHost
And there's a reason why it breaks up into 127 to teach different things about her greatness or virtues.
But what I want to focus on is it says she lived 100 years, 20 years, and 7 years.
And on that last clause, Rashi, a great commentator, says, they were all equal in goodness or for goodness, letova.
In other words, there were differences in the 100 years and 20 years and seven years, and she went through many periods in her life, but it repeats at the end, summing them all together, the years of Sar's life to teach us they were all equal in goodness or for the good.
A life of difficulties, but yet the Torah says they were, Rashi, the commentator bringing the rabbinic teachings, says they were all equal in goodness.
What it obviously means, they weren't all good times like we would say, but they were good because she saw the good in others, in herself, in her life, in the situations that she faced.
Whether they're calm or rocky, whether they're stormy or sunny, to cling to the good, to see good, to do good.
So years are something we can look back on, but we don't live a year at a time.
in this Torah portion, and a little earlier also to describe Avram and earlier Sarah, but here Avraham as being advanced in age, it says, Avram ba'ba yamim, was coming with days, or with the days.
And it means like he was advanced in years, but why does the Torah say ba'ba yamim? It's a beautiful, profound lesson that really the measure of time we live in is the day.
A day is a precious, special, obvious, but I think sometimes in my own life, overlooked, underappreciated unit of time to think about a day and that our challenge in life is is to just make each day count, full of goodness.
If we make each day full of goodness or connecting to good, then we'll have good years like Sarah had.
But the day is the real unit we're living with, right? And we see this throughout the Torah.
And there's a reason why it breaks up into 127 to teach different things about her greatness or virtues.
But what I want to focus on is it says she lived 100 years, 20 years, and 7 years.
And on that last clause, Rashi, a great commentator, says, they were all equal in goodness or for goodness, letova.
In other words, there were differences in the 100 years and 20 years and seven years, and she went through many periods in her life, but it repeats at the end, summing them all together, the years of Sar's life to teach us they were all equal in goodness or for the good.
A life of difficulties, but yet the Torah says they were, Rashi, the commentator bringing the rabbinic teachings, says they were all equal in goodness.
What it obviously means, they weren't all good times like we would say, but they were good because she saw the good in others, in herself, in her life, in the situations that she faced.
Whether they're calm or rocky, whether they're stormy or sunny, to cling to the good, to see good, to do good.
So years are something we can look back on, but we don't live a year at a time.
in this Torah portion, and a little earlier also to describe Avram and earlier Sarah, but here Avraham as being advanced in age, it says, Avram ba'ba yamim, was coming with days, or with the days.
And it means like he was advanced in years, but why does the Torah say ba'ba yamim? It's a beautiful, profound lesson that really the measure of time we live in is the day.
A day is a precious, special, obvious, but I think sometimes in my own life, overlooked, underappreciated unit of time to think about a day and that our challenge in life is is to just make each day count, full of goodness.
If we make each day full of goodness or connecting to good, then we'll have good years like Sarah had.
But the day is the real unit we're living with, right? And we see this throughout the Torah.
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