Parshat Chayei Sarah begins with the death of our matriarch, Sarah. In this week’s episode, Rabbi Fohrman reflects on her impact and finds a clue to the lasting legacy of Sarah’s life by looking, in all places, at the Torah’s description of her death. That clue hinges on a seemingly technical fact found in the parsha’s opening verse: the number of years Sarah happened to live, 127. 

It seems like mere trivia, the kind of thing that you forget as quickly as you read it. But, this number pops up again in one other place in the Bible: It’s the number of provinces in the Persian empire in the days of Queen Esther. Is there a connection between the two? What could Sarah’s age possibly have to do with Persian provinces? Rabbi Fohrman thinks there is a lesson hidden here, a profound insight into the legacy of Sarah.

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