We are confronted with the death of our matriarch Sarah at the beginning of the Parsha. It lists the age at which she died, but does so in a manner that has caught the attention of the commentators and any careful reader.

בראשית כג

א) וַיִּֽהְיוּ֙ חַיֵּ֣י שָׂרָ֔ה מֵאָ֥ה שָׁנָ֛ה וְעֶשְׂרִ֥ים שָׁנָ֖ה וְשֶׁ֣בַע שָׁנִ֑ים שְׁנֵ֖י חַיֵּ֥י שָׂרָֽה

Bereisheet

(1) And the life of Sarah was one hundred years and twenty years and seven years; [these were] the years of the life of Sarah.

Why does the verse list out her years separately, one hundred, twenty, and seven? Why does it repeat these are the years of Sarah’s life after the verse begins with “the life of Sarah was”? Rashi and the Midrash pick up on this anomaly.

רש"י בראשית כג:א

מאה שנה ועשרים שנה ושבע שנים – לכך נכתב שנה בכל כלל וכלל, לומר לך שכל אחד נדרש לעצמו: בת מאה כבת עשרים לחטא – מה בת עשרים לא חטאת, שהרי אינה בת עונשין, אף בת מאה בלא חטא, ובת עשרים כבת שבע ליופי.

שני חיי שרה – כולן שוין לטובה.

Rashi - Bereistet 23:1

And the life of Sarah was one hundred years and twenty years and seven years. The reason that the word “years” was written after every digit is to tell you that every digit is to be expounded upon individually: when she was one hundred years old, she was like a twenty-year-old regarding sin. Just as a twenty-year-old has not sinned, because she is not liable to punishment, so too when she was one hundred years old, she was without sin. And when she was twenty, she was like a seven-year-old as regards to beauty. — from Gen. Rabbah 58:1. the years of the life of Sarah. All of them equally good.

Rashi explains that the extended arrangement of the text is designed to convey an idea. When Sarah was 100, she was like 20 in terms of her impeccable spiritual standing, not having been blemished by error. When she was 20, she was like 7 in terms of beauty. Perhaps this text implies a beauty of character and innocence exemplified by a 7 year old, as 7 year olds are not generally considered to be the paradigm of physical beauty. The Rav, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, was bothered by this and suggested the text might be reversed. When Sarah was 100 she was like 20 in terms of beauty, and when she was 20 she was like 7 in terms of being free from sin and error. While the Rav did not quote it in his shiur, but there is a similar text of the Yalkut on Tehilim:

תהלים לז:יח

(יח) יוֹדֵ֣עַ יְ֭הֹוָה יְמֵ֣י תְמִימִ֑ם וְ֝נַחֲלָתָ֗ם לְעוֹלָ֥ם תִּהְיֶֽה׃

ילקוט שמעוני תהלים ל"ז:י"ח

(יח) יודע ה' ימי תמימים – כשם שהם תמימים כך שנותיהם תמימים, בת ק' כבת כ' לנוי, בת עשרים כבת שבע לחטא, בר חטיא אמר כל מי שנאמר בו תמים השלים שניו אפילו למדת שבוע.

Tehilim 37:18

Hashem knows the days of the wholehearted/perfect/complete, and their inheritance will be forever.

Yalkut Shimoni

Just as they are perfect, so too their years are perfect. A 100 year old is like 20 in terms of beauty, and a 20 year old is like a sever year old in terms of sin. The son of Chityah said, anyone who is referred to as perfect, his years are perfected down to the week.

A verse in Tehilim is describing the days of the Temimim, which can be translated as wholehearted, perfected, or complete. The Yalkut is apparently drawing our attention to the verses connection between the description of the person as perfected and their days. If the person is perfected, their years must be too be perfected. It references a 100 year old being like a 20 year old in terms of beauty, and a 20 year old being like a 7 year old free from sin. It then notes a statement that perfect years must indicate perfect weeks.

An interesting idea emerges. The quality of our lives is defined by how we spend our time. If we see a person has acquired a degree of perfection and excellence, this must have been apparent in how they spent the years of their life. The qualities we see at 100 are reflective of qualities embodied at 20 but steadily pursued and developed. In order to have years with a certain quality, this must be manifest in how one spends their week (interesting the Yalkut emphasizes weeks and not days; apparently that is the ideal and realistic unit. We may not be able to devote our time to every endeavor each day, but it must be present during the week).

תורה שלמה בראשית כג:א

מאה שנה ועשרים שנה ושבע שנים, מפני מה מונה שנותן של ראשונים מקוטעין אלא ללמדך שכל יום ויום שקול כנגד הכל, וכן את מוצא באמנו שרה מאה שנה ועשרים שנה ושבע שנים, שהיתה בת מאה כבת עשרים בכח, ובת עשרים כבת שבע בצניעות ובטהרה, והיתה בת שבע כבת עשרים בדעת, ובת עשרים כבת מאה בצדקות, ללמדך שהמאה שקולה כעשרים וכשבע, והשבע שקול כעשרים, והעשרים כמאה. (מדרש הגדול)

Torah Shelaima - Bereisheet 23:1

"One hundred years and twenty years and seven years.” Why are the years of the early generations counted in fragments? To teach you that each day is weighed like the whole. Similarly we find with our matriarch Sarah that she was one hundred years old, twenty years old, and seven years old: At one hundred, she was like a twenty-year-old in strength. And at twenty, she was like a seven-year-old in modesty and purity. And at seven, she was like a twenty-year-old in terms of wisdom, and at twenty she was like a hundred in righteousness. This teaches that the age of one hundred is weighed like twenty and like seven, and seven is weighed like twenty, and twenty like a hundred. (Midrash Gadol)

This Midrash expands on the interpretation of the years of Sarah’s life, and indicates that it must be interpreted bidirectionally. Some of the characteristics are different than presented in previous versions. At one hundred she was like twenty in terms of strength, at twenty like seven in modesty and purity. At seven she possessed the wisdom of twenty, and at twenty she achieved a level of righteousness typical of someone at the end of their life. The term shikul, weighted or evaluated, connected to, requires some further explanation. What is the connection between these different periods of life?

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik - “From Generation to Generation”

Sarah lived three lives: the life of a child, the life of a young woman, and the life of a mature old woman… In the realm of the unfolding of the spirit, however, it is possible to see youth and ripe age or even childhood and youth- as simultaneous experiences. The advanced in years quite often display spiritual restlessness and intensity, and the young are sometimes characterized by cautious wisdom and sober judgment. An old person may be wonderfully childlike with a dreamer's naïveté and excitement. The idealism of youth quite often shines through the eyes of the graybeard. In fact, great people are sometimes great children. They are rich and multitalented because of their age; they are beautiful too because of their honesty and sincerity. Sarah was at one and the same time seven, twenty, and a hundred years old. She was simultaneously very old and very young, representing the aged, the adult, and the child.

"These are the lives of Sarah": she was always a one-hundred-year-old mature person, a twenty-year-old girl, and a seven-year-old child…Notwithstanding the maturation of her natural wisdom, she retained within her the young girl she had been once upon a time. She acted like a mature, wise, experience-rich old woman, but in times of need and crisis the young, bold, courageous girl came to the fore and took over…The ability to be all three together, to experience existentially child, youth, and old age, is a sign of the covenantal community.

The Rav explains that Sarah integrated in one personality the positive qualities that characterize each stage of life. She had the honesty and sincerity of a child, the boldness and courage of youth, and the wisdom of old age. These characteristics and qualities remained available to her and were a source of splendor and value throughout her life.

The psychologist Erik Erikson, famous for coining the term “identity crisis”, articulated a theory of successive development across the lifespan. In his book Childhood and Society (1950), he described eight stages characterized by an essential challenge or conflict. The infant must determine if they trust or mistrust the world to provide for their needs. The adult is faced with confronting the challenges of intimacy or isolation. In midlife a person is faced with generatively or stagnation, and toward the end of one’s life, integrity or despair. Later in Identity and the Life Cycle (1980), he emphasized that each stage is not disconnected from the others. How each stage is resolved and conflict answered has repercussions and consequences across the lifespan. Indeed, many challenge re-emerge in different forms across life’s many twists and turns.

Sarah was the paradigm of integration. She embodied the best qualities of youth, adulthood, and old age, simultaneously. In describing the extra words “the years of Sarah’s life”, Rashi stated “they were all equal toward goodness”. All Sarah’s sublime qualities and varied life experience was integrated and contributed towards her ultimate perfection.

References

Erikson, E. H. (1950). Childhood and society. W.W. Norton & Company.

Erikson, E. H. (1980). Identity and the life cycle. Norton.

Rosenberg, A. (1980). A new English translation of the Hebrew Bible text and Rashi, with a commentary digest. New York: Judaica Press. Retrieved from: https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/

Soloveitchik J. D. Shatz D. Wolowelsky J. B. & Ziegler R. (2008). Abraham's journey : reflections on the life of the founding patriarch. Published for Toras HoRav Foundation by KTAV Pub. House.

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