There’s some strange math at the beginning of this week’s Torah portion. We learn that our matriarch Sarah dies at 127 years old. But the Torah enumerates the years of her life in a rather strange way:
“Sarah’s lifetime—the span of Sarah’s life—came to one hundred years and twenty years and seven years.”
“וַיִּהְיוּ֙ חַיֵּ֣י שָׂרָ֔ה מֵאָ֥ה שָׁנָ֛ה וְעֶשְׂרִ֥ים שָׁנָ֖ה וְשֶׁ֣בַע שָׁנִ֑ים שְׁנֵ֖י חַיֵּ֥י שָׂרָֽה׃”
The Rabbis ask the obvious question: why is the word “years” repeated?
One commentator teaches that this indicates that Sarah had three distinct phases of her life, almost as if she was a different person in each of these periods.
This insight is a beautiful reminder that we are capable of great change in our lives. The people we are now do not determine the people we might yet become. Our worldviews, our skill sets, even our dispositions can change throughout our lives. Sometimes these changes happen subtlety and are shaped more by our experiences, what life does to us, than by internal choices. At other times, we consciously embark on a new chapter—becoming a different person—through our own deliberate choices and actions.
Sarah lived three lives. Her example invites us to be more reflective about the people we are and the people we wish to become. What do you want the next chapter of your life to look like and what actions will you take to make it so?
Shabbat Shalom.
— Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback
