בס”ד


Parashat Chayei Sarah

In this week’s Torah reading we find a repeated expression: “Avraham was old, advanced in days”. What is the difference? Why is it that the same expression is mentioned twice in the Torah? Based on Likkutei Sichot, vol. 35, p. 89

How Do You Live Your Life?

How do you live your life? Do things just happen to you, or do you make things happen?

This week’s Torah reading, Chayei Sarah, begins with the life of Sarah. In it we find a verse that seems to repeat something we already read in an earlier Torah portion.

In Parashat Lech Lecha (or Vayera), the Torah says that Abraham and Sarah were zekeinim, “old,” and ba’im bayamim, “advanced in days.”¹ Now, in Chayei Sarah, the Torah says again that Abraham was zaken ba bayamim, “old, advanced in days.”²

The simple question is: why does the Torah repeat this? We already knew Abraham was old. Before his son Isaac was born, he was already considered old. Now, 37 or 41 years later (our Sages argue about the exact number), he was of course a very old man. So what new thing is the Torah telling us?

The first answer: the miracle

Our Sages give a few answers. One is this. When the Torah first says that Abraham was old, it was actually impossible for him to have children. Sarah was also very old, and it was impossible for her to have children. Still, G-d made an amazing miracle, and Abraham and Sarah had a son, Isaac.

So, the answer says, in Chayei Sarah the Torah is saying: “Now he is really old, truly old.” Back then, 37 or 41 years earlier, he was already old, and G-d changed nature for him so that he could have another child. But now the Torah is repeating it to say that he is old again.

But this does not fit the rest of the portion. At the end of the portion we find that Abraham had six more children.³ So he was not so old after all. For this reason, this explanation does not go well with the simple meaning of the verses.

The second answer: two kinds of old age

Another explanation says that there are two kinds of elderly people. There are elderly people with ruteivut (freshness, vitality), who still look good, and there are elderly people without it. According to this, the first time the Torah says that Abraham was old, it was the beginning of his elderly years. In Chayei Sarah, it says he was really old.

But if this were the simple meaning, Rashi, the main commentator on the Torah, should have said something. Yet we do not find, in the writings of the Torah, any difference between the two expressions. In both places it says the same thing: an old man, advanced in years.

There is nothing to hint at a difference between “the beginning of the elderly years” and “the end of the elderly years.” And Rashi says nothing. Rashi assumes that a five-year-old child is learning the Torah.⁴ So if he does not explain anything here, it means that a five-year-old child would understand the difference between these two places by himself. Still, Rashi says nothing.

So what is the explanation? What does it mean that Abraham was zaken ba bayamim, an old man, advanced in days?

The deeper meaning: living in your days

One explanation is this. The word zaken (old) tells us how many years a person has. The word ba bayamim tells us how a person lives his life, and how involved he is in it. He is “in” his days, so to speak.

In other words, things do not just happen to him. Many people live like this: “I was not successful because this happened, and that happened, and everything always happens to me.” Wait a second. Do you take an active role in your life? Are you in your days?

When a person is truly in his days, the things that happen in his life leave a mark. They leave a mark on his heart, on his mind, and even on his face.

So Abraham was zaken, an old man. Already in the earlier portion, Abraham was old and Sarah was old. And the events of life left a mark on them.

Now look at the later time, 37 or 41 years afterward. Again, the events of life left a mark on Abraham. What do I mean by “again”?

The nature of an old person is that the older you get, the less you are affected by your surroundings. An older person says, “I have already seen this so many times. I have experience.” Younger people are burning, their blood is burning, but elderly people take things much more easily. The events of life no longer affect them so much.

So Abraham was zaken, old in years. Sarah too. And so many things happened to them. Things that, by nature, should no longer have affected Abraham.

Why Abraham was still affected

But here the Torah comes to tell us something. The events were so meaningful. He had a son, Isaac. He almost sacrificed his son. His wife passed away, and the portion is called Chayei Sarah. These events were so meaningful that, even though Abraham was already an old man who lived his life in a way that left a mark, and it should not have happened again, the Torah says again: zaken ba bayamim.

He lived a longer life, 37 or 41 years more than before. And these events were so meaningful that they had an effect on Abraham, and you could see it on his face.

A five-year-old child who learns the Torah understands this, because he sees two people of the same age, and one looks much older. Why? Because life really affected him.

And why did life affect Abraham so much? Because he was ba bayamim: he was in his days.

Even deeper: always asking, “What does G-d want from me now?”

There is a deeper explanation of the same theme. Why was Abraham so affected by his life? Because in every single moment of his life, he looked for the service of G-d. “What does G-d want from me now? What does G-d want from me now?” Every single time, he was completely involved in his service of G-d. This is how our Sages, and the teachings of mysticism, explain it.

He was so much in his life, always asking himself, “What is my service to G-d?”, that every single thing in his life affected him. A time came when he was already old and it should not have affected him anymore. But still, the way Abraham lived his life, and the meaning of the events that happened in it, affected him again.

That is why the Torah repeats: Abraham was old, advanced in days. Things started affecting him again in a very deep way. Why? Because he was constantly looking for the service of G-d.

The question for us

So the question is: how do we live our lives? Do things happen to us, or do we make things happen?

When a person is constantly looking for the service of G-d, he makes things happen. That is why the Torah says about Abraham: he was old, ba bayamim, he came in his days.

Good Shabbos.

Talk from Rabbi Tuvia Serber


The above is a representation of the spoken text converted to written text.

Footnotes

  1. Genesis 18:11. Please check the verse, because the speaker names the earlier portion unclearly in the recording.
  2. Genesis 24:1. The verse says Abraham was zaken ba bayamim.
  3. Genesis 25:1-2. Abraham took Keturah, who bore him six sons.
  4. A reference to the saying “a five-year-old is ready for Scripture” (Mishnah Avot 5:21), which the speaker uses to explain how Rashi writes.

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