Today we will discuss one of my favorite Midrashim on Parashat Chayeh Sara.
As we all know, Sara Imenu lived 127 years.
The Midrash tells us that Rabbi Akiva was giving a speech, and the people were falling asleep (so as a rabbi, I don’t feel that bad if I notice that people are dozing off. If Rabbi Akiva had that problem, I’ll take it.)
He wanted to wake them up, so he asked them why Esther was queen over 127 countries. It says that Ahashverosh was the king over 127 countries, and he married Esther so she became the queen.
But Esther was the great granddaughter of Sarah, who lived 127 years, so she ruled over 127 countries. That is what the Midrash says.
Rav Gedaliah Schorr asks why Rabbi Akiva gave that specific Dvar Torah? Maybe it was that week’s parasha, but why would that wake them up? Yes, it’s cute, and the 127 years matches up with the countries, but what was he really trying to tell them? He explained that if you take the 127 countries, and 127 years, every year gives you one country. And any given country has a number of districts, for example, perhaps 365. So that would mean that for every day, you get a district. And how many blocks, or counties are in each district? Perhaps there are seven. So that means for every day, you get a county. And if you keep breaking it down this way, every hour gives you a block, and every minute might give you a house. That means that Sarah Imenu’s life created a world, with every second of her living. So, what Rabbi Akiva was trying to tell them was to wake up. Because if they were sleeping, they’d be missing out on a block, or maybe on a country.
Every minute that we live our lives creates things. The Rabbi wanted to graphically illustrate this to them, through the 127 years of Sara Imenu, which corresponded to the 127 countries that Esther ruled over.
But there is an added nuance here. Does this mean that Sara was doing a mitzvah every second of her day?
Rabbi Biderman points out in his Sefer Shefah Chaim that it doesn’t say that Sara did righteous deeds for 127 years, it says she lived for 127 years. What does that mean?
It says that a poor person is like the dead, and a person who doesn’t have children is like the dead, but Sara Imenu lived all of her life, regardless of what was going on. She was alive. As it says צדיק באמונתו תחיה
The Sadik lives with his Emunah. Life doesn’t mean you are just alive, that is not called living. Living means that you are living your life. It means you are alive, that you are excited.
Sometimes, when you ask a person how their day was, they might answer, “Okay.”
How do you measure your life? A person that goes through life with appreciation, and understands that everything that is going on around them is good, that is called living. Sometimes a person exercises for one hour in the gym, working hard, lifting weights, and sweating. When he’s finished, he feels like, “Wow, that was a great workout!” He felt that he used his hour to the fullest. But a guy who just sits there lifting 2-pound weights, who doesn’t even break a sweat, for him, nothing really happened.
A person sometimes has challenges, but those challenges are like the weights he’s lifting. And he realizes that that is what living is. Sarah Imenu lived all 127 years. And when she slept, even her sleep was great. I recently saw a Rabbenu Yonah in Mishleh ( perek ג) that talks about Bitachon. We all know that we can talk the talk, but we really have to walk the walk.
But there is more than that. The chiddush I saw is that bitachon even shows up when we sleep.
How so?
The pasuk ( כד) in Mishleh says,
אִם־תִּשְׁכַּ֥ב לֹֽא־תִפְחָ֑ד וְ֝שָׁכַבְתָּ֗ וְֽעָרְבָ֥ה שְׁנָתֶֽךָ
When you sleep, you won’t be afraid and when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
Rabbenu Yonah says that you will be so reliant on G-d, that you won’t have bad dreams. You won’t wake up in the middle of the night, in a panic, tossing and turning.
A person that is living has a sleep of Emunah as well. That was Sara Imenu.
Sara Imenu lived her 127 years, and in every situation, it was the same living, and the same excitement.
Pandemic or no pandemic, ups or downs, kidnappings and everything else, you name it, Sara and Avraham went through it. But it was all with the same life. She was alive. That was her greatness. And her living every second of her life brought about the all wonderful countries and fame that Esther HaMalka got.
So, don’t sleep through anything. Take advantage, and create the blocks and countries that you can have through living a life of bitachon.