‫ב”ה‬

‫שיחות רב עוזר פרשת חיי שרה תשס”ח‬

Insights into Torah and Halacha from Rav Ozer Glickman ‫שליט”א‬
‫ר”מ בישיבת רבנו יצחק אלחנן‬
Redeeming Midrash One D’rasha at a Time
:‫ויהיו חיי שרה מאה שנה ועשרים שנה ושבע שנים שני חיי שרה‬
Picture if you will the following scene: a family sitting around the Shabbos table. One of the children is
anxious to deliver a d’var Torah in fulfillment of a class requirement. The child draws himself up to his full height,
and begins to read. The parents share smiles the length of the table as their baby lectures so earnestly. And then
they begin to frown. The d’var Torah is built around a midrash. It is clear that the author of the d’var Torah has cited
the midrash as historical fact. Eema shoots Abba a warning look over the table but he cannot help himself. He asks
the child to explain the midrash. The child doesn’t understand the question and begins to get frustrated. “My morah
told me this,” he insists. “It really happened.” Abba launches into a familiar lecture about metaphors and homiletics
and where are all the educated teachers and why are we paying all this tuition? Is it only to keep the kids in a
social context yada yada yada. Does it sound familiar? It would to my wife. She’s been through some version of this
scenario not with one or two but with six children and now we’ve started in on the grandchildren.
So how should we interpret midrashim that boggle the mind? What are they there to teach us? Are they
merely the remnants of an ancient literature left behind by primitive unenlightened minds? If so, what does this say
about our tradition? Are we as Torah-fearing Jews required to suspend thinking and obediently accept what in any
other part of our lives we would reject outright?
Here’s one of my favorites. “Righteous women never get wrinkles. ‫ שרה אמנו‬had the skin of a seven-year-old
when she was 100.” Abba’s question: “Your mother and your grandmother certainly don’t look seven years old! Why
is that?” Answer: “they’re not righteous!”
What’s really going on here? The Morah’s principal source was probably ‫ פרש”י‬on the Torah. At the beginning
of ‫פרשת חיי שרה‬, the Torah provides the sum of ‫’שרה אמנו‬s years:
:‫ויהיו חיי שרה מאה שנה ועשרים שנה ושבע שנים שני חיי שרה‬
An usual ‫פסוק‬. Let’s compare it to other genealogical ‫פסוקים‬. At the end of ‫פרשת ויחי‬:
:‫וימת יוסף בן מאה ועשר שנים ויחנטו אתו ויישם בארון במצרים‬
Now we know how we do numbers in Biblical Hebrew. They may be single words like ‫ עשרים‬or they may be compound
numbers like ‫אחד ועשרים‬. Either way, we would expect a single ‫כלל‬, or category, after the number: as in ‫ספירת העומר‬,
‫היום אחד ועשרים יום‬. The word ‫ יום‬is the general category that the numbers come to modify. Perhaps the ‫טעם הדרשה‬,
that is the Scriptural basis upon which the ‫ מדרש‬builds, is the repetition of the word ‫שנה‬. So we find in ‫פרש”י ע”הת‬:
,‫ אף בת ק‘ בלא חטא‬,‫ שהרי אינה בת ענשין‬,‫ מה בת כ‘ לא חטאה‬,‫ בת ק‘ כבת כ‘ לחטא‬:‫ לומר לך שכל אחד נדרש לעצמו‬,‫לכך נכתב שנה בכל כלל וכלל‬
.‫ כלן שוין לטובה‬-‫שני חיי שרה‬
The word ‫ שנה‬is repeated for each number category, for the hundreds, for the tens, and for the ones. In fact, we find
the same structure for the summation of ‫’אברהם אבינו‬s life provided at the end of ‫חיי שרה‬:
:‫ואלה ימי שני חיי אברהם אשר חי מאת שנה ושבעים שנה וחמש שנים‬
Here, too, ‫ רש”י‬cites a ‫ דרשה‬in a similar vein: at 100, ‫ אברהם אבינו‬had the same strength he had at 70; at 70, he was as
sinless as he was at 5.
All well and good... that is, until we look further along in the same ‫ פרק‬at the end of the ‫פרשה‬:
:‫ואלה שני חיי ישמעאל מאת שנה ושלשים שנה ושבע שנים ויגוע וימת ויאסף אל עמיו‬
Here ‫ רש”י‬has nothing to say about the word ‫ שנה‬appearing ‫בכל כלל וכלל‬. His only comment is to cite the explanation
proferred in ‫ יבמות‬in the name of ‫ רבי חייא בר אבא‬for the citation of the years of ‫’ישמעאל‬s life: they are only mentioned
to provide a means of identifying events in the life of ‫יצחק אבינו‬. From ‫‘רבי חייא בר אבא‬s question, though, we learn
a new theme that will help us understand the text we’re after: citing the years of a Biblical personality’s life accords
them a status to which ‫ ישמעאל‬was not entitled.
Now we’re onto something. It is only significant people whose years are summed in the Torah. When we
realize that ‫ שרה אמנו‬is the only female in ‫ חומש‬accorded such an honor, then we see how the mention of her years
raised the stakes, so to speak. The ‫ פסוק‬became more noteworthy since we would not otherwise have expected to
see such a summation in an otherwise patrilineal genealogical tradition.
If this is indeed the case, then we would expect that ‫פשט‬-oriented ‫ מפרשים‬to offer non-midrashic explanations
for the inclusion of ‫’שרה אמנו‬s years. In fact, we do. See for example the ‫ רשב”ם‬here, the proverbial ‫פשטן‬, who explains
that the years of the Matriarch’s life are provided as a legal marker for the sale of ‫ שדה עפרון‬and the cave within it, the
 ‫שיחות רב עוזר‬

ownership of which continues to be contended until this day. In the realm of ‫ פשט‬as well, the enumeration of ‫’שרה אמנו‬s
years is exceptional.
The basis for the ‫ דרשה‬does not necessarily inform on its meaning, though. Consider the conclusion of ‫’רש”י‬s
comment: ‫שני חיי שרה‬, the Torah says. ‫כלן שוין לטובה‬- although the ‫ פסוק‬sets the hundreds, the tens, and the ones apart
from one another, to highlight their special character, it collects them again at its conclusion: ‫שני חיי שרה‬, an aggregation
that appears superfluous. Why should the Torah provide this last phrase? The years of Sarah’s life... She may have been
unique at each milestone, at 7, at 20, at 100 but her years were all of them good. Is this perhaps a key to the theme?
In a beautiful ‫מזמור‬, ‫ פרק ל”ז‬in ‫תהלים‬, the poet reflects on the temptations that the tribulations of a difficult life
can place before the human heart. When one who is struggling witnesses the seeming success of unscrupulous people,
it is natural to wonder about the worth of one’s devotion to good behavior when bad behavior is so richly rewarded. The
psalmist describes the feeling of intimacy with ‫ הקב”ה‬that even a minor victory can instill:
:‫טוב מעט לצדיק מהמון רשעים רבים‬
A success may be meager but life is not to be measured quantitatively. It can mean more to the righteous person than
the tunmult of a plethora of possessions. Success that is built solely on the physical is doomed to collapse as everything
physical must in the end:
:’‫כי זרועות רשעים תשברנה וסומך צדיקים ה‬
No matter how estranged one may sometimes feel, no matter how infrequent one’s meager successess, the Omnisicient
One is near every single day:
‫יודע ה‘ ימי תמימם ונחלתם לעולם תהיה‬
What righteous people achieve, their ‫נחלה‬, will be theirs forever. A lyrical meditation on the human condition, sometimes
trying, always meaningful if informed by values that are constant.
‫ חז”ל‬offer another reading of these words. In ‫בראשית רבה‬:
‫ כשם שהן תמימים כך שנותן תמימים‬-‫יודע ה‘ ימי תמימים ונחלתם לעולם תהיה‬
.‫ בת מאה כבת עשרים שנה לחטא‬,‫בת עשרים כבת שבע לנוי‬
An ancient ‫דרשה‬, perhaps, a homily offered on a ‫ פסוק‬from ‫תהלים‬. A frequent student of ‫ בראשית רבה‬knows that many of
the ‫ דרשות‬are excerpts from what is known as a ‫פתיחה‬. During ‫ שבת‬afternoon, the people would come to the ‫בית המדרש‬
to hear a ‫דרשה‬, a sermon. Because ‫ קריאת התורה‬had dominated the morning followed by a reading from the ‫נביאים‬, the
afternoon ‫ דרשות‬would open with a ‫ פסוק‬from the ‫כתובים‬, which would then be related to that week’s ‫ פרשה‬by the ‫דרשן‬.
The paragon of ‫ צדקות‬whose life would serve as an example for this ‫ דרשה‬was ‫שרה אמנו‬. After all, she is the only woman
whose days are explicitly numbered in the ‫חומש‬, a fact that screams ‫דרשני‬, expound on me! Can we relate her life to the
themes of the ‫ מזמור‬itself? It isn’t so difficult. Barren, mocked by her handmaiden, struggling to retain her faith in the
Divine Promise of progeny even as she and her husband steadily aged. Her life, however, exhibited completeness just as
she did. There were constants in ‫’שרה‬s life: external beauty and the beauty of a righteous soul. A wonderful lesson... But
in the magical world of rabbinic ‫מדרש‬, even more is to be gleaned from these 127 years, so dispassionately if prominently
enumerated in ‫חומש‬.
‫ חז”ל‬leap forward. The beauty of ‫’שרה‬s life is to be rewarded, for so we learn in the ‫ פסוק‬itself. The ‫ חומש‬repeats ‫שני חיי שרה‬,
meaning not the years of ‫’שרה‬s life but ‫’שרה‬s two lives. In this, too, she personifies the lesson of the ‫מזמור‬:
‫ונלתם לעולם תהיה‬
‫’שרה‬s possessions include eternity, a life in this mundane world and another in the world to come.
‫ שנאמר ויהיו חיי שרה‬-‫ונחלתם לעולם תהיה‬
:‫מה צורך לומר שני חיי שרה באחרונה תלומר לך שחביבים חייהם של צדיקין לפני המקום בעולם הזה ולעולם הבא‬
We see very clearly then that the life of ‫ שרה‬is a vehicle for ‫’חז”ל‬s musing on the relationship of virtue to reward. One
answer to this ages-old conundrum: the promise of eternal life.
In their ‫דרשות‬, ‫ חז”ל‬examine themes of spirituality, the meaning of the human comedy, the injustices of life;
hardly a simple fairy story for a six-year old. Like youth, ‫ מדרשי האגדה‬are wasted on the young.

In honor of Rabbi Leonard Matanky shlit”a and the Ida Crown Jewish Academy family for their hospitality to our
rebbe this past week.
‫שבת שלום‬
These sichos are published by students and admirers of Rav Ozer Glickman shlit”a. We may be reached at ravglickmanshiur@gmail.com.