What did you do today? Did you use your time to the fullest?
This week’s Torah portion, Chayei Sarah (the life of Sarah), begins with the mention of Sarah’s death.
And the life of Sarah was one hundred years and twenty years and seven years; [these were] the years of the life of Sarah.
Breishis 23:1
If the Torah portion is called after the life of Sarah, it’s a bit puzzling that it starts with her demise.
Rashi, however, clears things up for us right away. He explains that the way the Torah speaks about her age at death, is actually telling us something about how she lived her life. Rashi says about her years, that “all of them were equal for the good.” Meaning, Sarah didn’t waste away any of her time on Earth. It was all used well.
A medrash tells a story about Rabbi Akiva. He was giving a lecture and noticed some students drifting off. In order to re-gain their attention, he said over an interesting idea. He said that Queen Esther got to rule over 127 provinces because of the merit of her ancestor Sarah who lived 127 years.
While that is an interesting fun-fact, why did Rabbi Akiva pick this particular idea to share? The Chidushei Harim explains that a province was merited for only a completely perfect year. Each perfect day was a town and each perfect hour was a district. In other words, it’s not just that Sarah had 127 generally good over-all years. Rather, every hour of her life was used productively for the good.
This shows us how valuable even one well used hour is. It’s worth a whole district of a town! And just as much, it shows us what a pity it would be to miss out on even one good hour.
Rabbi Akiva was reminding his students of the value of their time. He was pointing out that if they stopped paying attention to even a few minutes of Torah, they would be missing out on so much.
We are only given so many hours in our lives. When we look back at our time when we are old, will we be able to say that we used all of our time wisely and for the good? That it was all filled with mitzvos and Torah and closeness to G-d? Time is a most precious gift. Live it well.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Altonaga and the JET Team
