Two Minute Torah Podcast

Hayyei Sarah 5768 by Dr. Ray Goldstein

Shalom, this is Dr. Ray Goldstein, International President of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. Welcome to this installment of KOACH’s Two Minute Torah, a project of the College Department of the United Synagogue.

Parshat Hayyei Sarah, despite its name, life of Sarah, begins with the death of our matriarch, Sarah. It ends with the death of our patriarch, Avraham.

In the opening verse it states that Sarah was

"…was one hundred years, twenty years and seven years." Rashi comments on this strange formulation of age by stating that Sarah’s life was divided into three unique stages. The Midrash states that Sarah retained the innocence of a 7-year-old when she was 20 and at 100-years-old she was as beautiful as she was at 20.

Abraham’s life span is stated in a similar formulation when he dies. He is described as being:

"one hundred years, seventy years and five years." According to Rashi, at 100 he was like seventy and at seventy he was like a 5-year-old, without sin.

Like Sarah and Abraham our lives are partitioned as well. Through the course of our lives we play different roles yet each stage leaves an imprint on the others which follow.

Our childhood, provides us with a base of knowledge and experience which impacts the way we think and the way we act long into our adulthood. In All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten." Robert Fulgham writes: "Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living." His book reminded us of how learning to play nicely with others and taking time for milk and cookies are things perfected in our early childhood. At that point in our lives we possessed the innocence ascribed to Sarah at seven years of age.

Some had their early years touched by an early childhood program at their synagogue or Jewish Community Center. I watch with delight as my 3 year old grandson learns the fundamentals of Shabbat at his JCC. I know that these early experiences, reinforced at home, will be part of who he will grow to be. Kadimah, USY and Camp Ramah, too, have impacted thousands providing the basics for a rich and meaningful Jewish life.

For many of us, college is a time for independence and personal exploration. It is a time when we are intellectually alive and ritually dormant. Koach is invested in nurturing the continued exploration of Conservative Judaism on college campuses. Dormancy untended might lead to atrophy. While dormancy tended, leads to revitalization.

The parsha states that Abraham died, "dying at a good ripe age, old and contented”.

The predominant segment of our lives is the rest of our lives. It is where we use all that we have learned, in kindergarten and beyond, and all that we have experienced to impact others and live out our lives performing mitzvot.

Torah, our etz chayim, our tree of life, provides the lessons to help guide us through the segments of our lives. It provides direction, reflection and perfection so that at the end of our days it may be written for us as it was for Avraham, that we died at a good ripe age, old and contented.