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ויהיו חיי שרה מאה שנה ועשרים שנה ושבע שנים AND THE LIFE OF SARAH WAS 127 YEARS (literally, 100 years, 20 years and 7 years) — The reason the word שנה is written at every term is to tell you that each term must be explained by itself as a complete number: at the age of one hundred she was as a woman of twenty as regards sin — for just as at the age of twenty one may regard her as having never sinned, since she had not then reached the age when she was subject to punishment, so, too, when she was one hundred years old she was sinless — and when she was twenty she was as beautiful as when she was seven (Genesis Rabbah 58:1).

A HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS Rashi comments: “The reason the word ‘years’ is written at every term is that it informs you that each term must be interpreted by itself. At the age of one hundred she was as a woman of twenty as regards sin [for at the age of twenty she had not sinned since she had not reached the age when she was subject to punishment],¹The Heavenly Court does not punish one for sin before the age of twenty. The verse thus indicates that at the age of a hundred, Sarah never sinned, just as at the age of twenty she had never sinned. and at the age of twenty she was as beautiful as when she was seven.” Rashi wrote similarly on the verse, the years of Abraham’s life.²Further, 25:7.
However, this exegesis of his³Ramban does not disagree with Rashi’s interpretation as this is based on the Rabbis’ comment in Bereshith Rabbah. However, Ramban does dispute which words in the Torah-text are the basis for their interpretation. Thus according to Ramban a similar interpretation would not follow in the verses concerning Abraham and Ishmael. is not correct. In the case of the verse, the years of the life of Ishmael,⁴Further, 25:17. it is stated exactly as in the verse, the years of Abraham’s life,²Further, 25:7. whereas these years of Ishmael were not all equally good since Ishmael was wicked in his early years, and only in the end did he repent of his evil ways.⁵See Ramban, ibid. Furthermore, the repetition of the word “year” at every term would seem to indicate an intent to distinguish between them and, thus, should not be interpreted to imply equality. Rather, the use of the word shanah (year) and shanim (years) in this instance is the customary usage of the Hebrew language, while that which the Rabbis have said in Bereshith Rabbah,⁶Bereshith Rabbah 58:1. “At the age of one hundred she was as a woman of twenty as regards sin,” is an interpretation which they derived only from the redundant expression, the years of the life of Sarah, which includes them all and equates them. The Rabbis would not make a similar interpretation of the verse concerning Abraham [since in his case Scripture does not conclude with a similar comprehensive expression].

ויהיו חיי שרה, even though the Torah never revealed the ages of other women, in Sarah’s case it became necessary to inform us of this, as her death was directly related to the purchase of the cave of Machpelah. The Torah therefore told us for how many years Sarah lived after having become a mother at the advanced age of 90.

ויהיו חיי שרה, The life of Sarah was 127 years, etc. Why did the Torah use the term ויהיו to describe Sarah's life when everyone else's life is described by the word ויחי?

ויהיו חיי שרה מאה שנה ועשרים שנה ושבע שנים .The Torah repeats the word “year” or “years” three times, even though this verse could have been written using the word שנה only once. We encounter a similar “waste” of the word “year” and “years” in Genesis 6,9 in connection with Noach, as well as in connection with בני ישראל, “the Children of Israel” in Numbers 8,19 where that word occurs no fewer than five times We also find such a repetitive use of the word “year” when we are told about Avraham’s death in Genesis 25,7. Even when reporting the death of Ishmael in Genesis 25,17 the word שנה is repeated three times. Some commentators claim that this is a feature of the Holy Tongue, which endeavours to be clear and unambiguous. When a large number of years (unit) is mentioned the word שנה, “year” appears in the singular mode, whereas when less than ten years are mentioned the years appear in the plural mode, i.e. שנים. There is an aggadic approach to these seemingly superfluous words, especially in our verse here (mentioned by Rashi) which sees in the wording an allusion to the fact that Sarah at her death was as pure and beautiful as at 7 or at 20 years respectively. Seeing that the word שנה did not occur at the beginning of the verse, the verse concludes with the summary שני חיי שרה.

ויהיו חיי שרה מאה שנה ועשרים שנה ושבע שנים, “Sarah lived for 127 years.” Rashi explains that the reason why the word is repeated twice is to draw our attention to the fact that each period so designated represented a separate part of her life. She was as free from sin at 127 as she had been at the age of 7 and as beautiful at the time of her death as she had been at the age of 20. Nachmanides writes that Rashi does not derive this information from the repetition of the word שנה, seeing that there is nothing exceptional in this, and the sum total of the lives of lesser individuals has been described in similar terms, Ishmael’s death being reported in a similar fashion to that of Sarah’s, for instance. Rather, we derive this interpretation quoted by Rashi from the superfluous sounding introduction of the words חיי שרה-followed by the words שני חיי שרה. This formulation indicates that all these years had been lived under the aegis of purity and beauty. There are some books in which the version in the Bereshit Rabbah is as follows בת ק כבת עשרים ליופי ובת עשרים כבת שבע לחטא, “at 100 she was as beautiful as she had been at 20, and at 20 she was as free from sin as at 7. This is the correct version, seeing that girls are more beautiful at 20 than at 7 having learned in the intervening years how to use cosmetics to bring out their beauty.

The reason שנה is written with every set... I.e., and Scripture does not gather the ones and the tens in a set, and the hundreds in a separate set, as it did in Parshiyos Bereishis and Noach. Rashi’s is not asking why it says שנה for 100 years whereas it says שנים for seven years, for also in Parshiyos Bereishis and Noach it is always written שנה for hundreds, and שנים for smaller numbers. Rather, Rashi’s question is about the middle שנה, written after twenty, for שנה is never written three times. Perforce, it is meant to be expounded upon. Since one of them is to be expounded, so too are the rest to be expounded.

Es ist hier das einzige Mal, dass in תנ"ך von dem erreichten Lebensalter einer Frau erzählt wird. (Wohl wahrscheinlich darum, weil das Leben der Frauen der öffentlichen Geschichte ferner liegt und ihre Jahre nicht zur chronologischen Feststellung der Begebenheiten Bedürfnis sind). Außerdem ist noch hier die Eigentümlichkeit, dass es heißt ויהיו חיי שרה und nicht שני חיי שרה, und dies muss so eigentümlich sein, dass, was wieder eine Eigentümlichkeit bildet, der Text sich genötigt sieht, dies am Schlusse durch das wiederholte: שני חיי שרה gleichsam berichtigend nachzuholen. Dass die Weisen darauf hindeuten, wie sich hier das Lebensalter in drei Gruppen darstellt, ist bekannt. Nehmen wir es, wie es sich ohne weiteres darbietet, so ist uns gesagt: Sara lebte nicht hundertsiebenundzwanzig Jahre, sondern hundert Jahre, zwanzig Jahre und sieben Jahre. Diese drei Ziffern repräsentieren uns den Entwickelungsgang eines Menschenlebens: das Kindesalter, die reife Jugend, das vollendete Greisenalter. Ein geistig und sittlich vollkommenes Leben lässt sich nicht besser ausdrücken als: er war als Greis Greis, als Mann Mann, als Kind Kind. Ja, die Weisen bemerken: der wahrhaft Lebende nimmt aus jedem Alter die dieses Alter krönende Eigentümlichkeit mit hinein in das spätere Leben. Daher auch der Ausdruck בא בימים, er geht die Tage durch, er geht nicht auf und unter in die Tage, sondern er geht durch sie hin, nimmt alle geistigen und sittlichen Errungenschaften der vergangenen Tage in die kommenden mit hinüber und lässt sich nichts, was wahrhaft "sein" geworden, von den Tagen rauben. "Sara nahm die Schönheit des Kindes mit ins Frauenalter, und die Unschuld der zwanzigjährigen Frau mit ins Grab". Wie weit ab, und sicherlich nicht zu unserem Vorteil, kontrastiert diese Anschauung der Rabbinen mit der unsrigen! Sie suchen die Schönheit nicht in den Zwanzigern, sondern in dem Kinde, und die Unschuld nicht in der Kindheit, sondern in der reifen Jugend. Wir sind gewöhnt, von "kindlicher Unschuld" zu sprechen. Es wäre traurig, wenn das Kind beneidenswert wäre wegen seiner Unschuld. Unschuld setzt die Möglichkeit einer Schuld voraus, Unschuld heißt Kämpfe gehabt haben mit der Sinnlichkeit und Leidenschaft und Sieger geblieben sein, und nur die zur Frau reifende Jungfrau, sowie der zum Mann reifende Jüngling können sich den Kranz der Unschuld ins Haar winden.

'ויהיו חיי שרה וגו, “the lives of Sarah were, etc.” the description of Sarah having had more than one life must be understood as follows: during the first ninety years of her life she had been childless. Anyone who has no children is really considered as if dead. When you look at the numerical value of the letters in the word ויהיו the total is 37. This is the Torah’s way at showing us that the last thirty seven years of Sarah’s life were really the ones that counted.

And the life of Sarah It is not the [usual] way to record the deaths of women, even righteous ones, unless it is by means of a deed. For behold we find only Sarah, Rachel, and Devorah -- Rivka's wetnurse -- and Miriam on the withdrawal of the well. Sarah's death is mentioned since she makes known to us how the grave was acquired with riches (and this is one of the tests [of Avraham]). Devorah's death is mentioned to make known how the name of the place is called Alon-Bachut. Rachel's death is mentioned to teach why she is not buried in Ma'arat haMachpela. And why is it that their years are not numbered, except for Sarah? Since she is the most important of them all.

ויהיו חיי שרה, “The years of Sarah’s life amounted to etc.” People fond of dabbling in the allusions found through the numerical value of words or whole sentences, will note that the numerical value of the word ויהיו equals the “life of Sarah,” in other words, Sarah’s real life commenced with the birth of Yitzchok, at which time she was 90 years old, whereas she died on the day of the binding of Yitzchok 37 years later. This is the numerical value of the word: ויהיו. As long as a person has no child he or she is considered as dead. (Talmud Nedarim, 64)

שני חיי שרה THE YEARS OF SARAH’S LIFE — The word years is repeated and without a number to indicate that they were all equally good.

שני חיי שרה. When reporting the death of Avraham and Ishmael, seeing that the verses commenced with the words ימי שני, these words are not again repeated at the end of the respective verses. It is possible that in all of these instances the word שני at the end is a hint that the persons concerned lived until the completion of that particular year.

That every set is to be explained by itself. I.e., each set bears its own meaning and does not join with the other sets to form a single sum, as numbers composed of ones, tens and hundreds usually do. This is because the repetitive שנה divides them, placing the ones on their own, and so the tens and the hundreds. According to this [Midrashic interpretation], it is not twenty-seven plus one hundred. Rather, twenty-seven represents the first years within the one hundred.

Midrash Hagadol 23,2 claims that the reason Sarah died was that she was unable to make peace with the fact that Isaac was spared at the last moment. She thought he refused to be the sacrifice. The expression ויהי or ויהיו always alludes to some painful experience, whereas the expression ויחי does not. The Torah wanted to allude to the grief which caused Sarah's death.

Alle diese Jahre zusammen werden חיי שרה genannt, sie lebte in allen, ihr ganzes hundertsiebenundzwanzigjähriges Dasein war ein Leben, ein lebendiges, heiteres, bedeutsames, gutes Leben, kein Moment darin, den sie hätte wegwünschen müssen; und doch, schließt bedeutsam der Bericht, diese חיי שרה waren doch nur: w חיי שרה, Jahre aus dem Leben Saras, nur eine Periode, ein Bruchstück ihres Lebens; denn das Leben misst sich nicht nach der Spanne Zeit, die uns hier gegeben, צדיקים אפיי במיתתן קרויים חיים, gehen einer מחיל אל היל ewig fortschreitenden Entwickelung entgegen. "Gott", spricht ein Wort der Weisheit, "kennt die Tage der תמימים, der ganz Gott Lebenden, da ist kein Moment, kein Tag, der nicht in Gottes Buch stände, ein solches hundertundsiebenundzwanzigjähriges hieniediges Dasein enthält keinen Tag, der nicht bedeutsam wäre; aber נהלתם, ihr eigentliches Erbe, liegt in der ganzen unbegrenzten Zukunft, לעולם תהיה; denn, wie die Weisen einfach an diesen Vers anknüpfend bemerken, es heißt: .(שני חיי שרה (ב"ר

חיי שרה, “the lives of Sarah;” according to Rashi all the years that Sarah lived on this earth were equal in the sense that she was a good person during all these years. When we look at the way the Torah describes the years of Yishmael after his death, (Genesis 25,17) the Torah describes them in the same terms, i.e. ואלה שני חיי ישמעאל מאת שנה ושלושים שנה ושבע שנים; does Rashi imply that the Torah compliments Yishmael in the same manner as it complimented Sarah? When we accept that the word ואלה, “and these,” are a hint that he had become a penitent, as Rashi derives from the manner in which his burial is described in the Torah in same verse from the fact that he is described as having been gathered into his forefathers, and we know that a proselyte is considered as if newly born from the day of his conversion, i.e. free from sin, it follows that the years he had lived prior to this have now been converted as a prelude to his conversion, i.e. as part of that conversion process. Another way of explaining the Torah’s wording of the death and burial of Yishmael: the Torah did not preface his death with the unusual words: “and the lives of Sarah were,“ words which alert us that they must have more meaning than the plain text suggests. When Sarah’s death is reported the word חיי, “lives of,” is mentioned twice, not only once. This calls for closer examination. Rashi, therefore was quite correct in alerting his readers to this.

מאה שנה, “one hundred years;” Rashi comments on the reason why the word: שנה, “year,” is repeated here three times, when the Torah could have simply written: מאה עשרים ושבע שנה, “one hundred and twenty seven years.” He suggests that the Torah wished us to know that Sarah was as free from sin at a hundred as she had been at twenty, and that she was as beautiful at twenty as she had been at seven. This, of course, raises the question why the Torah, in reporting the death of Yishmael at 137 years (Genesis, 25,32) used exactly the same formulation? We can answer this by pointing out that when reporting Sarah’s age, each group of years is reported separately, as an individual unit, whereas when reporting Yishmael’s age at death, the groups of years are introduced in the construct mode, i.e. מאת, not מאה, i.e. all the years had the same common factor. Not only that, but the Torah sums up her years once more with the words: שני חיי שרה, “the years of Sarah’s life,” i.e. all her years were earmarked by a common denominator. If, when Avraham’s death is reported our sages have seen fit to read something into the way his years are reported, although there too just as at the death of Yishmael we find the word מאת in the construct form, this can be accounted for by the word: ימי, “days of,” which are superfluous and therefore available for interpretation. (Genesis 25,7) Rashi also adds that Sarah was free from sin at twenty as if this was something exceptional; this sounds strange as at that time everyone was free from sin, i.e. not held accountable until the age of twenty? We must understand Rashi as if he had written: ”just as she was free from sin at 20, she remained free from sin until the end of her life. Accountability for sins at the age of 12 or 13 for females and males respectively, commenced only after the Torah had been given. [Our midrashim describe Yishmael as “innocent” when expelled by Sarah, as he was below 20 years of age. Ed.] Sarah had not required cosmetics at twenty anymore than she had required it at the age of seven. We know from Rivkah, who accepted jewelry at the age of three in order to enhance her appearance, that girls in those days felt the need to enhance their natural charms at an early age. (Compare Genesis 24,22) There is a Midrash in pessikta zutrata according to which the reference to her being one hundred as meaning that she was as beautiful at a hundred as she had been at twenty, whereas she was as free from sin at twenty as she had been at seven.

At one hundred years old she was like a twenty year old, regarding sin. Rashi implies that from this comparison we learn that all Sarah’s days were good. But Rashi’s next comment — “‘The years of Sarah’s life,’ they were all equally good” — implies that “The years of Sarah’s life” comes to teach that all her days were good. If so, Rashi seems to be contradicting himself! But in fact, this is not a question. On the contrary, from the comparison of one hundred to twenty regarding sin, we would not know that at one hundred she was beautiful as at twenty, since we learn only one quality from each set by itself. Therefore, we still need “‘The years of Sarah’s life,’ they were all equally good.” A further answer: Since שנה is repeated in order to compare one hundred to twenty, which are the first twenty years counting from her birth [see previous entry], therefore, the “twenty-seven” years are within the one hundred and are not the additional years after the one hundred that the verse’s simple meaning infers. If so, we might think that during the twenty-seven years after the one hundred, she had sin and not beauty. This is why we need “The years of Sarah’s life,” to tell us that they were all equally good. And from “The years of Sarah’s life” alone, we would know just that her years were equally good in one quality. Thus it says שנה after each set, to compare them in both qualities: lack of sin and that she possessed beauty. And “The years of Sarah’s life” applies to both [qualities, telling us that in all her years she possessed beauty and she was without sin]. (R. Meir Stern)

Another reason why the Torah phrases Sarah's lifetime in this unusual manner may be based on Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer 32 where Sarah's death at that time is described as due to the fact that Satan informed her of Isaac's imminent death. The word ויהיו then reflects a "new existence, הויה, "i.e. although she had been allocated a certain number of years at birth, the trauma caused by Satan's information cut short her years. The reason the Torah speaks about חיי שרה, is to remind us that whereas the righteous give life to their days (such as Sarah), the reverse is the case with the wicked.

שני חיי שרה, “the years of the life of Sarah.” According to Rashi, the apparently superfluous words: “the years of,” mean that she retained all her virtues in equal measure throughout her life. The wording used by the Torah when reporting Yishmael’s life does not lend itself to such an interpretation, seeing that up until his death we had never heard anything about his age, as distinct from Sarah. It is clear therefore that the words underlined earlier were meant to relay an additional message to the reader.

Just as when she was twenty she was not considered as having sinned... Question: Here, Rashi implies that right after turning twenty she was subject to [Heavenly] punishment. But regarding “Noach produced Sheim...” (5:32), Rashi said that before the Torah was given, people were not subject to [Heavenly] punishment until the age of one hundred? The answer is: Sarah was subject to punishment right after turning twenty because they accepted the Torah upon themselves—and after the Torah was given, people were subject to punishment from the age of twenty. Thus, Scripture is telling us that even by post-Torah standards, she was without sin. (Re’m)

The Torah adds the word שני חיי שרה, the years of Sarah's life, to allude to the fact that she "completed" the years of the life allotted to her, but that the immediate cause of her death was the information brought her by Satan. As to my second explanation that she "lost" a number of years of the life that had been intended for her, you need to understand the kindness that G'd does with the righteous. When such a righteous person dies "prematurely," for reasons such as in Sarah's case, G'd does not deduct from the sum total of their achievements what such a person would have achieved had he not died before his allotted time. The Torah therefore tells us that Sarah received full credit for all she would have accomplished had she lived out her remaining years (Tanchuma פרשת כי תשא 3).

The Torah also alludes to the almost one hundred years that Sarah suffered either the anguish of childlessness or the animosity which developed between Ishmael and the son she finally bore at the age of ninety. We know from Rachel, (Genesis 30,1) that a woman's feeling of being unfulfilled when she has no children can cause her to consider her life as not worth living. The years in which Sarah "really lived," therefore, were only the last twenty seven years of her life during which she was able to enjoy Isaac's development in undisturbed tranquillity

Genesis 23:1: Rashi says all of Sarah’s years were good. The Midrash asks: why did Moshe merit to have his face shine? Because, for all of his life, he waited for the glory of Hashem and glory of the Jewish people and for there to be peace between the Jewish people and Hashem. It's known that Hashem created this world as a kindness to His creation; His only intention was to do kindness for the world. [Hence] we always need to draw kindness and mercy to the Jewish people, which is the glory of Hashem, and, concomitantly, the glory of the Jewish people, and it is good to them for all their days. When a person prays for Hashem's name to be sanctified in the world, he needs to attach, to that prayer, [the supplication] that there should be more kindness and mercy and more abundant goodness to the Jewish people since the glories of Hashem and the Jewish people are interdependent. This is the meaning of a Talmudic teaching: "if two people entered a synagogue to pray, and one of them finishes early and doesn’t wait for the other person: his prayers are taken away and he causes the Shechina to depart from the Jewish people.” The meaning [is that treatment of your fellow Jew impacts the glory of Hashem and that] you have to daven for two things-- glory of Hashem and glory of Jewish people and know that they’re interconnected. This is also the meaning of the Mishnaic teaching: whenever you ask about your friend’s welfare, you should mention Hashem's name. [In light of the theme, this means that] when you ask about your friend’s welfare, you should pray for the glory of Hashem [since that, in turn, draws blessing to the glory of the Jewish people and this will result in] your friend’s welfare and peace. Also, in the Torah, Boaz said "Hashem is with you.” [By doing so,] he was blessing the work of their hands. This is also explains the significance of saying the blessing of the Kohanim after the blessings of the Torah [since this draws blessing from Hashem’s glory directly to the Jewish people]. Also, the Talmud says "a Torah scholar is immediately accompanied by blessing.” Additionally, Avraham Avinu said “I will bless those you bless you”: blessing the Jewish people causes the glory of Hashem to be enhanced, as intended in creation. This also the meaning of baruch she’amor: [when it says] blessed is the One Who Spoke and it came to be [and] blessed is the One Who Makes Creation, [this is followed by] blessed is the One Who Has Mercy on His Creations. Hashem bestows goodness, and they sing and praise His name with appropriate blessing: “All powerful G-d, all merciful Father.” G-d is exalted when He has mercy. Moreover, when the Red Sea split, the Jewish people observed the dead Egyptians and saw His great hand, which caused them to sing to Hashem [once again, demonstrating the beneficial dynamic between the glory of Hashem and the glory of the Jewish people]. They sang at their best because of the visible victor; yet, if G-d forbid, it wasn’t that way, the Jewish people would still bless G-d since we bless Him for the good and for the band. However, how would that praise look? Doesn't Hashem's praise need joy? That's the meaning of the verse: satiate us in the morning with your kindness, and we will sing and rejoice all our days. [Thus] that’s the meaning of the verse: the entire life of Sarah was good for the Jewish people forever, amen