Chayei Sarah – חַיֵּי שָׂרָה (Genesis 23:1−25:18)
This Week’s Torah Portion: Chayei Sarah – חַיֵּי שָׂרָה (Genesis 23:1−25:18)
וַיִּהְיוּ֙ חַיֵּ֣י שָׂרָ֔ה מֵאָ֥ה שָׁנָ֛ה וְעֶשְׂרִ֥ים שָׁנָ֖ה וְשֶׁ֣בַע שָׁנִ֑ים שְׁנֵ֖י חַיֵּ֥י שָׂרָֽה׃
And these were the lives of Sarah – one hundred years, twenty years, and seven years – [these] were the years of Sarah’s lifetime.
This week’s Torah Portion is named after the lifetime of Sarah, which in the Hebrew (and subsequently the English) comes off as a bit weird. Although Abraham generally gets a lot of press for his actions and conversations with God, the Torah goes out of it’s way to make sure that we as the readers know that Sarah was arguably more extraordinary than Abraham himself. She is the only woman in the Torah whose lifespan is given in such detail and it is because of her that we get the rest of our story. May we all have the courage to live our lives like Sarah, making the most of each of our days.






