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CHASSIDISHE STORY ON THE PARSHA
פרשת חיי שרה
Parshas Chayei Sara
ויהיו חיי שרה מאה שנה ועשרים שנה ושבע שנים שני חיי שרה. ותמת שרה (חיי שרה כג:א)
Sarah’s lifetime was one hundred years, twenty years, and seven years: the years of Sarah’s life. And Sarah diedAccording to one Medrash, it was Satan who informed Sarah about Akeidas Yitzchak, and she died from shock. Others say Sarah thought that Yitzchak was slaughtered and she died from sorrow. So it seems that Sarah would have lived longer if it weren’t for the akeidah.
But the Medrash explains that she lived a complete life as the pasuk first tells us ויהיו חיי שרה מאה שנה ועשרים שנה ושבע שנים שני חיי שרה – Sarah lived 127 years. She lived a full life. Not one day was missing from the lifespan that was destined for her. And then the pasuk continues ותמת שרה…and Sarah died.
Reb Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt’’l had a brother who was a rav, and when he married, his wife’s elderly parents lived with them in their home. It worked well for many years until one of the Aurbach children wasn’t doing well. A wise mechanach told them their son wasn’t receiving sufficient attention from his parents.
The parents realized that it was time to place their elderly father in a nursing home. (The mother wasn’t alive anymore at the time.) Four months later, the elderly father was niftar.
His daughter couldn’t forgive herself for placing her elderly father in a nursing home. She was convinced that had they kept him in their home, he would have lived longer. She suffered from this guilty conscience for a long time.
One day, her husband showed her a picture of the Chazon Ish zt’l, and she fainted. When she was revived, she said, “I once saw my father in a dream flanked by two distinguished rabbanim, and my father told me, ‘Don’t agonize over my death because I died when it was time for me to go.” I never knew who this two rabbanim were, but now I know that one of them was the Chazon Ish zt’’l.
Circumstances can bring about death, but ultimately, it’s Hashem’s plan.
Filed under Parshas Chayei Sara