Torah Portion

E ST

IDES

2985 Haggerty Road • Walled Lake • (248) 624-1336

For all your building & decorating needs!
Kitchen & bath fixtures, faucets, tile, mirrors, closets and more...
Featuring D&C Kitchen & Bath • Mirror & Glass Magic • Closets & More

You have
your dreams.
So do we.

Ar bor, M ics Igan

D&C Kitchen & Bath has been
providing faucets, fixtures and
cabinetry to customers in
southeastern Michigan for nearly
40 years. And we supply only
the best, from names you can
count on for quality as well as
design and functionality.
Like the Arabesque"pedestal
sink from Kohler.® Graceful,
elegant, simply beautiful.
Simply Kohler.

THE BOLD LOOK
°F KOHLER•

g 251.0.2):7.0..701.01.<51: D_.

261 2)4.0 D-10:02 r.

2985 Haggerty Road • Walled Lake
1/4 mile north of Pontiac Trail

SERVICING YOU

•Travelers World

• Objects of Art

• Esther's Judaica
• Interiors By Colony

• Nationwide Insurance

•The Alteration Spot

•Antwerp Jewelers

• Paparazzi

• Golden Phoenix
•Outback Steakhouse
•TCBY Treats

• Harvard Row Kosher Meats

• D'Alleva's Salon

• Callanetics Studio

• Cobo Cleaners

• Barry K Salon

11/21

1997
50 N,

• Copy Copy
Full Circle Graphics

ORCHARD LAKE ROAD • WEST BLOOMFIELD

Beauty Is Found
Within And Without

ment. At the age of near death, Sarah
was as concerned with her moral
standing as a young adult needs to be.
Here is a deeper appreciation. The
Hebrew word that Rashi uses to
express transgression is chait, which
literally means "off target." Sarah was
on target-, perhaps we can say as ideal-
he beauty of Torah is illus-
istic at the age of 100 as most people
trated by seeing the octoge-
are at the age of 20.
narian sitting in the study
The second item is her beauty.
hall of the yeshiva across
Beauty, even though we associate it
from the eight-year-old. They can
with the 20-year-old, is measured in
study the same text and find depth
part by how youthful one remains.
and insight to enhance their lives, each The seven-year-old, free from the
on his own level.
emotional stresses of life, shines with
We have been taught by
the beauty of youth and the
tradition that God gave us
freshness of that which is
the Torah. This fact has been
new This is the beauty that
proven experientially and
our mother Sarah was able
empirically over and over.
to maintain until the end of
Therefore, each word and the
her life.
wording of each phrase
Now we have the compo-
requires serious consideration.
nents to understand the
This week we read more
picture of our mother
about our matriarch Sarah,
Sarah. So many people
RABBI
Avraham's wife. This time, as
grow jaded as they progress
ALON
TO
LWIN
we read of her passing, we
through life. As age increas-
Special to
learn of her strength of char-
The Jewish News es, idealism and direction
acter.
seem to decrease. Most peo-
The portion opens with:
ple look forward to an end
"And these are the years of Sarah's life,
to life with less pain. Who, actually,
one hundred and twenty years and
even at the age of 60, still maintains a
seven years." Why such verbiage? The
freshness and exuberance about life
same thing can be said simply: "She
that Sarah is described with?
died at the age of 127 years." What
What gave Sarah this inner
does God want us to focus on with
strength? In one word, God. Her liv-
these extra words?
ing with God infused her with the
Look at Rashi. He quotes Midrash:
blessings of meaning and substance.
"When she was 100 years old she was
When one lives with God, problems
only 20 years old in terms of her
gain perspective and pain takes on the
transgressions. Just as a 20-year-old is
challenge of self-discovery and not
innocent and free of transgression so
avoidance.
she was at the age of 100. When she
We are being taught abou'
was 20-years-old, she had the beauty
ancestor. We all trace ourselves Lo a
of a seven-year-old."
woman who, at the age of 127, had
Judged by today's standards, this
the idealism and vigor of a 20-year-old
seems more than odd; it seems totally
activist and the pristine beauty of a
reversed. We associate beauty with the
seven-year-old child.
20-year-old and innocence with the
Can we find semblance of these in
seven-year-old. As for the centurion,
ourselves or have we given in to the
she is already considered dead.
scourges of time and disappointment?
Now remember, this is not the aim-
We read Chaye Sarah every year; per-
less scribble of a novelist; the words
haps this year we will read it and pay
are the words of the Creator, teaching
attention and change. ❑
us about life. Let us examine.
The first thing we are taught is that
Sarah was free of transgression. How
meaningful is this to someone who
has little temptation by the pleasures
The normal deadline for local
of life? A person who is 100 years old
news and publicity items is noon
is usually more concerned with being
Thursday, eight days prior to
comfortable and dying than with right
issue date. The deadline for out-
and wrong, transgression and fulfill-
of-town obituaries is 10 a.m.
Tuesday, three days prior to issue

Shabbat Chaye Sarah:
Genesis 23:1-25:18; I
Kings 1:1-31.

T

Publicity Deadlines

Alon Tolwin is director of the local
branch of Aish Ha Torah.

date.