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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.