Torah Portion/Synagogues
Youth, Age and Life's Value
Shabbat Chaye Sarah:
Genesis 23:1-25:18;
I Kings 1:1-31.
I
n the portion we read this week,
Sarah, the beloved wife of
Abraham passes away and
Abraham is faced with the mitzvah of
burying her. Abraham purchases the
famous Mearat Hamachpelah from
Ephron the Hitite, and the Torah
goes into unusual detail in describing
the purchase. What is the lesson in
this for us?
In the next chapter, the Torah tells
us "And Abraham was old (zaken),
coming with days."
Our sages tell us an interesting
thing about the word zaken. It is an
abbreviation for zeh kanah, which
means "this one has acquired." The
placement of this passage immediate-
ly after the purchase of Sarah's burial
plot raises the question as to whether
Avraham Cohen is the director of
Southfield-based Yeshiva Beth Yehudah's
Partners in Torah program.
him; but as a person ages, his options
this is in some way connected to the
become fewer and fewer. This is why
acquiring of the plot for Sarah.
our society values youth more than
Our sages tell us there is a very
old age. Since an old person has lost
important lesson here, and it begins
many options of what he can do with
by understanding the value of money.
his life, it doesn't seem to
Money has no intrinsic
be worth as much.
value. Its value lies in its
It is this idea that the
power to purchase goods
Torah is addressing when it
and services. The more you
tells us that, "Abraham was
have, the greater your
zaken coming with days."
purchasing power. This is
What this means is that
what makes money so
Abraham, the person, had
intoxicating. Money carries
all his days with him
within it the full spectrum
because Abraham was the
of what can be had in
product of having used all
this world.
RABBI
his days towards the goal
When one buys some-
AVRAHAM
of becoming the beloved
thing, he is saying, "Having
COHEN
servant of God.
this is more important to
Special to the
Abraham understood
me than having all the
Jewish News
early on what the days of
options open to me."
life were to be used for.
But money for the sake of
Every new day of life brings with it
money has no value. We understand
numerous possibilities of how it
that if a person is wealthy but won't
can be used; but if we sit by idly
spend for his own needs, he has
cherishing our options, we are like
a problem.
the person who hoards money but
The difference between youth and
doesn't use it.
old age reflects this very same idea. A
What good are options that are
young person has an almost unlimit-
not used? The only options that have
ed number of possibilities open to
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value are those that were spent wisely
like Abraham's. With this, we acquire
that day as part of ourselves and take
it with us. As we age, we acquire
more and more value. This is a zaken
to speak of.
This is also the lesson of the pur-
chase of the burial plot for Sarah.
Money is also something whose pur-
pose can be confused. We could get
carried away and think that the value
of money is the myriad of worldly
things it can buy.
Therefore, the first instance when
money is used in the Torah for a
purchase, the Torah is careful to give
us the right example of what money
is for. It is to connect us to the world
to come, which is what the burial
plot for Sarah represented. When
money is spent on the right things
it can bring a person to eternity.
Conversations
What is the formula for knowing
when to save money and when
to spend it?
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