5784/2023

Avraham Avinu dies at the end of this week’s Parashah, Parashat

Chayei Sarah. The Pasuk says about him, “אשר־חי אברהם שני־חיי ימי ואלה“

“These are the days of Avraham’s life which he lived.” Why is it

necessary to say אשר־חי, which he lived? Why not just say שני־חיי ימי ואלה

אברהם ?Isn’t it obvious that Avraham lived during his life? Some

Mefarshim explain that the seemingly extra phrase says that Avraham

lived his days fully. Not a single day was wasted. These are the days of

Avraham’s life אשר־חי, that he lived fully without wasting a moment.

Rashi quotes the Midrash, which says that Avraham was an idol

worshiper for the first 3 years of his life. He only realized that Hashem

was the true G-d when he turned 3. If this is true, how can the Torah

say that Avraham lived his life fully not wasting a day? What about the

first 3 years of his life? Wasn’t he wasting his time serving idols when

he should’ve been serving Hashem?

The answer is that although he was serving idols, Avraham was never

happy with it. He was always struggling to find the true God, and just

because it took him 3 years to succeed doesn’t mean those 3 years

were a total waste. Hashem values the effort as much as the success.

The 3 years of Avraham’s life when he was searching for the true god

are just as valuable to Hashem as the other 172 years of his life where

he served Hashem.

Let’s return to Parashat Noach for a minute. The Parashah starts off by

saying that Noach was a Tzaddik, a perfect person who walked with

Hashem. But at the end of the Parashah, Noach becomes drunk and is

no longer a perfect Tzaddik. He was born a Tzaddik and invested no

effort to stay that way. But Avraham Avinu is different. He was not

born perfect. He was an idol worshiper and had to work towards

becoming the great Tzaddik that he was. Even though Avraham

worshipped Avodah Zarah and Noach did not, Avraham is still the

greater Tzaddik because he put in more effort and Hashem cares just

as much about the effort as he does the end result.

Imagine two people. One is born into a secular family and knows

nothing about Judaism. The other is in the Beit Midrash learning for

15 hours a day. By the end of their lives, the first person still is not

religious, but attends a Parashah Shiur once a week. The second

person, by the end of his life, is only learning for 10 hours a day.

Hashem values the secular person more. Even though learning 10

hours a day is clearly better than going to one Parashah Shiur each

week, the learner has dropped and the first person has improved.

Many times we are struggling to get to a certain place. We are trying

hard all the time and keep failing. When this happens, we should

remember how Hashem values our effort. How he still said that

Avraham did not waste a day of his life even though for his first three

years he worshipped Avodah Zarah. How he appreciates a secular

person who attends a Parashah Shiur. We should remember this

lesson and it should give us Chizzuk to keep heading towards success.

We should dedicate our lives to improving our Avodat Hashem and try

to bring Mashiach closer so he should arrive Bimheirah Biyameinu.