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.