Beauty Tips From Our Matriach
In the account of Sarah’s passing, the Torah tells us her age in a deliberate manner: “Her life was "100 years, and 20 years, and 7 years.”
Our Sages explain this to mean that when Sarah was 100, she was as pure and sinless as a maiden of 20; and when she was 20, she was as beautiful as an innocent 7-year-old.
While most of us “lose our innocence” as we age, Sarah remained wholesome her entire life. She was fully present and used every minute to the fullest. She wasted no time in being self-serving in spite of a hard life, choosing instead to live her life in constant state of fulfilling G-D’s will through the service of others.
We are told: All her days and years were perfect. In fact, Sarah’s innocence emanates from every aspect of her being and it’s what made her physically beautiful.
The Rebbe explains that the very ups and downs and all the changes which come about through the passage of time serve to reveal the inner constancy of the person. Not despite these physical changes, but by means of them, the person's inner spirituality shines through, timelessly, expressed in their physical being.
In this sense, we can all be like Sarah who showed us how to regain and retain innocence in all aspects of our lives through shedding aspects of our ego which separate us from our true selves.
In other words, as the years go by we can express ever more deeply the wholesomeness and beauty within us, as we strive to reach a state in which our pure, sacred inwardness is expressed in our outer, physical life.
Further, we are told that Sarah’s tent parallels that of the Bais Hamikdash. Her Shabbos candles lit from week to week like the menorah. Her challah stays fresh week to week as were the lechem haponim, the show bread. There was a cloud of protection over her tent like the anon which was the dinim of hatarah hamispachah; the way that the Family Purity Law protects us.
Like the athlete who broke a world record enables the next to do the same, every one of our PATRIARCHS and MATRIARCHS empowers us in different ways — through struggling and overcoming certain life challenges, they made it possible for us to do the same.
This is why we evoke their names in our prayers. In the merits of Avraham, Yitschak and Yacov, Sarah, Rivka, Leah and Rochol… .
While Chava imenu gave us the power of tesuvah, Sarah imenu taught us an invaluable lesson on boundaries. How to set and stand firm on boundaries.
When Sarah said: This is not good for my child. Ismael cannot stay here with Yitzchak. Yismael must go. There was no wiggle room. There was no “I am sorry…” no wishy washy of “May be.. but I don’t think so..” There was no question. No drama.
For that God told her husband to listen to her counsel.
What’s her secret? She understood parameters. We, as the descendants of Mother Sarah shares her spiritual DNA and her strength. In her merit, Esther became the Queen to 127 nations. In her merit, we too, will conquer all nations with the Light of our tradition.
Post inspired by Miryam Swerdlov. Sources: Dr. T. Loewenthal