When Yeshua was walking this earth, he was continually teaching his disciples his interpretations of Torah. He continually emphasized repentance and loving both our Heavenly Father and our neighbor through our actions and not merely our feelings. This naturally leads us to Shammai’s teaching in Pirkei Avot. Shammai taught his disciples, “Say little and do much” (Avot 1:15). According to the Talmud the wicked say much and do little, but the righteous say little and do much. An example is given of Abraham and how his deeds exceeded his words: 

It is written: “And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and satisfy your heart” (Genesis 18:5), and it is written: “And Abraham ran to the herd, and fetched a calf tender and good” (Genesis 18:7). Rabbi Elazar said: From here we learn that the righteous say little and do much, whereas the wicked say much and do not do even a little. (Bava Metzia 87a)

In this Talmudic passage, Rabbi Elazar contrasts what Abraham said to what he actually did. Abraham said that he would bring them “a morsel of bread,” something insignificant to stave off their hunger. But in reality, however, he had Sarah make them a feast made from three seahs of flour (nearly five gallons of flour!) and had a calf slaughtered for them. In other words, the wicked boast about everything they are going to do, but yet they do very little. And while the righteous don’t make great claims about what they will do, they simply work hard to produce pleasant and unexpected results. 

Parashat Chayei Sarah (Genesis 23:1-25:18)

This week’s Torah portion begins by giving us the lifespan of Sarah.

And these were the life of Sarah: one hundred years, twenty years and seven years; the years of the life of Sarah. (Genesis 23:1)

Since this portion is titled Chayei Sarah, “The Life of Sarah,” we would expect to read more about the life of Sarah. But the very next words we read are, “And Sarah died.” It’s not quite what we expect of our Torah portion.

Despite the fact that we begin our portion reading about the death of Sarah, we can still learn something about her life. Although our translations render the first verse so that it reads better in English, in Hebrew this verse contains an unusual repetition. The same phrase, chayei Sarah, is used two different times: first at the beginning of the verse, and again at the end. This seems redundant. Our sages teach us, however, that the Torah does not waste even a single letter, much less entire words. Therefore, the seemingly redundant expression, “the life of Sarah,” must offer us some insight into a deeper meaning of the text. But what is the Torah wanting to teach us through this?