D’var Torah Chaye Sara

And the life of Sarah was (vayihiyu) a hundred years and twenty years and seven years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. (Genesis 23:1)
“the years of the life of Sarah”: they were all alike in goodness. (Rashi, ibid.)
Sarah’s life included the travails of Pharaoh, of Avimelech, King of the Philistines and of Hagar and Ishmael. Beyond all of these was the fact that Sarah did not give birth to her only son until age ninety. Therefore, many commentators ask how then can Rashi assert that all of Sarah’s years were alike “in goodness”?
My father explained that Rashi’s meaning is not that all of Sarah’s years were good, but that in all of her years Sarah did good. Whether in times of distress, such as the sojourns with Pharaoh and Avimelech, or in times of joy, Sarah remained constant in her performance of good deeds.
My father commented further that the reason the verse repeats “years” three times is to correspond to three stages of life: childhood, youth and maturity. Each stage of Sarah’s life was alike “in goodness” because she performed good deeds in accordance with her ability, and at each subsequent stage, Sarah built upon and surpassed the previous stage.
Typically, when one looks back on his life, thoughts are evoked of regrets for one's mistakes and that, given the opportunity to relive things, the individual would make changes. However, in Hebrew “vayihiyu” is a palindrome which teaches that Sarah had no regrets about the way she had lived her life, nor in anything she had done.
“These were the years (shnei) of the life of Sarah.”
The word “shnei” also means “two,” and perhaps the verse hints that Sarah’s life fused together two aspects: the material and the spiritual. It was the harmony within Sarah of the two divergent aspects which allowed her to do good throughout her life.
Ultimately, it was because of the fact that the spiritual dimension of life was pre-eminent for Sarah that all her years were alike in goodness. (David Magence)

Shabbat Shalom!
The Va’ad