19 Nov CHAYEI SARAH: DO YOU SLEEP DURING THE DRASHA? TIME IS NOT MONEY; IT IS LIFE

Churchill Sleeping
They tell this story
about Winston
Churchill. As Savior
of the free world he
felt himself entitled to
grab a little shuteye
(“schlof”, or nap) in the House of Commons.
When a fellow Parliament member
approached him and said “Must you fall
asleep when I am speaking?” Churchill
answered, “No, it is purely voluntary.”
The Lubavitcher Rebbe once noticed people
sleeping during a public “farbrengen” address.
He said that he takes some comfort in the
story of the Midrash, to be discussed below,
that Rabbi Akiva once noticed his students
were falling asleep in his class. If one can fall
asleep on Rabbi Akiva, the greatest authority
on the entire Oral Tradition of Torah, who are
we to complain?
Alas, it seems, Jews have been sleeping
through drashot from the days of yore.
Nothing has changed.
Rabbi Akiva’s Class
Says the Midrash:
Once, as Rabbi Akiva taught a class, he

noticed that the audience began falling asleep.
He wished to awaken them. Rabbi Akiva
interrupted his lecture and said:
Why did Esther, the queen of Achasverosh,
the Monarch of the Persian Empire, decide to
reign over 127 countries? Because Esther was
a granddaughter of Sarah who lived for 127
years. Let the granddaughter of Sarah, who
lived for 127 years, come and reign over 127
countries.
This is how Rabbi Akiva got the audience to
wake up.
This is so strange of a story. It evokes a
number of questions. We will discuss one.
Why did Rabbi Akiva choose this particular
insights—from all the endless idea he could
have shared—as the way of waking up his
drowsy crowd? And why did he think that this
statement would awake them? It does not
seem to be such a humorous, dramatic or
exhilarating statement as to awake a Jewish
audience from their sleep during the Rabbi’s
drasha? I mean, we all know that to get a Jew
out of his slumber during a Rabbi’s drasha, is
a unique skill, unheard of as of yet in the
annals of Jewish history! [At least I can speak
for myself: In my years as a Rabbi I am still

trying to master this
skill, but to no avail.]
Cherish the
Second
The question was
answered by the first
Rebbe of Ger, the
Chedushei Harim
(Rabbi Yitzchak
Meir Alter, 1799–
1866), in a rather
creative way.
Through this
observation, Rabbi
Akiva gently reprimanded his students for
sleeping through the class. If Esther reigned
over 127 countries, or provinces, in the large
Persian Empire, corresponding to Sarah’s 127
years of life, it follows that for each year of
Sarah’s life, Esther was granted kingship over
an entire province or country. It follows then,
that for each month of her life, she was given
the gift of kingship over an entire city (a
country contains at least 12 cities.) It follows
then, that for each week of her life, she was
rewarded with a town (a city has at least four
towns). This would mean that for each day of
her life she was rewarded with a neighborhood
or section of the town. If we break it down
even further, we will find that for every
second of her life, she was rewarded with
an entire block, over which her descendant,
Queen Ester, ruled!
Rabbi Akiva thus sought to impress upon
his students the value, potential and
significance of every moment of life. Sarah
received immense reward for each and
every second of her life, because she
devoted all her time and energy to living an
honest, meaningful and good life. This was
the subtle message that Rabbi Akiva, in his
pedagogical brilliance, conveyed to his
sleepy students. We cannot squander such a
valuable resource as a time—not even a
minute! Each moment is precious and laden
with great potential.
The Gift of Time
Imagine there is a bank which credits your
account each morning with $86,400.00,
carries over no balance from day to day,
allows you to keep no cash balance, and
every evening cancels whatever part of the
amount you had failed to use during the
day.
What would you do? Draw out every cent,
of course!
Well, everyone has such a bank. It’s name
is time. Every morning, it credits you with
86,400 seconds.
Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever
of this you have failed to invest to good
purpose.

It carries over no balance. It allows no
overdraft.
Each day it opens a new account for you.
If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is
yours.
There is no going back. There is no drawing
against the tomorrow.
You must live in the present on today’s
deposits.
Time waits for no one. Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s
why it’s called the ‘present.’
As the saying goes, to realize the value of
ONE MINUTE, ask a person who missed the
train. To realize the value of ONE SECOND,
ask a person who just avoided an accident. To
realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND,
ask the person who won a silver medal in the
Olympics.
What Time Is It?
You know the story of the man who came to
the therapist for a very serious problem.
“How can I help you?” asks the therapist.
Yes, says the patient. Please tell me what time
is it?
Therapist: Three o’clock.
Patient: Oh, no! G-d help me.
Therapist: What’s the matter?
Patient: I’ve been asking the time all day. And
everybody gives me a different answer!…
The Murderous Teacher
Aristotle once asked his students: Who is the
greatest teacher who kills all of his students?
The answer: Time!
Time Is Life
The Lubavitcher Rebbe once told my late
father, Mr. Gershon Jacobson: “The world
says, ‘Time is money;’ I say ‘Time is life!’”
This is what Rabbi Akiva was telling his
students: Don’t sleep through your life. If you
are sleeping in my class, you are sleeping
through life. Look at Sarah and see what she
accomplished with one minute.