Beauty is vain. Then why do we praise Sarah’s?
There’s a question to be asked from the pasuk in Mishlei that is famously sung at the end of Eishet Chayil: Sheker hachein v’hevel hayofi (Grace is deceptive, beauty is illusory).
If beauty is vanity, why is it a middah, or trait, that Chazal would highlight about Sarah?
We will detail some of the answers, but a theme running through them is a reminder of the second half of that pasuk: Isha yirat Hashem hi tithalal — it is for her fear of G-d that a woman is to be praised. To praise a woman, or even eulogize her, the fear of Hashem is what counts.
Not that beauty is nothing; rather, in the evaluation of a person’s life, it is fear of Hashem that is memorialized. Perhaps that is why the Midrash describes Sarah first with praise for her lack of sin: At 100 years old, she was as free from sin as a 20-year-old. This epitaph describes one who fears G-d and fears sin.
When a person is by all accounts beautiful, yet never lets it weaken her commitment to Hashem and mitzvot, then not only is her lack of sin to be praised, but her beauty as well. That she was so attractive, yet it never gave her an ego, is highly worthy of praise.
And when she was 20, she was as beautiful as when she was 7. (Rashi, Bereishit 23:1)
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In the sefer “Iturei Torah,” Rav Yehoshua of Kutno asks our question, but his answer also addresses a different one: Is 7 the ideal of beauty, that it makes sense to compare a 20-year-old to a 7-year-old? If anything, a 20-year-old is more classically beautiful.
He answers that just as a 7-year-old lacks the self-awareness to be haughty or prideful about her looks, Sarah Imeinu, although she was beautiful, did not boast, but remained simple and modest like a girl of 7.
Rabbi Eliyahu Mizrachi explains that her beauty was a natural one: Just as a girl of 7 doesn’t need makeup, Sarah at 20 was beautiful without makeup or adornments.
The Maharal asks our question as well, and replies that the pasuk is not referring to beauty per se, but rather to a certain shleimut, or completeness. The two traits — absence of sin and beauty — combine to describe a person beautiful inside and out: a woman who was complete, perfect in body and soul, lacking nothing in her character or her physical being.
Comparing the 20-year-old Sarah to the 7-year-old Sarah, he explains, signals that this was no normal occurrence. Sarah was unique, with an unblemished and pure physical appearance that needed no adornment. She, like Moshe, had a clarity of body that went far deeper than skin-deep beauty. In eulogizing Sarah and praising her completeness, both her physical and spiritual sides are worthy of praise and emulation.
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The “Be’er Yosef” asks: Why praise beauty when it is a gift from G-d? Praise should be reserved for the actions and deeds we have earned.
He answers with a Gemara in Megillah (14a) that discusses Sarah’s second name, Yiska, and teaches that the two are one and the same. There are two interpretations of the name: Either she saw (sachta) with Divine insight, ruach hakodesh, or everyone gazed
(sachin) at her beauty. One refers to a lofty spiritual level and the other to a more mundane physical trait, but combined, they describe a woman who was unfazed by her physical gift and reached the loftiest heights of kedusha. Although she is counted among the four most beautiful women in the world (Megillah 15a), her modesty allowed her to remain unaffected by the adoration.
Rav Moshe Feinstein connects the description of beauty to the events in her life where her beauty could have been a detriment. Avraham famously asked Sarah to play along with the sister charade: “Behold now, I know that you are a beautiful woman” (Bereishit 12:11) — and that beauty could put them both in danger.
Rav Moshe describes the Kiddush Hashem that Sarah accomplished with her beauty, and it is this Kiddush Hashem that is being memorialized. The admiration of kings did not seduce her one iota. Had her thoughts ever been anything but pure after she was kidnapped, no miracles would have awaited her. Her steadfastness, loyalty and self-control are all the more impressive given that her breathtaking beauty was world-renowned. Her physical well-being was imperiled, yet she held tight to her convictions.
Certainly, the beauty of Sarah was literally and metaphorically captivating. She sacrificed her body and well-being for Avraham’s safety. She maintained a modest, righteous, G-d-fearing, humble life for 127 years. Could there be a life more beautiful than that?
Rabbi Dr. David Wiseman has led a weekly Torah class at the Young Israel of Hewlett for more than 20 years.
