Arrows of Life

By Tzvi Freeman

The life of Sarah was one hundred years and twenty years and seven years, the years of the life of Sarah. (Genesis 23:1)

All of them were equally good.—Rashi.

In which direction does your life move?
To wherever you have placed its arrow.

If the arrow points forever backward, to blame the present on the past and script the future accordingly, then what is to make life worth its pain, the story worth its struggle?

But if the arrow points forward to an unfolding destiny, then every pain becomes the cracking of a shell, every travail the shedding of a cocoon; as an olive releasing its oil to the press, a seedling breaking its path through rock and soil to reach the sun. What is the pain relative to the promise it holds?

And so Sarah looked back after 127 years, and all her days, even the darkest, the weariest, even those when she was held a prisoner in the depths of evil of Pharaoh's palace—all were good and filled with beauty.

Likutei Sichot, vol. 5, pg. 92.

By Tzvi Freeman

From the wisdom of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of righteous memory; words and condensation by Rabbi Tzvi Freeman. Subscribe and get your dose daily. Or order Rabbi Freeman's book, Bringing Heaven Down to Earth, click here.

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