When the pasuk says ‘and the life of Sarah was 127’, it could have easily just said ‘Sarah lived 127 years’. The Sfas Emes explains that just as every physical form on earth possesses a spiritual potential, to bring out its holiness, so too time -which is also limited to the natural world- has inherent holiness to be brought out. There was ‘life’ in each of Sarah’s 127 years. Each moment’s potential was fully fulfilled. The Sfas Emes also connected this to the midrash about R Akiva waking up his students by saying that her 127 years merited Esther 127 provinces- it allowed Hashem’s influence at a time and in a place of ‘Hester’, hiddenness.
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