Yechiel Shaffer askes the question as to why two parshiot in Sefer Bereishit have the titles Parshat "Chayei Sarah" and Parshat "Vayechi", referring to life, when, in actuality, these parshiot deal with the deaths of Sarah and Avraham (in Chayei Sarah) and Yosef (in Vayechi).
He answers the question in the following manner.
"In Melachim I, Chapter 3, we read of the famous dream of Shlomo Hamelech. In it Hashem allows Shlomo to ask for whatever he wants. Shlomo asks for only one thing, wisdom, and Hashem grants him this. Furthermore, Hashem grants Shlomo everything else that he could have asked for, including long life. We know that Shlomo only lived for 52 years; how is this a "long life"? We can explain that life is not only measured in physical terms but also in spiritual terms, which is where life is really lived. Shlomo was granted a reward of long life in Olam Habah (the World to Come), not in Olam Hazeh (this world).
In Pirkei Avot, there is a famous statement of Rabbi Yaakov: "This world is like a lobby before Olam Habah; prepare yourself in the lobby so that you may enter the banquet hall" (4:21). This means that every person must prepare himself in this world by keeping Torah and Mitzvot so that he can enter Olam Habah and take part in the "wonderful banquet" that is waiting there for him. This is when life really begins."
Read more:
http://koltorah.org/volume-10/chayei-sarah
Have a good Shabbos and I'll leave you with a song of tribute to Sarah Imeinu, a true "Eishet Chayil."
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