Sarah: Beauty According to the Torah

One of the first episodes in the Torah regarding Sarah, the wife of Avraham, introduces us to her in a very interesting way. Avraham is forced by a famine to leave his home and travel to Egypt. Concerned that the Egyptians, taken by her beauty, will want Sarah for their own, Avraham takes serious precautions to protect her, for he says, “I know what a beautiful woman you are.” (Bereishit 10:11)  

And in fact, Avraham’s fears were well-founded, for the Gemara tells us:

There were four women of extraordinary beauty in the world: Sarah, and Avigail, Rahab, and Esther. (Megillah, 14a)

At first glance, this statement from the Gemara may seem to be a compliment, but Shlomo Hamelech famously tells us:

Grace is deceptive, beauty is illusory; it is for her fear of G-d that a woman is to be praised. (Mishlei 31:30)

It would seem that Judaism does not laud feminine beauty. So why would we care to know that Sarah was so attractive? Why is this trait being highlighted by the Gemara?

A Pig’s Ring

In his commentary on Mishlei, the Vilna Gaon gives us a deeper way of understanding Shlomo Hamelech’s teaching. He says that the beauty of a woman who does not fear G-d is similar to a ring on the snout of a pig. The ring may be impressive, but once attached to the pig, it loses all value. When a person’s character is disconnected from G-d and Truth, the beauty is not only meaningless, it becomes disgusting. 

It would seem that Judaism does not laud feminine beauty. So why would we care to know that Sarah was so attractive? Why is this trait being highlighted by the Gemara?

But what of someone who does possess fear of Heaven? Then the beauty is no longer deceptive; it is an enhancement – a crowning jewel upon a stunning woman. Sarah and these other women possessed so much fear of heaven that their physical appearance served to convey in an external sense how incredibly deep they were. 

Beauty As a Test

The Gemara relays another incident (Nedarim 50b) which again causes us to wonder why we would want to mention Sarah’s beauty in a seemingly praiseworthy manner. 

We learn of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya, who was known for being outstandingly ugly. He was once questioned about this by a Roman princess, who asked how such a wise sage could be cloaked in such ugliness. Through a manner of analogy, he proved to her that a container must be simple for its contents to be pure, i.e. the less externally attractive the individual, the holier his internal world. Again, the princess challenged him, asking about Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, known to be one the most exceedingly beautiful sages of the time. Rabbi Yehoshua’s reply was enigmatic: “Had he been ugly, he would have been much wiser.”

The Ben Ish Chai comments on these “four most beautiful women in the world” we mentioned above. He asks: clearly this is meant to be a praise, so what is the Gemara’s intent? To tell us that despite their attractiveness, they were still women of great character. 

Beauty can be a serious deterrent to one’s connection to Hashem and to moral values. We see in the  world of the media, that as soon as a child is known to be attractive, they can be taken away at a young age for hire by an advertising or acting agency. This is in effect a death-sentence for the child’s ultimate morality. A person who is constantly living a life where his physical appearance is what earns him respect is at-risk for becoming prideful, sinful, and depressed.

The Biala Rebbe discusses why it is that we praise those who have any kind of physical gift – be it beauty, wealth, charisma etc. If a person is humble, but is also poor and unattractive, his humility has not truly been tested. The sign of a strong middah is when it comes in contrast to a person’s natural inclination. One who is beautiful or rich and is still humbly submissive to Hashem has shown that he has worked on his character to become great. 

Just as we do not praise natural beauty for itself, we do not necessarily admire good middos which are automatic. Yet often we can be very hard on ourselves about the areas where we struggle: I am naturally talkative and I just can’t work on maintaining silence. I am a very anxious person and I will never be able to worry as little as my friends. I hate how I get so sad about little things when I know it would never bother my neighbors. 

The middos which are most valuable are the ones which we work hard to attain. Hashem gives us natural inclinations – and He also gives us the ability to rise above our nature. As hard as it is, when we do, it is praiseworthy beyond measure.

Child at Heart

When Sarah passed away at 127, the verse breaks up her age in an intriguing way: 

“Sarah’s lifetime was one hundred years, twenty years, and seven years.” The repetition of the word “years” between each number brings Rashi to comment that this division tells us to interpret each number on its own: at one hundred, she was like a woman of twenty with regard to sin, at twenty she was like a seven-year-old with relation to beauty. 

While this description is clearly meant to be a testament to Sarah’s greatness, we know that the beauty of a twenty-year-old is generally regarded as greater than that of a young child. Rav Moshe Feinstein explains that the beauty of a seven-year-old is pure, in that it is not used in a temptuous way. However, a twenty-year-old is already at an age where her beauty can be used improperly, and it loses its innocence. Sarah’s greatness was that even once she reached the mature age of twenty, anyone who looked at her still saw the innocent and pure beauty of a child, which would not be misused.

This was Sarah: a woman who despite external factors which could have been conducive to an improper lifestyle or to unwarranted pride, still held herself to a higher standard – the highest standard! – and became our role model for all time.