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A Hundred Sockets: The Power of Humility

The Gemara learns that a person must say a hundred blessings each day from one word, mah, “what,” in “What does Hashem your God ask of you.” What do a hundred blessings have to do with “what”? And how do Sarah’s hundred years hint at the same thing?

Bereishis 23:1
וַיִּהְיוּ חַיֵּי שָׂרָה מֵאָה שָׁנָה וְעֶשְׂרִים שָׁנָה וְשֶׁבַע שָׁנִים שְׁנֵי חַיֵּי שָׂרָה
And the life of Sarah was a hundred years and twenty years and seven years: the years of the life of Sarah.
3Or we may say that “And the life of Sarah was …” speaks of humility, in the spirit of the Gemara: “A person is obliged to recite a hundred blessings every day, from the verse ‘What (mah) does Hashem your God ask of you …’; do not read mah, ‘what,’ but me'ah, ‘a hundred.’”1 We may explain it this way. The root of everything for a person is to be very humble, lowly in his own eyes and of no account: bameh nechshav, “of what (mah) account is he?” Then he can accomplish through his deeds what was accomplished in the time of the Mikdash. This is the hint in the hundred blessings: they correspond to the hundred silver sockets, the bases that were in the Mikdash.2 And this is what the Gemara means by “do not read mah but me'ah”: when you stand on the level of mah, “what?”, in humility, you will also repair the hundred sockets, accomplishing through your deeds what was done in the time of the Mikdash.
אוֹ יֹאמַר וַיִּהְיוּ חַיֵּי שָׂרָה כּוּ׳, ע"ד דְּאִיתָא בַּגְּמָרָא "חַיָּיב אָדָם לְבָרֵךְ מֵאָה בְּרָכוֹת בְּכָל יוֹם, מִקְּרָא מָה ה׳ אֱלֹהֶיךָ שׁוֹאֵל מֵעִמָּךְ כּוּ׳ אַל תִּיקְרֵי מַה אֶלָּא מֵאָה", וְיֵשׁ לוֹמַר הַפֵּירוּשׁ דְּעִיקַּר הַשּׁוֹרֶשׁ לְאָדָם שֶׁיִּהְיֶה בְּהַכְנָעָה גְּדוֹלָה וְשָׁפָל בְּעֵינֵי עַצְמוֹ וּבַמֶּה נֶחְשָׁב, וְאָז יָכוֹל לִפְעוֹל בְּמַעֲשָׂיו כְּמוֹ בִּזְמַן הַמִּקְדָּשׁ, וְזֶה הָרֶמֶז מֵאָה בְּרָכוֹת נֶגֶד מֵאָה אֲדָנִים שֶׁהָיוּ בַּמִּקְדָּשׁ, וְזֶה פֵּירוּשׁ הַגְּמָרָא "אַל תִּקְרֵי מַה אֶלָּא מֵאָה" ר"ל כַּאֲשֶׁר תִּהְיֶה בְּמַדְרֵגָה "מַה" בְּהַכְנָעָה, תְּתַקֵּן גַּם כֵּן מֵאָה הָאֲדָנִים, שֶׁתִּפְעוּל בְּמַעֲשֶׂיךָ כְּמוֹ בִּזְמַן הַמִּקְדָּשׁ.
  1. Menachos 43b, R' Meir, on Devarim 10:12. The words “do not read mah but me'ah” are how Tosafos there cites Rashi's explanation (Rashi: “read it as me'ah”). ↩
  2. Shemos 38:27: the hundred silver sockets that held the boards of the Mishkan and the pillars of its curtain. The Torah calls the Mishkan in the wilderness a Mikdash (Shemos 25:8). ↩
In shortThe hundred daily blessings match the hundred sockets of the Mikdash: one who stands at mah, “what?”, in humility repairs them and acts as in the days of the Mikdash.
4That is “And the life of Sarah was a hundred years.” “Sarah” hints at the tzaddik when he is on the level of nukva, the feminine side, the side that receives: then he should see to it, at the very least, that he is lowly and humble. “A hundred years” hints at this, corresponding to the hundred sockets. “And twenty years” …3 “And seven years” hints that he will repair the seven days of building, the seven sefiros through which the world was built, for shanah (שנה), “year,” has the numerical value of sefirah (ספירה).4 Understand this.
וְזֶהוּ "וַיִּהְיוּ חַיֵּי שָׂרָה מֵאָה שָׁנָה", וְ"שָׂרָה" רֶמֶז כְּשֶׁהַצַּדִּיק הוּא בְּמַדְרֵגַת נוּקְבָּא, יִרְאֶה עכ"פ לִהְיוֹת שָׁפָל וּמוּכְנָע, לָזֶה רָמַז "מֵאָה שָׁנָה" נֶגֶד מֵאָה אֲדָנִים, וְ"עֶשְׂרִים שָׁנָה" (חסר כאן), וְ"שֶׁבַע שָׁנִים" רֶמֶז שֶׁיְּתַקֵּן ז׳ יְמֵי הַבִּנְיָן, כִּי "שָׁנָה" בְּגִימַטְרִיָּה "סְפִירָה" וְהָבֵן.
  1. The print has here, in parentheses: “something is missing here.” ↩
  2. Shanah: 300 + 50 + 5 = 355; sefirah: 60 + 80 + 10 + 200 + 5 = 355. ↩
In shortSarah stands for the tzaddik on the receiving level, who must stay humble: her hundred years match the sockets, her seven the seven sefiros of building.
The maamar as a whole

R’ Elimelech takes up the Gemara’s teaching that a person must say a hundred blessings every day, drawn from mah, “what,” in “What does Hashem your God ask of you,” read as me’ah, a hundred. The root of everything, he says, is humility: to be lowly in one’s own eyes, asking “of what account am I?” One who stands at mah repairs the hundred silver sockets of the Mikdash, and his deeds accomplish what was accomplished while it stood. Sarah’s years hint at the same. “Sarah” is the tzaddik on the receiving level, who must at the very least be humble; her hundred years are the hundred sockets, and her seven years the repair of the seven days of building, for shanah, year, equals sefirah in gematria. The words on her twenty years are missing in the print.

Takeaway

Humility is the root of everything. When we see ourselves as mah, “what?”, of no account, our blessings and our deeds can accomplish what was once done in the Mikdash.

Related learning

Sources he cites

· · · ·

Tzaddikim he names

Sarah

Translated with AI assistance. Sources and summaries were checked by a separate AI review; not yet reviewed by a human editor.

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