Singular Years - Long Term Memories

Tomorrow we finish the Book of Genesis. It focuses on Jacob’s final days. The Torah portion (Va-Yechi) begins, “And Jacob lived in the Land of Egypt 17 year (singular shannah is used in Hebrew), and the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were 17 years (plural, shannim is used in Hebrew) and 40 and 100 year (singular shannah used again).

Since nothing appears in the Torah by accident, we have to wonder about this usage (which is not unique to his section). Perhaps we can explain it by seeing it as a reflection of human nature. The plural is used for the smaller numbers because those memories present themselves as individual reflections. We can call to mind recent events and see how one effected the other. Each of the memories is distinct, we see it from many angles. But when it comes to large chunks of time, decades or more, we use the singular because we remember them as a whole. “Those were the good years”, “those were some tough times” etc.

Torah comes to teach that we need to look at our lives both in micro and macrocosm. Sometimes we get so caught up in the details, the wear and tear of every day life that we forget to see the forest for the trees. We need to take a step back and visualize today as part of a much larger picture for when we do we’ll be less likely to obsess on the individual, often trivial decisions that seem so very important at the time. Spirituality is a gift that allows us to see the big picture of our lives. Sure, little decisions matter, but it is the overall quality of our lives that ultimately matters most.