"Sarah's life was one hundred year, twenty year and seven years; the years of Sarah's life." (Gen. 23:1)

Rabbi Yose declared: Sarah was different from all the other women in the world in that her death is written in the Torah, whereas the deaths of other women are not written thus in Torah.

Rabbi Chiya questioned this proposal. Is this so? But it is written, "Rachel died and was buried on the road to Efrat" (Gen. 35:19) and it is written, "Miriam died there…" (Num. 20:1) and it is written, "Deborah, Rebecca's nursemaid, died" (Gen. 35:8) and it is written, "Shua's daughter, Judah's wife, died"? (Gen. 38:12)

Rabbi Yose replied: None of them is portrayed in the same way as Sarah's [passing] as the verse states, "Sarah's life was one hundred year, twenty year and seven years, the years of Sarah's life." The precise years of the other women's lives are not written explicitly, as with Sarah. Furthermore, their passing is not written in a special section all on its own, as with Sarah. However, this alludes to the secret of that level upon which all the years and days of mankind depend.

That snake…injected his poison of impurity into her, causing death for her and her husband….

This is referring to the Shechinah. After Adam and Eve's sin with the Tree of Knowledge, the souls of mankind became contaminated and descended into the impure kelipot. However, Sarah in her righteousness elevated every aspect of her life above the forces of death impurity and ascended to eternal life [commentary of Mikdash Melech] as the Zohar now explains.

Come and see: when Eve came into the world, she attached herself to that snake, the forces of impurity and death. And he injected his poison of impurity into her, causing death for her and her husband and for the entire world. But Sarah came to the world and ascended after her righteous life in this world without coming into contact with it, as the verse states, "Abram ascended from Egypt together with his wife [Sarah] and all they owned". (Gen. 13:1)

When Noah came to the world, what is written? "He drank from the wine and became drunk and he uncovered himself" (Gen. 9:21) [failing to extract himself from impurity]. But because Abraham and Sarah did not embrace impurity, Sarah merited the life of the World to Come for herself, her husband and all her descendents… for she clung to life, and therefore her [years and days] are "alive". Accordingly the verse states, "these will be the life of Sarah," for they continue to live above - one hundred in the higher worlds, twenty in the higher worlds, and seven in the higher worlds.

A more technical explanation follows in Part 2.

[From Zohar I, p. 121b-122b; translation and commentary by Moshe Miller]