5784/2023

A Challenging Question

Avi Ohayon of blessed memory, a congregant at Congregation Shaarei Orah of Teaneck, New Jersey, related to me that a co-worker challenged him with the question: “Do you truly believe that the Biblical Sarah gave birth at the age of ninety?”  Mr. Ohayon asked me how to respond.  

The query is indeed a valid one.  Why should, or how could, a reasonable individual believe that a woman gave birth at age ninety?  Indeed, Sarah herself asked that question when she laughed on overhearing the prophecy.  A proper response requires us to delve deeply into the story of Sarah’s laughter, as recorded in BeReishit Perek 18.  

Sarah Imeinu’s Puzzling Laughter

It has puzzled many commentators that Sarah Imeinu laughed at the angel’s statement that Hashem would send her a child within a year.  The angel’s response to Sarah Imeinu’s laughter – “Is anything beyond Hashem’s capabilities?” – is something that should have been very apparent to Sarah.  It seems evident from the Sefer Bereishit that Sarah was a full partner in Avraham Avinu’s spiritual quest and fully shared Avraham Avinu’s Emunah.  Indeed, according to Rashi, Sarah Imeinu’s level of prophecy was superior to that of Avraham Avinu!  How could someone who was on a higher spiritual level than Avraham Avinu have doubted Hashem’s capabilities?

A Hidden Miracle Is Preferable to a Revealed Miracle

An answer to our question lies in Hashem’s preference for a hidden miracle, in which He acts in a subtle manner, over an overt miracle such as the splitting of the Red Sea, which involves a violation of the laws of nature.  Hashem prefers hidden miracles because they require people to invest in His discovery, and this enables a legitimate relationship to blossom between humans and their God.  The Gemara relates: 

R. Mani was a student of R. Yitzchak ben Eliyashiv.  Once he came crying to his rabbi.  "The rich members of my father-in-law’s house trouble and afflict me," he complained. "May they become poor," R. Yitzchak told him.  Some time later, he again came to complain before R. Yitzchak. "Now they are pressuring me to support them," he cried.  "They tell me they have nothing to eat."  "May they become rich," R. Yitzchak prayed, and so it was.  At another time R. Mani came before R. Yitzchak.  "My wife is unattractive," he complained, "and I find it difficult to look at her."  "What is her name?" R.  Yitzchak asked.  "Chana."  "May Chana become beautiful," R. Yitzchak prayed, and so it was.  A short while later, R. Mani again came with a complaint.  "She is beautiful now," he cried, "and treats me in an arrogant way."  "If so," R. Yitzchak said, "may she again be plain."  And so it was.  Two students of R. Yitzchak ben Eliyashiv once asked him, "Rabbi, pray for us that we should be wise."  "Once, I could do this," he answered them.  "Whatever I would pray for, the heavens would grant me.  Now I have returned this gift to heaven”.  

The Maharsha explains that Rav Yitzchak ben Eliashiv realized that Hashem prefers to work through natural means instead of through overt miracles.  

Understanding Sarah Imeinu’s Laughter

Sarah Imeinu realized this point as well.  This became obvious to her from the fact that Hashem did not intervene on their behalf with a violation of the laws of nature unless it was absolutely necessary.  For example, Hashem did not blatantly appear to Avraham Avinu and Sarah Imeinu after they had become completely convinced of His existence.  Accordingly, Sarah Imeinu found it difficult to believe that Hashem would send her a child in her post-menopausal state at age ninety.  Sarah Imeinu reasoned that if Hashem wanted her to have a child He would have sent her a child before she reached menopause, since He acts in a natural manner unless a violation of the law of nature is absolutely necessary.  

Thus Sarah Imeinu reasoned that the three men who visited her family could not be angels, since their prediction did not make sense.  This explains Sarah Imeinu’s laughter.  But we must still explain why Hashem found it appropriate to bless Sarah with a child in a manner that ran counter to the laws of nature.

The Need for Sarah Imeinu to Have a Child at Age Ninety

The need for Sarah Imeinu to have a child at an advanced age may be explained by the principle known as Ma’aseh Avot Siman LeBanim, literally “the acts of the fathers are a sign for the children,” which means that the lives of the patriarchs and matriarchs serve as a blueprint for the history of their descendants, the Jewish people.

Sforno observes that Hashem performed a sort of Techiyat HaMeitim (revival of the dead) on Sarah Imeinu’s uterus.  Hashem felt this was necessary in order to imbed the phenomenon of Techiyat HaMeitim into the fundamental fabric of the Jewish people.  Our nation has repeatedly rebounded from situations that, given the usual course of history, should have led to our demise long ago.  We survived slavery in Egypt, the Egyptian attack at the Red Sea, the Babylonian exile, Haman’s decree, the Hellenistic persecutions in the Hasmonean era, the Roman destruction and the Spanish Inquisition – and these are only a handful of the major situations where the Jewish people were close to extinction!  

In more recent times, the incredible turning of the tide from the end of the Holocaust in 1945 to the establishment of a Jewish state in the land of Israel in 1947 is a prime example of how the Jewish people have been “revived from the dead.”   Another modern-day example is how Orthodox Judaism was heading in the direction of elimination in the mid-twentieth century.  Since then, however, Orthodox Judaism has been revitalized and is growing exponentially, while the denominations that deviate from tradition are disintegrating.  

Shortly after the establishment of the State of Israel, David Ben-Gurion was willing to grant exemption from army service to yeshiva students, because he saw yeshiva students as a relic that would soon die out. He hardly imagined a scenario where a burgeoning population of hundreds of thousands of scrupulously-observant Orthodox Jews would be clamoring for exemptions from army service  to devote themselves to fulltime Torah study.  

With Yitzchak Avinu’s miraculous birth, the Jewish nation was created in a manner of Techiyat HaMeitim so that the Jewish people would carry the ability to renew themselves when all seems hopeless and foregone.

Thus in reply to the skeptic who argues that a reasonable person should not believe that Sarah had Yitzchak Avinu at age ninety, one need only point out the recurring pattern of “revivals” of the Jewish people that run counter to normal historical and sociological trends.  In the light of these events it is reasonable to believe that such a people began in a miraculous manner.