VaYeira - 5780

Genesis 18:1 – 22:24

It’s a miracle! Or rather it will be. In this week’s parasha, VaYeira, three angels approach Abraham with a promise from God: despite the fact that both Abraham and Sarah are advanced in age and she has been barren her entire life, next year she shall give birth to their son.
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If you were Sarah, how would you react? 

​“And Sarah laughed inwardly, saying, ‘After being shriveled, shall I have pleasure – with my husband so old?’” [Gen. 18:12]

I love this verse. First, please note that she is not saying anything about her ability to get pregnant. Sure, she may be well past menopause, but, at least on surface, this seems to be about more about Abraham than Sarah. It is almost as if Sarah is saying: “With that old guy? Are you kidding?”

Let’s take a closer look at the Hebrew, or rather, one specific word. ‘Ednah’ means ‘pleasure,’ and shares a root with Eden, as in the Garden. Eden is Paradise. Sarah is laughing to herself (and then is embarrassed when she is called out for it) about Abraham’s ability, as such an old man, to bring her to “paradise” so that she can conceive.

Sarah may seem a bit snarky here, but this is Torah and there is remarkable wisdom contained in this little snark. Forget that Sarah too is quite old and it would take a miracle for her to get pregnant in any circumstance. For Sarah, there is a direct causality between paradise/pleasure and pregnancy. Abraham must bring Sarah to Paradise, to the Garden – only then will she be able to conceive.

On the surface, this seems to be simply about sex … except it isn’t.

Their relationship has been difficult, to say the least. On two separate occasions, once in Egypt and once in Canaan, Abraham asked Sarah to lie about their relationship as husband and wife, and each time she was taken to the palace of the pharaoh/king to become a concubine. At no point do we hear Sarah’s voice in these stories, but it couldn’t have been good for their marriage. When we finally do hear Sarah speak, it is from a place of deep pain. She is barren, and it wounds her to the point where she commands Abraham to take her female slave Hagar to bear his child on Sarah’s behalf. When Hagar gives birth to Ishmael, she beings to taunt Sarah, and Sarah eventually drives both Hagar and Ishmael from the camp.

What do we really know about Sarah? At a minimum, her life was far removed from anything resembling paradise, the lush Garden.
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Here in VaYeira, Sarah expresses her pain again, this time through laughter and mockery. Her life has been hard, and she has suffered for so many years that she has become dry and withered – and has done so as Abraham’s wife. She is like a tree in the desert, which can find no water. Yet, in the midst of her pain, she may also be wondering -- could things actually change?

​“And Sarah laughed inwardly, saying, ‘After being shriveled, shall I have pleasure – with my husband so old?’” [Gen. 18:12]

Bringing a child into the world should be an act of love, and of faith in the future. It is difficult to imagine that Sarah had either. She may have seriously doubted, because they were so set in their ways (“with my husband so old”) that anything could change. How could she possibly conceive and give birth without love or hope?

Yet, the angel’s prediction, God’s promise, came true. One year later Sarah brought Isaac into the world.
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What if the miracle wasn’t just that an old woman got pregnant and birthed a healthy boy? What if the miracle was also that two people, old and set in their ways, somehow managed –with God’s help – to leave the parched desert and find their Garden together?