וַתִּצְחַק שָׂרָה בְּקִרְבָּהּ לֵאמֹר אַחֲרֵי בְלֹתִי הָיְתָה לִּי עֶדְנָה וַאדֹנִי זָקֵן (בראשית יח, יב).
In last week's parsha Lech Lecha we read of the only time that Avram ever questioned HKB"H regarding his personal life. Avram was not one to question HKB"H. He didn't question HKB"H when was told to leave his home and travel to an unknown destination. He didn't question HKB"H when he arrived there and suddenly there was a famine and he had to leave and go down to Egypt. He didn't question HKB"H when they got to Egypt and Pharaoh abducted his wife.
The only time Avram questions HKB"H regarding a personal matter is in connection with his offspring. In all other cases Avram has perfect faith in HKB"H, but not in this case. Avram asks HKB"H –
וַיֹּאמֶר אַבְרָם ה' אֱ-לקִים מַה תִּתֶּן לִי וְאָנֹכִי הוֹלֵךְ עֲרִירִי וּבֶן מֶשֶׁק בֵּיתִי הוּא דַּמֶּשֶׂק אֱלִיעֶזֶר. וַיֹּאמֶר אַבְרָם הֵן לִי לֹא נָתַתָּה זָרַע וְהִנֵּה בֶן בֵּיתִי יוֹרֵשׁ אֹתִי. (שם, טו, ב-ג)
HKB"H reassures Avram, הַבֶּט נָא הַשָּׁמַיְמָה וּסְפֹר הַכּוֹכָבִים אִם תּוּכַל לִסְפֹּר אֹתָם וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ כֹּה יִהְיֶה זַרְעֶךָ, do not worry – you will have so many offspring that it will be impossible to count them and they will inherit this land that I promised you.
This should be sufficient for Avram, but no! Avram continues to question HKB"H, בַּמָּה אֵדַע כִּי אִירָשֶׁנָּה, how do I know my descendants will inherit the land? Perhaps they will sin and then they will not merit the land?
HKB"H again reassures Avram יָדֹעַ תֵּדַע כִּי גֵר יִהְיֶה זַרְעֲךָ בְּאֶרֶץ לֹא לָהֶם, yes - your descendants will sin and they will be periodically punished with galut, but in the end they will inherit the land in perpetuity.
Why in this instance does Avram not have perfect faith in HKB"H? Why the insecurity in this specific subject, when in all other subjects Avram does have faith?
Later in last week's parsha we read about HKB"H changing Avram's name to Avraham, by adding a ה to his name. Also adding a ה to Sarai's name, making it Sarah. Only once the letter ה has been added to Avraham and Sarah's names, will they be able to give birth to a mutual son - Yitzchak.
To understand what is going on here, we need to examine a Gemara (יבמות סד א-ב). According to R' Ami, Avraham Avinu was a טוּמְטוּם, in other words he had no visible reproductive organs. On the following amud R' Nachman in the name of Raba son of Avuha says that Sarai was an אַיְלוֹנִית, in other words, she had no uterus. Avram and Sarai were both born with physical birth defects connected to their reproductive systems, which prevented them from having children.
According to the Kli Yakar (בראשית יז, טו), by adding the letter ה to both their names, their physical anatomy was miraculously altered and they could now both bear children.
This perush of the Kli Yakar raises a question. Even before HKB"H added the letter ה to Avraham's name, Avram was able to bear a child with Hagar – Yishmael. This also raises a question on the opinion of R' Ami in the Gemara above, that Avraham was a טוּמְטוּם. If so, how could he give birth to Yishmael?
Perhaps the answer to both these questions can be explained that although the reproductive organs of a טוּמְטוּם are not visible, that does not mean that they do not exist. According to the Rambam (הל' אישות ב, כה) it means that they are simply covered by a layer of skin and although they are not visible, they still exist.
Another question may be asked on the Gemara above, regarding Sarah. If she was an אַיְלוֹנִית, how was it possible that she could still have a menstrual cycle? The passuk in our parsha says חָדַל לִהְיוֹת לְשָׂרָה אֹרַח כַּנָּשִׁים (בראשית יח, יא), that Sarah was old and had long stopped having monthly cycles.
This means that when she was younger, she did. How is this possible if she was an אַיְלוֹנִית? Perhaps the answer to this question is that the absence of a uterus does not prevent the menstrual cycle, which emanates from the ovaries, but the lack of a uterus does preclude having children.
Another factor in the equation is that both Avraham and Sarah were past child bearing age (Avraham-100, Sarah-90).
Undoubtedly, from a purely anatomical/physiological aspect, the fact that Avraham and Sarah bore a mutual child was miraculous and it was related to the letter ה, which, according to the Zohar (זהר חדש, שיר השירים א, ח), is related to fertility.
In this shiur I would like to explore a different perush on the power of the letter ה in relation to bearing children.
Having children is one of the most important mitzvot in the Torah, it is the first mitzva in the Torah. The Torah is all about life (עֵץ חַיִּים הִיא) and the perpetuation of life is fundamental to everything the Torah stands for.
How does the addition of a letter ה to someone's name enable them to create new life?
Building on the Zohar's mystical explanation above that somehow the letter ה affects the fertility process, the letter ה has an additional significance. The letter ה is the fifth letter in the alphabet, it has a numerical value (gematria) of five, or חמש in Hebrew.
Why is the number five called חמש in Hebrew? The letters חמש are a reflection of the word שמח. The letter ה is the "joyous" letter and the number five is the "joyous" number. How do we know this? The Hebrew word for joy is שמחה, which is made up of the letters חמש and ה. The Gemara (Chagiga 12b) tells us that of the seven layers in Heaven, the fifth layer מָעוֹן is the source of "joy" (which is why we say in birkat hamazon at a wedding - שֶׁהַשִּׂמְחָה בִּמְעוֹנוֹ).
According to this shita, by adding a letter ה to both Avraham's and Sarah's names, HKB"H was adding a dimension to each of them that did not previously exist, the dimension of joy.
This is not to say that until then Avraham and Sarah did not serve HKB"H בְּשִׂמְחָה, but it was a joy that was lacking. The knowledge that when they died, if they had no children, this שִׂמְחָה would not be perpetuated – detracted from their שִׂמְחָה. After Yitzchak was born and the certainty that their שִׂמְחָה would be perpetuated, made it complete.
How can we prove this theory, that adding the letter ה to their names – gave them שִׂמְחָה?
If we revisit last week's parsha, HKB"H changed Avraham's and Sarah's names and HKB"H commanded Avraham to perform Brit Milah (perhaps the Brit also somehow affected the anatomical limitation of Avraham bearing children). Until now it is all HKB"H doing the talking, we then encounter Avraham's first response to all of this - וַיִּפֹּל אַבְרָהָם עַל פָּנָיו וַיִּצְחָק.
Avraham falls on his face in joy. It is true that וַיִּצְחָק could also mean "laughing", but that is not how Onkelos translates it in this specific context, he translates it as חְדִּי, meaning joy (from the root of the word חֶדְוָה). When Avraham heard that he and Sarah would bear a mutual son, he expressed joy. Yitzchak is named after this same joy that Avraham experienced.
So far Sarah is unaware of all of this. She does not yet know her name has been changed to Sarah and that she will give birth to a son. When does she know both these things for the first time? In our parsha, when the angel Michael says שׁוֹב אָשׁוּב אֵלֶיךָ כָּעֵת חַיָּה וְהִנֵּה בֵן לְשָׂרָה אִשְׁתֶּךָ.
Sarai overhears Michael telling Avraham that her name is no longer Sarai, that a letter ה has replaced the "yud" in her name and that she will bear a son. In response to this, what is Sarah's first reaction? וַתִּצְחַק שָׂרָה בְּקִרְבָּהּ.
One would think that both Avraham's and Sarah's responses to this new turn of events are one and the same – וַיִּצְחָק/וַתִּצְחַק, right? Same word, one in the masculine and one in the feminine. Wrong! Onkelos does not translate Sarah's וַתִּצְחַק in the same way as Avraham's וַיִּצְחָק. Onkelos translates Sarah's וַתִּצְחַק as חַיֵּיכַת. The Radak and Ralbag both say that this expression was not one of joy, but mockery, an expression of lack of faith in HKB"H. The fact is that HKB"H immediately criticizes Sarah for this, לָמָּה זֶּה צָחֲקָה שָׂרָה.
So how can this be? Both Avraham had the letter ה added to their names, the same letter ה, right? Not exactly. In the Torah there are three different types of letters ה.
The first is the regular letter ה, which we encounter throughout the Torah.
The second is a small letter ה, called הֵא זְעִירִי, found in parshat Breishit אֵלֶּה תוֹלְדוֹת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְהָאָרֶץ בְּהבָּרְאָם (בראשית ב, ד), which, according to the Midrash (תנחומא הקדום, בראשית טז) means that HKB"H created the world because of אברהם (switching around the letters הבראם).
The third is a large letter ה, called הֵא רַבָּתִי, found in parshat Haazinu הֲלַה' תִּגְמְלוּ זֹאת (דברים לב, ו), which indicates a negative context worthy of rebuke.
Using this model, it appears that Avraham's response to the addition of the letter ה to his name was that of the small הֵא זְעִירִי, that the entire world was created because of Avraham, but also because of the small letter ה, indicating true joy. The sole purpose of Creation of the world was that there be true joy! Sarah's response, on the other hand, to the addition of the letter ה to her name seems to be that of the הֵא רַבָּתִי, which is not complete joy, and hence elicited Divine rebuke.
How is it possible that Sarah "lacked faith"? Being told that she was to finally bear a child caused a response of mockery? With Sarah Imeinu? Such a thing is inconceivable! The Midrash (שמות רבה, א, א) says that Sarah's powers of prophecy were greater than Avraham's!
Let us examine Sarah's response to HKB"H's rebuke וַתְּכַחֵשׁ שָׂרָה לֵאמֹר לֹא צָחַקְתִּי כִּי יָרֵאָה (בראשית יח, טו), I was not mocking, I was fearful! What does the word יָרֵאָה mean? It means "fearful", but more than that, it means יָרֵא-ה, I am fearful of the letter ה! There is fear in the joy! Why would Sarah be fearful of experiencing joy? Simply because she was a greater prophetess than Avraham was a prophet.
When Michael gave her the news that she was to have a son Yitzchak, she saw by prophecy that at some point in the future Avraham would bind Yitzchak on the mizbeach at the Akeida and that she would die as a result. This is in fact what happened, she died thinking that Yitzchak had been sacrificed – that the joy after hearing Michael's announcement was to be in vain, it would all be for naught!
Her joy was not complete like Avraham's, it was tinged with sorrow. (I have not found any source for this perush so you should take it בְּעֵרָבוֹן מֻגְבָּל, but כָּךְ נלע"ד as there is a hint in the passuk – the gematria of וַתִּצְחַק שָׂרָה in milui format ואו תיו צדי חית קוף שין ריש הא is the same gematria as וַיֵּלֶךְ אַבְרָהָם וַיִּקַּח אֶת הָאַיִל וַיַּעֲלֵהוּ לְעֹלָה תַּחַת בְּנוֹ [בראשית כב, יג]).
We find a similar thing in the Haftara with the אִשָּׁה הַשּׁוּנַמִּית. The navi אֱלִישָׁע says to her – "This time next year you will hug a son!", to which she replies אַל תְּכַזֵּב בְּשִׁפְחָתֶךָ, don't disappoint me! The navi has just promised her she will have a son and this is her reply? She should cry tears of joy and kiss his feet! In fact, what happened? She did give birth to a son but a short time later he died!
The אִשָּׁה הַשּׁוּנַמִּית had a premonition that something was going to happen to her son just like Sarah. According to some Mefarshim Yitzchak actually did die at the Akeida and was reborn, just like the son of the אִשָּׁה הַשּׁוּנַמִּית was resurrected by אֱלִישָׁע. Sarah and the אִשָּׁה הַשּׁוּנַמִּית both received joyous news, but it was not complete joy.
In the end, Sarah did not merit seeing her son Yitzchak married and her grandson Yaakov, her lesser joy (compared to Avraham), became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Avraham had another "tidbit" of knowledge that Sarah did not. HKB"H transmitted to Avraham by prophecy (not to Sarah) before the בְּרִית בֵּין הַבְּתָרִים that his descendants (referring to Yitzchak, not Yishmael), would inherit Eretz Yisrael. This is what enabled Avraham to transcend the trial of the Akeida - if HKB"H promised, then He will keep his promise. Although Sarah's powers of prophecy were greater than Avraham's, some things were told only to her and some only to Avraham.
So, in all fairness, we cannot compare the degrees of faith of Avraham and Sarah - they were each working with what each had been given. In a previous shiur (Vayeira 2024) we discussed the fact that it was not only Avraham who was tested with ten trials, but also Sarah – not exactly the same trials.
It is completely clear that the addition of the letter ה to both Avraham's and Sarah's names enabled them to miraculously have a son Yitzchak. When Avraham expressed true joy at HKB"H's revelation of him and Sarah bearing a son, the passuk continues הַ-לְּבֶן מֵאָה שָׁנָה יִוָּלֵד וְאִם שָׂרָה הֲ-בַת תִּשְׁעִים שָׁנָה תֵּלֵד (בראשית יז, יז). It is only possible because of the letter ה, the addition of joy to their lives.
According to sefer Meir Panim, the first time a calamity occurred in history because someone did not have pure joy, was with Adam HaRishon. The first words HKB"H spoke to Adam were – וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם אֱ-לֹקִים פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ, procreate, have children! The psukkim tell us that this was not the first thing Adam did, it should have been, but it was not.
Only after Adam sinned by eating from the עֵץ הַדַּעַת and was expelled from Gan Eden - did he have children with Chava. Why did Adam not rush to perform the first mitzva in the Torah, the first thing HKB"H told him to do? The answer is complicated and beyond the scope of this shiur. Suffice it to say that Adam had not yet acquired true joy and to procreate requires pure joy.
Pure joy originates from the layer in Heaven called מָעוֹן, which is presided over by an angel called ס"מ. Since Adam HaRishon was totally disconnected from the ס"מ he did had not acquired pure joy. Had Adam HaRishon waited until Shabbat and not eaten from the עֵץ הַדַּעַת on the sixth day, he would have experienced the true joy of Shabbat and also been allowed to eat from the עֵץ הַדַּעַת. Since Adam HaRishon's first encounter with the ס"מ occurred before he experienced the holiness of Shabbat, instead of Adam controlling the ס"מ, the ס"מ ended up controlling him.
What lesson does all of this teach us?
The reason for creating the world was that there would be true joy. The first person in Creation to experience true joy was Avraham Avinu, after HKB"H added a letter ה to his name.
We, Am Yisrael, are the descendants of Avraham Avinu and we are genetically imbued by the true joy of the letter ה from Avraham. It is in our DNA, in our צֶלֶם אֱ-לֹקִים. It is a reflection of HKB"H's DNA, His name י-ק-ו-ק has TWO letters ה in it, the first reflecting a small letter ה and the second a large letter ה (see shiur on Haazinu 2023).
What this means for us on a practical level, is that we need to wake up each morning with the expectation of pure joy.
It is pretentious to expect people to wake up each day with pure joy. When we wake up, we feel aches and pains in parts of our bodies that yesterday didn't experience pain (for all the old fogeys amongst us). We wake up into realities that do not necessarily conjure up feelings of true joy – problems with our bank manager, with our kids, with our parents, with our landlord, with our prime minister, with our IDF chief prosecutor, with our New York city mayor, yada yada yada … the list is endless. What reason do we have to expect that today will be different to yesterday, when we had a quarrel with our spouse, when we cut our finger while making a salad, when Mashiach didn't arrive, not yesterday, nor the day before, nor two days before!
The lesson is – every day is a brand-new day! Forget about what happened yesterday, wake up each morning with the promise of a new day. So what if most of our life so far, things have not been so hunky dory! Today is a brand-new day and anything can happen. Avraham woke up one morning when he was 100 years old and everything changed on that day. Sometimes it can be at age 100, or at age 40 or age 15. Who knows what HKB"H has in store for us?
Our job is to be תָּמִים with HKB"H. Not to chas veshalom bear any grudge for anything that has gone "wrong" in our lives to date. To experience each day as if it is the first day of the rest of our lives, which it is. Anything can happen! We need to constantly live our lives not in the expectation of disaster, but in the expectation of joy. When someone lives their life expecting good things to happen, they usually do. Reality is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you expect good things to happen, they usually do (and vice versa, chalila). Anyone who lives their life in the expectation of joy, is a true son and daughter of Avraham Avinu and Sarah Imeinu.
So what if the Mashiach has not arrived yet, after almost 2000 years since the Mikdash was destroyed – אֲחַכֶּה לוֹ בְּכָל יוֹם שֶׁיָּבוֹא. Perhaps today will be the day, perhaps tomorrow! A true Jew never experiences despair, יֵאוּשׁ. We learn this in our parsha from אֱלִיעֶזֶר, servant of Avraham. During the war of the 4 vs. 5 kings, Avraham goes to save Lot. How many men does he take with him? 318 -וַיָּרֶק אֶת חֲנִיכָיו יְלִידֵי בֵיתוֹ שְׁמֹנָה עָשָׂר וּשְׁלֹשׁ מֵאוֹת (בראשית יד, יד).
According to the Gemara (Nedarim 32a) it was only Avraham and Eliezer alone, the gematria of אֱלִיעֶזֶר is 318. R' Tzaddok HaKohen of Lublin says that the word despair יֵאוּשׁ in gematria is 317. The number 318 therefore represents "one-above-despair", i.e no despair! Even though they were facing millions of enemies, Avraham and Eliezer did not despair.
Simchat Torah תשפ"ד was a national tragedy and a wakeup call for Am Yisrael. Letters have meaning and the letters תשפ"ד are not positive letters, they mean "skewered" in Hebrew. That is what we felt like after October 7, that the חֶרֶב had been let loose on us. The following year תשפ"ה was a better year, it was a year that Am Yisrael did cheshbon nefesh and rose up to defend ourselves against our enemies from without and within. Letters have meaning and תשפ"ה has the letter ה in it, the letter of joy.
How much joy did we experience in תשפ"ה! נִסִּים גְּלוּיִים mamash with victories on all fronts, Lebanon, Syria, Iran!!! Who would ever have imagined five years ago that we would wipe out Iran's nuclear capability and rope in the USA to help us finish the job? It was a year of great joy and awakening for Am Yisrael, showing us what we can achieve when we are united.
Just recently all our remaining live hostages were released by the evil Hamas terrorists. Nobody in their wildest imagination thought that they would ever release all our hostages. נִסִּים גְּלוּיִים. We are also getting all the bodies of those slain in captivity, slowly but surely, to bring them to קֶבֶר יִשְׂרָאֵל.
What about disarming Hamas and not allowing Turkey, Qatar, Egypt and the PLO to gain a foothold in Gaza?
Who said it is all over? We need to live each day with the expectation that good things will happen. We have SO much reason to believe they will.
HKB"H's merciful name י-ק-ו-ק has two letters ה in, one letter ו and one letter י. The two ה's we already experienced in תשפ"ה. B"H this year תשפ"ו we will experience the ו, which according to תּוֹרַת הַסּוֹד represents the six Sefirot of the זְעֵיר אַנְפִּין, the Torah. B"H תשפ"ו will be a year of continued return of Am Yisrael to HKB"H's Torah. We have seen such an incredible awakening in Am Yisrael recently, b"H it should continue. תשפ"ו should be the year of וְאַתָּה תְּשׁוּפֶנּוּ עָקֵב, when the yetzer harah finally becomes subservient to Am Yisrael in אַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים, thus heralding the Geulah and HKB"H resetting the world to the time of Creation, with the י, the same עֲשָׂרָה מַאֲמָרוֹת that He used to create the world. And finally, in year תשפ"ז, it should be the seventh, Sabbatical year of the ז, the beginning of a new era for the world יוֹם שֶׁכֻּלּוֹ שַׁבָּת וּמְנוּחָה לְחַיֵּי הָעוֹלָמִים.
אָז יִמָּלֵא שְׂחוֹק פִּינוּ וּלְשׁוֹנֵנוּ רִנָּה (תהילים קכו, ב)
Let us commemorate the World Shabbat Project this Shabbat in joy, when Jews from around the world unite as one to express our joy in being Jews and our longing for an umbilical connection with HKB"H's Shechina, in our midst forever.
Shabbat Shalom
Eliezer Meir Saidel
Machon Lechem Hapanim
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