In synagogue, Jews used to only give thanks for the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Nowadays, many synagogues also acknowledge the matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel. Let’s get to know Prophetess Sarah, who was the first matriarch and mother of all those who have been ‘grafted in’.
It is interesting that of the four only Leah did not have problems conceiving. This either points to fertility problems in early Israel or perhaps the Bible’s inclination to add value to offspring by their being hard-won. Maybe it’s both. To the folk of the time, infertility was considered a punishment, yet all these women who had such difficulty were called ‘Righteous’.
A RIGHTEOUS WOMAN
According to Jewish Women’s Archive— The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women— Prophetess Sarah has come to symbolize motherhood for the whole world. “The midrash* present her as a prophet and a righteous woman whose actions are worthy of emulation.”
She was married to Abraham, her half-uncle since Haran, his brother, was her father. Originally, called Sarai, (“my princess”) this was changed to Sarah (“ruler”). According to the midrash, this was as a reward for her good deeds. The great 11th century Rabbi and thinker, Rashi, said that Sarah converted many women to faith in God. He also maintained that her shabbat lights burned miraculously from one sabbath to the next, that her bread was blessed and abundant and that a cloud hovered over her tent, presumably the Shekinah.**
Sarah was renowned for her beauty, such that when a famine in Israel drove her and Abraham to Egypt, Pharaoh desired her. Later, back home in Gerar (close to present-day Beersheba), King Abimelech also fell for her, (see Genesis 20). The king was warned in a dream not to sleep with her, even though a scared Abraham was saying she was his sister.
BEAUTIFUL
The rabbis deemed her one of the four most beautiful women in the world, together with Rahab, Abigail and Esther. Only Eve was ‘comelier’, (BT Bava Batra 58a). A 1st century BC document talks at length of Sarah’s beauty, (Genesis Apocryphon 36).
Even though Abraham had received the promise of God that he would become father to a great nation, ten years after their return to the Holy Land, Sarah had still not been blessed with a child. Losing patience that her biological clock was ticking, she offered her servant, Hagar, to her husband to bear a child. Hagar was soon pregnant with Ishmael. Hagar became uppity about her fertility compared to the lack of that of her mistress.
PROPHETESS SARAH
The rabbis believe that God told Abraham to listen to Sarah when she said she wanted Hagar gone because she was a greater prophet than he was. God says, “Listen to whatever Sarah tells you.” Genesis 21:12.
In Judaism, she is known as the first of Seven Prophetesses of Jewish history, alongside Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Huldah and Esther.*** You can read more about The Seven Prophetesses here. Abraham’s respect for her was so high that it is said he would erect Sarah’s tent before his own, when they were travelling (Gen. Rabbah 39:15).
SHE LAUGHED
They would be blessed with a child of their own in their senior years and name him Isaac (“he will laugh”). Sarah, hiding in her tent, laughed at the idea of producing a child at the age of ninety, when this was foretold by three visitors, who, according to the midrash, were Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. Sarah prepared cakes for them, identical to the manna received from heaven by the Israelites in the wilderness, (Gen. Rabbah 48:12). Upon their prophecy, to Sarah’s amazement, her body regained its youth, Rashi says, while other sources consider that Sarah remained as beautiful as a bride throughout her life, (Gen. Rabbah 45:4).
BIRTH OF ISAAC
Isaac was said to be born on the 15th of Nisan, the day after Passover begins. This was also the day on which the visitors came and Sarah conceived, and the day Moses and the children of Israel set out from slavery in Egypt, (Seder Olam Rabbah 5) Abraham circumcised him on his 8th day (Gen 21:4). Sarah was overjoyed: “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” (Gen 21:6) The people didn’t believe her, Rashi says, until they brought their own babies to her to nurse.****
BLESSED LATE
Sarah is one of the 7 barren women who, according to the midrash, (Pesikta de-Rav Kahana, Roni Akarah 20:1) were eventually blessed with children, the others being Rebekah, Rachel, Leah, Manoah’s wife, Hannah and Zion. “He settles the childless woman in her home as a happy mother of children.” (Psalm 113:9). In the New Testament we also find Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist in this situation.
HER SOUL FLEW AWAY
Rashi says that Sarah was 127 years old when God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. (That would make Isaac 37 years old and not the slip of a boy he is often portrayed at in the Akedah (“Binding”) story). Although God spared Isaac, Rashi said that Sarah’s “soul flew away” and she died. She was buried in Hebron after Abraham bought a field there with a cave in it, traditionally the very spot where Adam and Eve were buried and where all the other patriarchs and matriarchs, except Rachel, would lie.
A Torah portion, telling what happened after Sarah’s death, is named Chayei Sarah (“Life of Sarah”). It is the only portion named after a woman.
*Midrash = commentary that puts flesh on the Bible’s bare bones.
** The glory of the divine presence of God.
*** Talmud, Megillah 14a and Rashi
**** Rashi’s interpretation of Gen 21:7.
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