Laughter's Lessons
Adapted by Channie Koplowitz Stein
Parshat Vayera begins with three angels in the guise of wayfarers accepting Avraham Avinu’s hospitality. The first angel informs Avraham Avinu that next year at this time Sara will give birth to a son. Sarah Imenu, listening in the opening of the tent, laughs. Hashem confronts Sarah, “Why did Sarah laugh?… Is anything beyond Hashem?”
Before we begin our discussion of Hashem’s reaction to Sarah Imenu’s laughter, it is necessary to understand the nature of laughter itself. Laughter is a response to something unusual and unexpected. As Rabbetzin Yemima Mizrachi explains, צחק /tzchok laughter can be divided into two words, צא חק/ tzei chok, leave the law [of nature]. Yet the laughter itself may be joyful and holy, or cynical and destructive.
So our question is why did Sarah Imenu laugh? Ramban explains that her reaction was natural in that she and Avraham Avinu were old, she - well beyond child bearing years. Whereas Hashem Himself had previously informed Avraham Avinu of this blessing, and he too had initially reacted with laughter, Sarah Imenu had not been privy to that prophecy, and here she was hearing it for the first time from what appeared to be simple human beings being polite guests. Nevertheless, her response should have been, “Amen.” Further, adds the Manchester Rosh Yeshiva zt”l in Yirah Vedeiah, that she did not respond immediately with Amen reflects a lack of faith, however minuscule. Along these same lines, when we answer Amen to any blessing, it should be with the full belief that reality can change at any moment, for Hashem is constantly recreating the world. It is only His promise that keeps day and night constantly following each other.
You can hear something and know it intellectually, but if you are not ready to act on it, that knowledge is not absolute. Rabbi Wolbe zt”l presents the example of Noach. Although he knew that the flood was imminent, he did not enter the ark until he was forced to by the dangerous water level. In contrast, Rabbi Yochanah ben Zakai zt”l addressed Vespasian as Caesar, risking death, before it was known that indeed Vespasian had become caesar, before Vespasian himself had received the news. Rabbi Yochanah ben Zakai based his address on the Torah’s verse that predicts that the Mikdash will be destroyed by a king. This absolute faith in the words of Torah was the catalyst that enabled the continuation of Torah, for Vespasian granted Rabbi Yochanan his request to spare Yavneh and its Sages. Sarah Imenu should have answered Amen, for Heaven does not rely on our perception of age or reality.
A true believer never gives up hope, even when the “sword is already at one’s throat.” even when death is certain. We have witnessed this truth very recently with the miraculous deliverance of the FlyDubai plane from certain catastrophe.
We need to believe that all creation is in Hashem’s hands, and we need to respond to every situation we find ourselves in with that faith. We are generally not tested to the depths of our being as was Sarah ImenuImeinu, but our faith is nevertheless tested in big ways and small every day, notes R’ Chatzkel Levenstein zt”l. There is no difference between “natural” salvation and the miraculous. Do we rely solely on the doctor’s opinion, or do we trust that the doctor is an instrument in Hashem’s hand? With that trust, we put in our effort not only in searching for the competent doctor, but by heartfelt prayer to the actual Healer.
Of course Sarah Imenu yearned for a child, of course she believed it would happen, but when she did not automatically respond to this blessing with Amen, we note the tiniest bit of disbelief. She could not dismiss nature totally as a mirage, writes Rabbi Beyfus.
But why did she not believe fully? Even if she thought these strangers were prophets, they did not have the power to change nature and grant her a son. She did not realize that these were not a prophet’s blessing, but the actual words of Hashem transmitted through these messengers, writes Seforno zt”l. The Seforno adds that even greater than the blessing of a tzadik or a prophet is the power of tefillah.
At the end of Shemoneh Esrei, we recite, “Lema’an yeicholtzun yedidecha.../That your loved ones may be delivered…” We are Your beloved friends. On this basis we ask that Hashem does our will, writes Rabbi Grossbard zt”l. But we need to make ourselves open receivers of His blessings. Our prayers are the process by which we open ourselves to receive His blessings. And tefillah does not require journey to distant places, or even to our holy Eretz Yisroel. Sincere prayer is effective in your local shul, even in your own home.
This is especially so during Shemoneh Esrei. R’ Shimshon Pincus zt”l teaches that during Shemoneh Esrei we are standing before the King, even if in our limited minds we are unable to conceptualize His presence before us. Tefillah is the gate we open to receive Hashem’s blessing, blessings that await us but can be actualized only through the power of prayer. [Even in creation, all grass and plants were created in potential, but did not grow and actualize until the creation of Adam and his prayer. CKS]
Rav Scheinerman brings a different focus to our discussion. He puts the laughter in the greater context of one’s demeanor. When Avraham Avinu heard this promise from Hashem, he fell on his face in gratitude and humility, framing the laughter in acceptance and joy. In contrast, Sarah Imenu heard the words and simply laughed, as in disbelief. Words and their tone create reality, both positively and negatively.
Rabbi Scheinerman quotes R’ Aryeh Levin’s wife who cites the circumstances between the Shunamit woman and the Prophet Elisha. When her son suddenly died, she hastened to Elisha for help, but she never stated the problem. Both when Elisha’s servant and Elisha himself asked about her husband and child, she answered, “Shalom [Everything is fine]. Elisha understood she would not have come to him unless something terrible had happened, and Hashem gave him the ability to revive the child. But the mother refused to say that the child had died, for that would have concretized the reality.
In contrast, Sarah Imenu three times laughingly said, “I will have a child?” negating the initial blessing. Therefore Hashem had to repeat the blessing to counteract her negation of the blessing.
Rabbi Moshe Breslover presents an interesting variation to our study. The Pharaoh Ptolemy commissioned seventy Jewish scholars to translate the Torah into Greek. Putting each scholar into a separate room so they would not consult with each other, he hoped to find variations in the translations that he would then say negate the divinity of Torah. In the scholars’ translations, all seventy were exactly the same, including fifteen variations the scholars made to foil Ptolemy’s plan. One of those variations is in our verse. The Torah verse states that Sarah Imenu laughed בקרבה, within herself, silently. All seventy scholars changed it to בקרוביה, she said to those close to her. The scholars were trying to emphasize the difference between the laughter of Avraham Avinu, as being internal, and the laughter of Sarah, as publicly mocking. [Perhaps the most famous variation was the change to the first word of Torah; “God created in the beginning.” CKS]
And yet, both Avraham Avinu and Sarah Imenu laughed. According to the Chizkuni, they were both wrong. When Hashem admonished Sarah, Avraham Avinu understood that he too was being criticized, but Hashem was keeping him from embarrassment.
On the other hand, the Shvilei Pinchas suggests that Sarah Imenu laughed purposely, not because she didn’t believe, but because Yishmael was behind her, and she wanted Yishmael to believe there was no truth in this statement so that he would not put an evil eye on this prediction. What she failed to realize was that a blessing directly from Hashem, even through a messenger, is immune to the evil eye.
A simple way to ward off an ayin horo when someone compliments us or gives us good news is to immediately acknowledge the source of all good, to immediately say, “Bechasdei Hashem/ Through Hashem’s benevolence [do I have this good].” Or she could have invoked one of Hashem’s Names that deflect the evil eye, the three lettered Name Hei Aleph Aleph, the Name formed by the first letters of HaAf Amnam Aileid, the phrase Hashem told Avraham Avinu when He told him that Sarah Imenu had laughed. Had she said that, she would have acknowledged that although she could not give birth, Hashem could enable her to give birth.
In Sarah’s lapse, the Ohel Moshe sees a lesson for all of us. We all have challenges, both personal and national. Especially in this long exile when we are surrounded by our enemies, we should never give up hope, for we have the power of tefillah. The salvation will happen; look at Avraham Avinu and Sarah Imenu.
In truth, writes Rabbi Wolfson zt”l, our very existence is a miracle. From a natural perspective, that a ninety year old woman could give birth was laughable, so beyond all laws of nature. So too is the continued existence of Am Yisroel. The name Yitzchak was absolutely prophetic, a name that continues to give us hope to this very day.