Comentario sobre Génesis 18:15

כי יראה וגו' כי צחקת FOR SHE WAS AFRAID… BUT THOU DIDST LAUGH — The first כי is used in the sense of “because”, giving a reason for the former statement—Sarah denied … because she was afraid; the second כי is used in the meaning of “but” — “and He said, ‘It is not as you say that you did not laugh, but thou didst laugh’.” For our Rabbis say (Rosh Hashanah 3a) that the word כי has four meanings: “if”, “perhaps”, “but”, “because”.

AND SARAH DENIED, SAYING. I wonder about the righteous prophetess:¹⁰³See above, Note 28, that Sarah was regarded as a prophetess. How did she deny that which G-d had said to the prophet,¹⁰⁴Abraham. In Megillah 14 a, Rashi quotes the Hilchoth Gedoloth listing the forty-eight prophets who arose in Israel, and the three patriarchs are listed among them. and also, why did she not believe in the words of G-d’s angels?
The answer appears to me to be that these angels who appeared as men came to Abraham, and he, in his wisdom, recognized them. They announced to him, “I will certainly return unto thee,¹⁰⁵Verse 10 here. and Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah heard it, but she did not know that they were angels of the Supreme One, as was the case with the wife of Manoah.¹⁰⁶Judges 13:6. It is even possible that she did not see them at all. Therefore she laughed within herself in derision, just [as the word “laugh” is used in the verse]: He that sitteth in heaven laugheth, the Eternal hath them in derision.¹⁰⁷Psalms 2:4. For joyous laughter is [expressed in Hebrew as originating] in the mouth — Then was our mouth filled with laughter¹⁰⁸Ibid., 126:2. — but laughter originating in the heart is not spoken of as joyous. Now the Holy One, blessed be He, accused her before Abraham as to why the matter appeared to her to be impossible. It was fitting for her to believe, or she should have said, “Amen, G-d do so!” Now Abraham said to her, “Why did you laugh? Is anything too hard for the Eternal?” He did not explain to her that G-d had revealed her secret to him. And she, because of Abraham’s fear of G-d, denied it for she thought that Abraham had said so through recognition of the expressions on her face or because she had kept quiet and gave no expression of praise and thanksgiving or joy. And he said to her, Nay, but thou didst laugh. Then she understood that it was told to him in a prophecy, and so she remained quiet and did not answer a word.
It is proper that we also say that Abraham had not revealed to her what had originally been told to him: Indeed, Sarah, thy wife shall bear thee a son.¹⁰⁹Above, 17:19. Perhaps he waited until G-d would send her the announcement on the following day for he knew that the Eternal G-d will do nothing, but He revealed His counsel unto His servants the prophets.¹¹⁰Amos 3:7. It may be that due to his great diligence in fulfilling commandments, he was occupied with his circumcision and the circumcision of the many people in his house. Afterward, on account of his weakness, he sat at the doorway of the tent, and the angels came before he had told her anything.

כי צחקת. “but you did laugh.” On most occasions when we encounter the word כי after the word לא, it means “but.” Actually, the word כי can have four different meanings, depending on the context in which it appears (Rashi). The meanings are: if, maybe, but, for. Examples of כי meaning “but,” are Exodus 23,24 לא תשתחוה להם כי הרוס תהרסם, “do not bow down to them but destroy them utterly.” Or, Deut. 15,7-8: לא תקפוץ את ידך כי פתוח תפתח, “do not ball your hand into a fist, but open it wide, etc.”

כי יראה, to say “I have sinned;” but she repented the lie in her heart.

ותכחש שרה, Sarah denied, saying, etc. The reason the Torah reports Sarah as saying לאמור, as well as that she was afraid, is to show that Sarah was so righteous that she did not utter an outright lie saying: "I did not laugh." She merely said something, i.e. לאמור, from which one could deduce that she meant to deny that she had laughed. As to the reason why she was not truthful, the Torah adds that this was because she was afraid. The Torah affords us an insight into the psychology of a trusted servant who is reprimanded by his master after having inadvertently committed an offense. When said servant reflects on the enormity of his mistake by contrasting it with the exalted stature of his master, he denies his mistake. This very denial is equivalent to an admission but said servant lacks the moral courage to say so. It was Abraham who challenged Sarah by saying: "No, but you did laugh." He wanted her to make a confession of having laughed. Abraham was aware that what G'd wanted in such a situation was a specific confession. Our prophets have always urged us to confess, as per Proverbs 28,13: "he who confesses and abandons sin will find mercy."

ותכחש...כי יראה, seeing that she was afraid she denied having laughed;

ותכחש שרה, “Sarah denied (having laughed derisively)” Nachmanides writes that he cannot get over the fact that a prophetess of the caliber of the matriarch Sarah denied that she had laughed at the prophecy and had not believed the prophecy delivered in the name of the Lord. The only possible answer he could accept was that seeing that these messages were delivered by people in human garb, low ranking individuals at that, this made it difficult for her to credit what they said. Avraham, in his wisdom, discerned who they were when they gave him the message that Sarah would have a son a year hence when one of them would come back. Sarah overheard what these men said without having seen them face to face, or suspecting that they were angels, as they had not introduced themselves as such. [as when these same “men” appeared to Lot later on, on the evening of the same day as “angels. (compare 19,1) This was not like the wife of Manoach to whom the angel appeared in the first place and addressed her face to face, and whose appearance already frightened her almost out of her wits. (Judges 13,3).] It is also possible that Sarah, not having seen these men at all, silently ridiculed the prophecy which she might have considered a blessing by strangers whom her husband had entertained, a situation similar to the one in which G’d is described as ridiculing man’s efforts when these efforts are intended to thwart His will. (Psalms 2,4) Nonetheless, G’d reprimanded Sarah by revealing her innermost thoughts, described here as laughter, to her husband. G’d’s complaint against Sarah was that she considered the prophecy as incapable of fulfillment, thereby displaying a lack of faith in G’d and in His powers. Instead of ridiculing the good tidings, she should have reacted by saying: “Amen, may it be G’d’s will.” Avraham challenged her about not having believed the prophecy by saying: “is anything impossible for the Lord,” היפלא מה' דבר?, and she, being afraid of her husband, resorted to denying that she had laughed at the prophecy. Avraham had not realized that what G’d had revealed to him, He had not revealed to Sarah. She was not sure whether Avraham had said the line היפלא מה' דבר because he wanted to flatter his guests who had made the prediction, or because he was displeased with Sarah’s silence instead of her grateful acknowledgment of the good news. It is proper to add here that clearly Avraham did not inform Sarah about what G’d had said to him in 17,19-21 when He had informed him that his wife Srarah would indeed bear a son for him, so that what Avraham had now heard from the angel was not news except for the time frame when the birth would take place. Avraham had not informed Sarah as he thought that G’d Himself would inform her, just as He had informed him. It is also possible that having been so preoccupied with the circumcision of his male household members, his son Ishmael, his own circumcision and the days of recuperation, it had slipped his mind to tell Sarah about this relatively minor item in the revelation he had experienced when Sarah’s name had also been changed. The sudden arrival of the angels had taken him by surprise.

ותכחש שרה, “Sarah denied having laughed;” How is it conceivable that our matriarch Sarah should not have believed the words of the angel? Was she not a prophetess? (compare Megillah 14) Our sages in Shemot Rabbah 1,1 explained that even Avraham was secondary in his stature of a prophet to Sarah! They derive this from 21,12 where G’d told Avraham: “whatever Sarah tells you to do, listen to her instruction!” Surely there is no prophet who is not aware that the angels are messengers of G’d, and that everything they say emanates from G’d. Furthermore, assuming that she had indeed not believed that the prediction of the angel would come true, surely she had no reason to deny what her reaction to the prophecy had been! This especially after the angel had demonstrated that he could read her thoughts and quoted her reaction back to her? What was the point of denying something the angel knew to be true?!
The answer is that Avraham was well aware that these visitors were men; however, he had realized that they must be angels due to his superior wisdom. I have already hinted at this in my commentary on verse two of this chapter. Sarah, however, did not have that sort of insight. She was under the impression that these were ordinary human beings. This is why she had laughed (silently) at what she considered a preposterous prediction. As to her denying that she had laughed when challenged, she did so out of fear of Avraham; she thought that Avraham had challenged her laughter (not the angel) not because he heard it but because he knew her psyche. When the angel insisted that Sarah had indeed laughed, it suddenly became clear to her that Avraham had been given a prophetic insight which had revealed to him that she had laughed. At that point she kept quiet. This is the interpretation of Nachmanides of these verses.

כי יראה, sie scheute sich, damit den Gast beleidigt zu haben. לא כי צהקת, du brauchst es nicht zu verleugnen, mögest es vielmehr nicht vergessen, dass du gelacht.

ותכחש שרה לאמור, “Sarah denied the accusation, saying, etc.” this is the origin of the Rabbinic ruling that in most matters women are not acceptable as witnesses, as our matriarch Sarah had been guilty of lying to the Almighty. [How much more would women lie to judges? Their lies are not due to their using falsehood as a way of life, but they are more easily intimidated than men, so that sometimes they tell lies to escape a harsh fate. Sarah, when becoming aware that her innermost thoughts were known to G-d, was suddenly very fearful, possibly recalling other occasions when she had had unbecoming thoughts though she had not voiced them. Ed.]

!ויאמר לא, for the angel knew that as Bileam said (Numbers 23,19) “seeing than man is not G’d, he lies and deceives,” לא איש א-ל ויכזב. He did not believe her at all.

!ויאמר לא, not as you say, for you truly did laugh.

כי יראה, “for she had become afraid;” some commentators, Rashi in the Talmud Gittin folio 90 included, claim that every time the word כי occurs in the Torah it ought to be translated as ארי, meaning that just as the word כי can have four different meanings in the Hebrew language so it has the same four different meanings in the Aramaic language.[The author proceeds why this must have been the meaning of Rashi; seeing that readers who have neither command of the Hebrew or the Aramaic language will not appreciate these nuances, I have omitted translating them. Ed.]