Cytowanie Komentarza do Sędziów 13:3

is with child This is actually the future, as we find concerning Manoah’s wife, that the angel said to her (Judges 13:3): “And you shall conceive and bear a son,” and it is written, “Behold, you are with child and shall bear a son.”

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.