Comentário sobre Gênesis 18:12

בקרבה [SARAH LAUGHED] WITHIN HERSELF (or, REGARDING HER INSIDE) — She reflected on her physical condition, saying, “Is it possible that this womb shall bear a child, that these dried-up breasts shall give forth milk” (Midrash Tanchuma, Shoftim 18).

עדנה, a form of the skin becoming elastic and the wrinkles straightening out.

ותצחק שרה, she assumed that the words of the angel were merely a blessing, not a prophecy, as occurred with the prophet Elisha. (Kings II 4,16) She believed that when such a blessing is given to old people, people who would require a miracle for the blessing to come true, it would not be effective in her case. She considered the kind of rejuvenation required for her to bear a child as equivalent to reviving the dead. Such an act, in her opinion, required G’d’s personal attention, not merely that of a prophet. At the very least it would come about in answer to a prayer.

ותצחק שרה בקרבה, Sarah laughed derisively internally, not audibly; she did not believe that the man who had made the prediction was an angel, though she assumed that he was a prophet.

ותצחק שרה, “Sarah laughed (internally),” This was not like the joyful laughter the Torah reports Avraham as breaking out into in 17,17 upon being told something similar by G’d. Avraham rejoiced because he believed the message, whereas Sarah found the message as beyond belief. The reason that she did not match her husband in believing in this instance was that whereas he had received the message from G’d directly, she had only heard it from a man dressed like an Arab. [even though she laughed soundlessly, so as not to embarrass the messenger. Ed.]

Das Präteritum היתה im Satz ist ungemein schwierig. Vielleicht: es kam ihr lächerlich vor, dass man einst noch sagen sollte, in ihrem abgelebten, entkräfteten Alter wäre ihr die Befriedigung ihres höchsten irdischen Wunsches geworden.

ותצחק שרה, “Sarah laughed;” when the month of Tishrey began, six months after the prediction of the angels, and she had not experienced signs of pregnancy, she abandoned all hope of that prophecy becoming true, as there were only six months left for it to become true. Contrary to her husband Avraham, she had lost faith in the prediction. The reason that Avraham maintained faith in the prediction was that he had heard it from G-d directly, (the angel had spoken to him in the name of the Lord), whereas Sarah, had only been an eavesdropper, and possibly she had not heard correctly. She had assumed that the angels speaking to Avraham had been ordinary human beings. She took a look at her belly and asked mockingly whether such a belly could possibly produce a fetus. As soon as she had done so, in Tishrey, G-d asked Avraham why Sarah had reacted in such a manner, adding that at the time appointed, i.e. when a year had passed at the time of Passover, in the following year, the angel would return and she would have become a mother. In practice this means that the first time she heard the prediction she had heard it from the mouth of an angel whom she had believed to be a mortal human being. The second time Avraham heard it from G-d directly, i.e. 'ויאמר ה, “the Lord said;” this was followed by G-d adding: “Is anything impossible for the Lord to do?”Support for this interpretation can be found seeing that when the angels on the same evening met Lot, Lot offered them unleavened bread, matzot for supper, a hint that the date was the date that would later on become the night of the Seder of the Jewish people.[This is not far fetched at all, as the night when Avraham had fought and secured Lot’s freedom, had been the corresponding date, and Lot therefore had good reason to observe it as an anniversary of great significance for him also. Compare the numerous commentaries on Genesis 14,15, ויחלק עליהם לילה, “He divided the night for them.” Ed.] In the Talmud Rosh Hashanah, 11 both Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yoshua are quoted as in agreement that three previously barren women, i.e. Sarah, Rachel and Chanah, all became pregnant on Rosh Hashanah.

עדנה means glistening flesh (skin), and so it is used in the Mishna (Menachot 86a): it makes the hair fall out and the skin smooth (מעדן).

לאמור, she contemplated saying out loud what she had only been thinking so far. Even though, she did not laugh in the angel’s face, but contained herself due to her good manners, asking instead in wonderment:

בקרבה, “in her heart and mind;”

אחרי בלותי היתה לי עדנה, how is it possible that I, who have stopped ovulating should become sufficiently rejuvenated? The word עדנה refers to youthful flesh and skin. It describes a certain elasticity of the skin. The angel was fully aware that she had laughed; this is why he said to Avraham: why did Sarah laugh?

לאמור, what is the meaning of this word, which literally means: “to say;” [apparently contradicting the previous word, Ed.] According to the plain meaning we should assume that this word here is no different from elsewhere where it appears and means that certain thoughts were to be voiced by mouth. Sarah then would have prepared to voice her opinion of the prophecy which had not come true. In other words: she was ready to voice her ridicule publicly. This would account for the fact that the Torah took her to task for her disbelief more so than it had taken to task Avraham in Genesis 17,17, where he is reported to have reacted similarly to the promise by G-d that Sarah would become the mother of a son of his. However, he had not intended to go public with his doubts.

אחרי בלותי, “after I have ceased menstruating?” Sarah is almost incredulous that nature would reverse itself in her case. She adds that even assuming that she has experienced this kind of rejuvenation, she knows from her personal experience that her husband has not experienced such symptoms. This latter thought of Sarah is the one the Torah did not reveal to Avraham, not wishing to cause friction between Sarah and her husband by revealing that she considered him impotent. If you wonder about the Torah’s choice of the expression היתה לי, “I have experienced,” in the past tense, instead of the expression תהיה לי, in the future tense, this is something we find quite often in the Holy Scriptures.