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היפלא IS TOO HARD? — As the Targum takes it: is anything hidden — far distant and apart (מופלא) from Me that I cannot do as I would wish?

IS ANYTHING TOO HARD (‘HAYIPALEI’) FOR THE ETERNAL? Is anything too hard and improbable for G-d to cause to happen? This expression is similar to the verse, For all things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee.⁹⁹I Chronicles 29:14. Here the word “come” is not found in the Hebrew but is added to complete the thought. Likewise, Ramban suggests, in our own verse here, the expression “to cause to happen” is to be added: “Is anything too hard for G-d to cause to happen?” Likewise, Out of Asher his fat bread,¹⁰⁰Further, 49:20. meaning “Out of Asher will come fat bread.”
Onkelos translated: “Is anything hidden?” He interpreted it as similar to the expression, If there arise a matter hidden (‘yipalei’) for thee in judgment.¹⁰¹Deuteronomy 17:8. If so, there is a hidden secret here.
Rashi’s language: “Hayipalei, is anything apart and hidden from Me that I cannot do as I would wish?” Rashi has thus grafted together in [the word hayipalei] two separate concepts.¹⁰²Hidden and apart.

'היפלא מה, Who is the One Who has sent us. דבר, anything, no matter how miraculous? When reference is made here as in verse 19 when the Torah writes: “G’d made it rain, etc.” to G’d’s angels, messengers, who are given the status of Divinity while carrying out their assignments, in this instance the first time the word ה' appears it refers to the angel Gavriel, in the second instance to Hashem.

למועד אשוב, I will return at the appointed time, etc. The reason that the angel repeated the promise was that Abraham should not think that because G'd had objected to Sarah's laughter G'd would take back His promise. This is why he said when exactly the promise would come true.

?היפלא, these matters appear miraculous in the eyes of human beings, and they cannot fathom how such things can be. However, in light of G’d’s omnipotence, nothing is impossible for Him to accomplish. He who created the universe, has no problem making changes in His universe.

כעת חיה, according to Rashi: ”at this time next year.” This happened on Passover (the date when Passover would occur in the future) Yitzchok, as we know, was born in the following year. Rashi’s commentary poses a problem, as, according to our tradition, (Rosh Hashanah 11) that these angels arrived on Sukkot if they promised that Yitzchok would be born by the next מועד, holiday, this would be Passover, and the baby would be 3 months premature. According to Rabbi Eliezer there that Yitzchok was born on Rosh Hahanah there are other difficulties, such as that if Avraham and Yaakov had both been born in Tishrey, and he was told about the circumcision while 99 years of age, he was 99 at the time he circumcised himself. Avraham would still have been 99 years old at the time he circumcised Yitzchok, something which contradicts Genesis Furthermore, there is another difficulty with a statement on folio 11 in Rosh Hashanah, where reference is made to the angel having told Sarah that the child would be born in the following year, based on the words למועד אשוב אליך plus the prediction in It is not possible that these words, i.e. בשנה האחרת, were said to Avraham on Passover of his 99th year when he was told about the forthcoming need to circumcise himself, whereas the actual circumcision did not occur until six months later in Tishrey, and that only then was he told the words that Yitzchok would be born at the first festival (מועד) thereafter which would then have occurred on the following Passover when Yitzchok would indeed be born. We have a tradition that Avraham carried out the commandment to circumcise himself immediately, and certainly did not let 6 or 7 months elapse before doing what G’d had told him to do. The Torah itself testifies that he circumcised himself on the day he had received the commandment, by describing the date as בעצם היום, on the day he was so commanded (17,26). The answer given to all these questions is by Rabbi Shimon ben Avraham. He explains that the angels actually visited Avraham on two separate occasions. The first time they visited him in Nissan and they told him they would return again כעת חיה, The second time they visited him in Tishrey and said to him that in another year, at the same season, Sarah would have a son. It was on the second occasion that Sarah laughed (to herself) seeing that 6 months had already passed since these same men’s first visit, and nothing had changed in her or her husband’s condition. Even with the explanation of Rabbi Shimon ben Avraham there remains the problem of the words אשר תלד לך שרה למועד הזה בשנה האחרת, “whom Sarah will bear for you at this season in the following year.” (17,21) These words were spoken in Tishrey and Yitzchok was born in the year following.

Is there anything beyond and separated and hidden from Me... Rashi avoided explaining היפלא as “surprise and wonder,” in which case the verse would mean: “Should we be surprised that Hashem can do a novel thing?” That would not be in accord with Targum Onkelos who explains it as, “Is it hidden?” Yet, there is a question on Targum Onkelos: How to understand Hashem’s response “Is it hidden?” to Sarah’s laughing? She said, “My master is an old man,” conveying that it is impossible that she should give birth. Thus Hashem’s response should have been: “Is anything too difficult for Hashem?” or, “Is God’s hand unable?” But this response is understandable if היפלא means, “Should we be surprised...?” [However, Onkelos’s explanation is difficult]. Therefore, Rashi explains היפלא as “Is it hidden?” and nonetheless, Hashem’s response to Sarah is understandable. She said that it is impossible. And He responded: “Is there anything beyond and apart and hidden from Me, which might prevent Me from doing My will?” Rashi means that something which is hidden from a person is “separated” from him, i.e., he cannot do it when he wants to. For if he can do it when he wants, then he can declare, “I know that it will be,” [for it is not separated from him]. And why did Rashi not choose the explanation of “surprise and wonder”? Because then it should say היפלא על ה', as it is the proper usage to say that when one is surprised “over” something. Furthermore, Sarah did not express surprise; rather, she decided that it is impossible. And the response of, “Should we be surprised...?” would not be appropriate. (R. Meir Stern)

למועד אשוב אליך, “at the appointed time I will return to you, etc.” this phrasing is a hint that the birth of Yitzchok would occur on a date subsequently part of the Passover festival. (Talmud tractate Rosh Hashanah folio 11). The numerical value of the letters in the word למועד equals the numerical value of the letters in the word בפסח (150).

היפלא מה׳ דבר, “Is there then anything that goes on in My world that I am not aware of or in charge of? G-d teaches Avraham that He can hear even laughter that has only occurred in the heart or mind, without ever having crossed one’s lips.

למועד AT THE APPOINTED TIME — at the special time that I fixed for you yesterday (i.e. on a previous occasion) when I said, (17:21) “at this set time next year”.

כעת חיה, according to Rashi, this means “at a time of year such as now, when nature is in full bloom, entirely alive.” Seeing that the angel did not say בעת, at the time, but כעת, “around that time,” it is clear that he referred to the time when Sarah’s pregnancy would result in her giving natural birth at the end of the cycle. She would not give birth prematurely. The expression חיה for a woman giving birth occurs elsewhere also. Our sages in the Talmud tractate Taanit folio 2, have stated that there are three keys which G–d does not hand over to any agent (prophet or angel) They are: the key to resurrections, to rainfall, and to giving birth. This is also why the angel could not predict the precise date when Sarah would give birth, only an approximation, i.e. כעת, “at approximately that time.” I believe that Rashi’s interpretation of these verses coincides with the one we find in the historical text known as Seder olam, world history, as well as with the commentary in the Mechilta. (chapter 5) According to those calculations, G–d had had this conversation with Avraham culminating in the destruction of Sodom on the fifteenth day of Nissan. Yitzchok was born on that day in the year following. According to B’reshit Rabbah 48,12, the words Avraham had used when telling Sarah to knead and bake bread, לושי ועשי עגות, also suggest that it was Passover (the date of) [as did the fact that on the evening of that same day, Lot fed the angels matzot, unleavened bread. (Genesis 19,3) Ed.] This date had also been referred to in conjunction with the circumcision (Genesis 17,21) when G–d had told Avraham about the birth of this son whom he was to call Yitzchok. At that time the time frame told him was: “next year.”
However, the above is in contradiction to what we read in the first chapter of the tractate Roshashah, folio 11, where the words: למועד אשוב אליך are understood to refer to the dates on which the Sukkot festival would occur in the future. The first “מועד” would then have been Passover. This would also agree with what we have read in Pirke de rabbi Eliezer chapter 29, according to which Avraham circumcised himself on the date of the day of Atonement. In the Talmud, tractate Baba Metzia, folio 87, the angels are reported as having visited Avraham on the third day after his circumcision, and that is when Sarah overheard the prediction that she would give birth to a son, and that the words “at this time,” have to be understood as 2 days prior to the date of Sukkot. It is also stated in the Talmud, tractate Rosh Hashanah, that Sarah became pregnant on Rosh Hashanah. When mention is made elsewhere that this occurred on the festival, this need not be understood literally, as it was two days earlier. Furthermore, according to our tradition, also Rachel and Chanah who had endured years of being unable to conceive were remembered by G–d on that festival and became pregnant and subsequently gave birth. This is the version of events accepted by Rashi. If one were to question what precisely was meant by the angel speaking of the מועד in the following year, if it would refer to Sukkot, that would be more than a year later, as the next festival would be Passover in the same year, we must assume that the quotation from the Talmud is by a sage who accepts the opinion of Rabbi Yoshua, that the earth was created in the month of Nissan, (Rosh Hashanah there), in which case Passover would be in the following year and that this is why the angel added words that applied to the following year. [The important thing is that the Torah testifies that Sarah gave birth at the time that been predicted here, compare Genesis 21,2. Ed.]

למועד, the numerical value of the letters in this word when totaled amounts to the same as the numerical value of the word: בפסח, i.e. 150. (Compare what we wrote on verse 12)