VaYera 5767 -- Amen Ken Yaaseh Hashem

Last week we discussed how the laughter of Avraham is treated differently than the laughter of Sarah. In particular, we saw the Rashi to Bereishit 17:17, which suggests that Avraham laughed out of simha, but Sarah laughed out of disbelief. Avraham’s laughter is met with Divine approval – HaKadosh Barukh Hu tells Avraham that the son should be named after laughter – whereas Sarah’s draws Divine reprimand.

However, as the Ramban points out, this explanation is not really fair to Sarah, as it neglects material differences in the circumstances in which Sarah and Avraham laughed. If they had each heard the same news, from the same source, and one had scoffed and the other rejoiced, it would make sense to differentiate, to be makpid on Sarah and not Avraham.

But that is certainly not what occurred. Instead, we have the following. Avraham, in direct conversation with the Divine, is informed that Sarah will bear him a son. Sarah hears the news quite differently, with the following differences. 1) she is not told this news directly, but overhears it during Avraham’s conversation with the angels who visit them in Mamre, and so could not have directly questioned the news, and 2) she hears the miraculous prediction from what appear to be human beings. As the Ramban points out, Avraham was the one who engaged directly with the angels, and so might have seen that they were not in fact eating, or otherwise recognized them for angels. Sarah, on the other hand, did not have direct and close interaction, and could not have known that these Bedouins were more than they appeared to be.

So, the Ramban asks, what was wrong with Sarah’s laughter? It seems quite reasonable for a 90-year old woman to laugh when she overhears 3 men whom she’s never seen before tell her husband that she will have a baby. Avraham’s joy was surely justified, upon hearing the news directly from the mouth of God. Avraham’s joy over this announcement was not discounted by any fears that it would not come true – this is the nature of direct divine communication. But surely Sarah’s skepticism was similarly justified, upon overhearing such an implausible prediction from other humans. So what was Sarah’s mistake?

The Ramban explains that Sarah’s disbelief was not, in and of itself, wrong. The timing, however, was off. Rather than immediately reacting to the apparent impossibility of this prophecy coming true, Sarah should have waited and done something first: express her hope that this might, just might, actually happen. She should have said “Amen, Ken Yaaseh Hashem – Amen, May The Almighty Make This Happen.” After that, it would have been appropriate for her to engage in a sober consideration of the likelihood – in this case, seemingly zero – of this occurrence.

It is important to take this moment to say “ Amen. Ken Yaaseh Hashem” for two reasons. First, in immediately rejecting any such prediction as impossible, we deny the power of God to make wonderful and surprising things happen in the world, and diminish the name of the Almighty. Second, when we scoff at the implausible, we deny ourselves the benefits of hope. We deny ourselves the ability to believe that things can change, that we may see a better world, and trap ourselves in a limited and static present. When Sarah scoffed, she distanced herself from the Almighty, and trapped herself in the role of a 90-year-old woman who had never realized her dream of having children. For this reason God was exacting upon Sarah, asking “Why did Sarah laugh?” That is, ‘Why did Sarah push Me away, so as to trap herself in an ever more limited human existence?’ (My interpretation).

I do not mean to suggest that we should be pipe-dreamers or Pollyannaish, forever buying lottery tickets. Instead, we should just take a moment when we hear a wonderful but implausible prediction to express our hope and belief that God should make it come true. This will not affect the likelihood of that event occurring – simply look to Sarah’s laughter, which did not prevent the birth of Yitzchak. But I believe that the Ramban teaches us an important ethical message that can enrich and imbue our lives with a greater sense of hope and of our place in a universe that ultimately bends to the will of God. Amen. Ken Yaaseh Hashem.