Sarah’s struggles with infertility |
Sponsored by Judith & Kenneth Sternfeld in memory of Ruth F. Sternfeld z”l. Ruth was a humanitarian, educator and guidance counselor. She was dedicated to family, Judaism, creativity & the arts. Ruth was a wonderful daughter, sister, wife, mother and friend. She always strove for excellence and saw the glass half full. Ruth loved dance, music, literature, theater and art as a vehicle for bringing joy to the spirit Chayei Sarah, literally the lifetime
of Sarah, opens with her death at the age of 127. If we look back at Sarah’s life, her
struggle to conceive a child specifically stands out: The first time we are introduced to
Sarai (Breisheet 11:29-30) we learn that she is married to Avram and that she
is “akara”, “she is barren, she has no child.” Ibn Ezra explains that Sarai’s barrenness
is emphasized to make it clear that Avram was not sterile (which becomes
apparent later when Avram fathers Yishmael through Hagar). Radak points out that Sarai’s bareness
is mentioned specifically to show that when she did finally conceive it was a
miracle. God’s promise that Avram would
become a great nation would only be fulfilled once they were living in the Land
of C’naan. Radak states that the words “I will make you a great nation” (Breisheet
12:2) infer that even though your wife is barren, I will heal her and she will give
birth in the land that I will show you. When Sarai saw that she still could
not have a child after they were already living in the Land of C’naan for ten
years, she considered having Hagar serve as a surrogate mother (Breisheet 16:2)
“Sarai said to Avram: ‘See now, God has restrained me from having children;
come to my handmaid perhaps I will be built up through her.’” According to Radak, Sarai already
gave up hope of having her own child as she was already elderly (she was 65
years old when they left Charan). She was hoping that the child that Hagar
would give birth to would be considered hers. This plan did not work out well
for Sarai as when Hagar saw how quickly she was able to get pregnant (Breisheet
16:4), Sarai “became slighted in her eyes.” When Avraham was promised that Sarah
would give birth at 90, he couldn’t believe the news and didn’t even pass on
the information to Sarah. Since Sarah had not yet been informed, she was surprised
at age 89 when the angel announced that she would be having a child. We see from here that Sarah had a difficult
time dealing with infertility and did not have a lot of support from Avraham.
He was under the impression that his servant, Eliezer or his son Yishmael could
be the heir, leaving Sarah out of the picture. Although Sarah was hoping that Hagar
would serve as a surrogate mother, it didn’t work out that way. In the end, Sarah was blessed to
spend the last 37 years of her life with her son Yitzchak as she was 90 when
she finally gave birth. However, it was not an easy road for her. We must learn from Sarah’s life the lesson to reach out to those who are fertility challenged and give them the support that Sarah could have benefited from. To join a fertility chavruta workshop please contact 058-656-3532. |