Childless: Understanding the Barren Women of Tanach

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The women in Tanach laid the foundation for us through their ruchniyut and their connection to the Creator. Many of these women overcame challenges and none more all-encompassing and devastating than the challenge of infertility. The infertility experienced by our ancestors not only threatened the existence of the Jewish people but also the existence of the Torah itself. By overcoming these obstacles, our foremothers managed to secure the conduit to Torah and its deliverance through Klal Yisrael. They opened new channels of tefillah and pathways of redemption. Rabbi Zev Rudman discusses these pathways through his exploration of Rav Tzaddok HaCohen’s writings in his new book, And Hashem Remembered Them: Understanding The Six Barren Women in Tanach. Here, I will discuss four of these six women – Sarah, Rivka, Rachel, and Chana – and analyze how they each became a kli for both Torah and the Jewish people.

Sarah Imeinu is the first of the imahot to experience this profound challenge. For her, the Torah states that Hashem “remembered (pakad) her.” Pekidah here relates specifically to Hashem’s supervision, or hashgacha. It is through this hashgacha or oversight that the Creator fulfills the very goal of creation for Sarah and, by extension, the whole of Jewish women like her. Her infertility opposes the goal of Creation, argues Rabbi Rudman, and though we are told not to pray for miracles, people having children was explicitly part of nature’s design: “Even if it’s a request for a miracle, it is not a miracle outside of nature, even when someone’s natural circumstances may indicate that a miracle is required. It is a request that Hashem supervise the world in its natural state. This is something everyone can ask for.”¹ While for Rachel and Chana the Torah uses both pekidah and its far more common synonym, zechirah, rememberance, to discuss their redemption, the Torah only relates to Sarah in terms of pekidah. She represents the gateway of Torah itself, the very foundation for the other five gates of fertility. She and Avraham disseminated Torah even before Matan Torah, learning the very blueprints of the world itself and the ways it could be changed. In doing so, they learned how to fundamentally change themselves.

Hashem supervise the world in its natural state. This is something everyone can ask for.” While for Rachel and Chana the Torah uses both pekidah and its far more common synonym, zechirah, rememberance, to discuss their redemption, the Torah only relates to Sarah in terms of pekidah. She represents the gateway of Torah itself, the very foundation for the other five gates of fertility. She and Avraham disseminated Torah even before Matan Torah, learning the very blueprints of the world itself and the ways it could be changed. In doing so, they learned how to fundamentally change themselves.

Rivkah Imeinu opened the next gateway, the gateway of tefillah. She inhabits a world in which middot hadin, the traits of judgement, resist her fertility in order to prevent the birth of Esav which must precede the birth of Yaakov. It is only through the tefillah of Yitzchak, who has improved himself continuously to merit the Oral Torah in the world, does this gate open and allow for the next generation to come forth². The struggle between Esav and Yaakov mimics the ebbs and flows of the Gemara itself, a constant argument or battle between light and darkness, between hava amina (the first approach) and the following proofs, “leading to the maskana, the clarity of conclusion.”³ The gateway of tefillah is unearthed through the middot hadin of the Oral Torah: “The world was created through the Written Torah. But the continued existence of the world is through the chiddushim [discoveries] of the Oral Torah. And each tzaddik who brings out a new aspect of the Oral Torah creates a new manner of how Hashem interacts with the world. And just as the Oral Torah is given over to the Chachamim [sages], and Hashem ‘accepts’ their decision, Hashem also accepts their decision as to how the world should work.”⁴ In a world born from the words of the tzaddikim, Yitzchak takes the power in his own voice and davens with his wife, reshaping the world into one that allows his lineage to continue.

Rachel Imeinu opens the following gateway – a gateway of chesed. Rather than shaking the foundation of the world through din or Torah, she simply reestablishes the path of Hashem’s chesed through her heartfelt desire for Jewish children to serve the Creator. It is zechirah as opposed to Sarah’s pekidah, as the sentence itself says “And Hashem [Elokim] remembered [zachor] Rachel”. Rabbi Rudman finds much significance in the Torah’s mention of names in this pasuk, pointing out that the Torah mentions her by name to highlight that she was deserving⁵. Rachel’s desire for the completion of the Shevatim was so all-consuming that she would have sacrificed her life for it and as a result, she gets a greater portion of the zechut of klal Yisrael despite physically contributing only two of the twelve Shevatim. Similarly, the name Elokim in the pasuk is the name of judgement “as a function of justice. She deserved a child and therefore Elokim of nature answered her. And even the Elokim of judgement agreed that this child deserved to be born.” ⁶

Finally, Chana embodies the second-to-last gateway of fertility, the last form of pekidah and the first realization of the name Tzva-ot. With Penina driving her on to realize her fate, Chana receives a pidyon just like Sarah and Rachel did–someone to stand in her stead. Rabbi Rudman argues that Chana tries to actualize her fate without a divine exchange of fertility. He contrasts Rachel and Chana as two infertile women positioned next to their very fecund ‘competition’, a competition that helped drive Rachel to daven until redemption. In comparison, Chana felt satisfied with Penina having children and remaining childless herself–it is Penina’s mockery that drives her to daven for herself. Penina’s intentions are good in that she desires for Chana to actualize her potential. But the potential, in the form of pidyon, comes from her, and Chana bears children as Penina’s children die. “And even the passing of Penina’s children had a constructive aspect,” says Rabbi Rudman, “…Because of Penina’s action, nevuah was brought into the world. And since it was used to bring Shmuel into the world as a Navi, it served a positive function for Klal Yisrael. They sinned, but they still had part of the birth of Shmuel.”⁷

Rabbi Rudman’s interrogation of infertility in Tanach takes on the kabbalistic and hidden dimensions of our female ancestors. He takes on Rav Tzadok’s approach of looking at infertility and its redemption through the lens of gateways that are either open or closed. By exploring how our imahot managed to open these gateways, we can theoretically apply such knowledge to our own lives.