Saturday, December 30, 2017

parshanut torah comment - (Neis) Miracle of Sarah giving birth at 90


We all know how in Parshas Vayeira the miracle of Sarah giving birth @ 90 takes place. In Mitzrayim Yocheved gave birth @ 130 yet there is no mention of this. Was it not a bigger miracle? Then why is it not mentioned?



Answer




Indeed, because of this Ibn Ezra (to Gen. 46:27) argues that Yocheved was not in fact born when they entered Egypt, but some time later, so that she bore Moshe at a normal age.


However, Ramban (ibid. v. 15) sharply disagrees with him (he goes so far as to use the semi-derogatory expression יוצק זהב רותח בפי החכם הזה!), and points out that since (a) Yocheved was the literal daughter of Levi (as per Num. 26:59), (b) 130 years passed from when they came to Egypt until Moshe was born, and (c) Levi was a grown man (in his forties) when they came down to Egypt - then there had to have been some kind of miracle here: either Levi fathered Yocheved, or Yocheved bore Moshe, at a very advanced age.


So he goes on to distinguish between miracles that Hashem performs (as sort of "standard operating procedure") to help righteous people or to destroy the wicked, which are not generally described explicitly in Tanach, versus those that are foretold by a prophet or an angel sent by G-d. Sarah's being able to bear children at 90 - and this, after decades of infertility - is a miracle of the latter type; Yocheved's bearing Moshe at 130 is of the former, and so it needn't be described in the Torah.


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