Chapter 18 / "No, you did laugh"

כי יראה וגו' כי צחקת FOR SHE WAS AFRAID… BUT THOU DIDST LAUGH — The first כי is used in the sense of “because”, giving a reason for the former statement—Sarah denied … because she was afraid; the second כי is used in the meaning of “but” — “and He said, ‘It is not as you say that you did not laugh, but thou didst laugh’.” For our Rabbis say (Rosh Hashanah 3a) that the word כי has four meanings: “if”, “perhaps”, “but”, “because”.

AND SARAH DENIED, SAYING. I wonder about the righteous prophetess: How did she deny that which G-d had said to the prophet, and also, why did she not believe in the words of G-d’s angels?
The answer appears to me to be that these angels who appeared as men came to Abraham, and he, in his wisdom, recognized them. They announced to him, “I will certainly return unto thee, and Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah heard it, but she did not know that they were angels of the Supreme One, as was the case with the wife of Manoah. It is even possible that she did not see them at all. Therefore she laughed within herself in derision, just [as the word “laugh” is used in the verse]: He that sitteth in heaven laugheth, the Eternal hath them in derision. For joyous laughter is [expressed in Hebrew as originating] in the mouth — Then was our mouth filled with laughter — but laughter originating in the heart is not spoken of as joyous. Now the Holy One, blessed be He, accused her before Abraham as to why the matter appeared to her to be impossible. It was fitting for her to believe, or she should have said, “Amen, G-d do so!” Now Abraham said to her, “Why did you laugh? Is anything too hard for the Eternal?” He did not explain to her that G-d had revealed her secret to him. And she, because of Abraham’s fear of G-d, denied it for she thought that Abraham had said so through recognition of the expressions on her face or because she had kept quiet and gave no expression of praise and thanksgiving or joy. And he said to her, Nay, but thou didst laugh. Then she understood that it was told to him in a prophecy, and so she remained quiet and did not answer a word.
It is proper that we also say that Abraham had not revealed to her what had originally been told to him: Indeed, Sarah, thy wife shall bear thee a son. Perhaps he waited until G-d would send her the announcement on the following day for he knew that the Eternal G-d will do nothing, but He revealed His counsel unto His servants the prophets. It may be that due to his great diligence in fulfilling commandments, he was occupied with his circumcision and the circumcision of the many people in his house. Afterward, on account of his weakness, he sat at the doorway of the tent, and the angels came before he had told her anything.

כי יראה, to say “I have sinned;” but she repented the lie in her heart.

“And Sarah denied it, saying, I did not laugh ….” (Bereshit, 18:15)
There is a great depth in this matter. The saying of the Gemara (Berachot, 33b), “Rabbi Chanina said, all is in the hands of Heaven, except for the fear of Heaven,” applies only to the extent of the understanding of the mortal intellect. Truly, everything is in the hands of Heaven including the fear of Heaven, yet God hid His way (this consciousness) in the world. The attribute of Yitzchak Avinu was to recognize that even the fear of Heaven comes from God, yet the world was not worthy of a consciousness as precious as this. Therefore Sarah found it necessary to say, “But my lord is old [too old to father children].” Here it seems as if she is denying that all is in the hands of Heaven. Accordingly the Holy One, blessed be He, showed her, measure for measure, that even the fear of Heaven comes from Him, and were it not for the concealment of this understanding from her and from the world, Yitzchak could not have been born into the world. For the preciousness of the attribute of Yitzchak was to clarify and to show that even the fear of Heaven comes from God, and even all the transgressions of Israel occurred under the watch of God’s providence. By means of this God’s great name is exalted and sanctified! Understand this, for it is exceedingly deep.
(See in the Gemara [Avoda Zara, 4b], “Rabbi Yehusha ben Levi said, Israel only made the golden calf to support the position of ba’alei teshuva [penitents], as it is written (Devarim, 5:26), ‘would it were that they gave their hearts … to fear Me all the days.’ R. Yehoshua ben Levi said in the name of R. Shimon b. Yochai, David was not capable of this action [his sin with Bathsheba] as it is written (Tehilim, 109:22), ‘my heart is empty [of the evil inclination] within me [and therefore it has no power over me], and Israel was not supposed to be capable of making the golden calf, as it is written, ‘would that they gave their hearts to fear Me.’ So why did they make it? To show you, that if an individual sinned they say to him that it was entirely up to the individual, and if a whole community sinned then it was the responsibility of the entire community.” Rashi comments: “to support the position of ba’alei teshuva,” that is to say that they were courageous and controlled their evil natures, and it was against their very abilities to give in to the evil inclination; yet it was the decree of the King that their evil natures overcome them. Yet it was in order to respond to the penitents, to show that there was value in their return, for perhaps after one sins he would say, “there is no need for me to return to the good, for God would not accept me anyway.” Then they could say to him, “go and learn from the incident with the golden cow, how they made atonement and their penance was accepted.”
And if so, what made it so that the tribes would fulfill the mitzvah of giving the half-shekel, it was to atone for their worship of the golden calf, and if the sin of the golden calf caused them to fulfill the mitzvah of the half-shekel, how much more so would be the effect of the merit of the mitzvot that they are doing! And in the Jerusalem Talmud it is written [Shekalim, Ch. 2, halacha 3], “since they sold the first born of Rachel for twenty silver pieces, thus each one must redeem his first born son for twenty silver pieces.” From the emendations of Yerucham Lainer.)