Hannah ha-Niviah: A Woman of Chutzpah, Who Can Find Her?

The band of Korah will not have part in the Future World and not be resurrected in the future. What is the reason? The desert covered them, in this world; they were lost from among the congregation, in the future. It was stated: Rebbi Jehudah ben Bathyra says, one understands from what is said, I erred [wandered] like a lost sheep; look after Your servant, that just as the lost object mentioned there at the end will be searched for, so also the lost object mentioned here at the end will be searched for. Who prayed for them? Rebbi Samuel bar Naḥman said, Moses prayed for them, Reuben shall live and not die. Rebbi Joshua ben Levi said, Hannah prayed for them. This follows Rebbi Joshua ben Levi, as Rebbi Joshua ben Levi said: Korah’s band was continuously sinking until Hannah stood up and said, the Eternal kills and brings to life, sends down into the pit and lifts up.

(18) She sees (lit. "tastes") that her business thrives; Her lamp never goes out at night.

The Bible does not specify how long Hannah was barren, a period that, according to the midrash, extended for nineteen years. Why was this righteous woman forced to suffer so many years of childlessness? In their answer to this question, the Rabbis cite Prov. 27:21: “For silver—the crucible, for gold—the furnace, and a man is tested by his praise.” The jeweler puts silver into the fire, and gold into the furnace, and fires every material in accordance with its strength. Thus, in this metaphor of the Rabbis, God refines in the crucible each of the righteous according to his or her strength: He refined Sarah for twenty-five years, Rebekah for twenty, and Hannah for nineteen. This midrash thus places Hannah together with the righteous Matriarchs, albeit with slightly less endurance than the latter. [Paraphrase from the Jewish Women's Archive.]

"'ha-Shem remembered Hannah" (1 Sh 2:21). Hannah was refined [in the crucible] by the K"BH according to her strength. How much did ha-Shem refine her? The Rabbis taught, nineteen years. How [do we know]? Ten years, she waited with him [Elkana], and didn't give birth. He took Penina, and she bore to him ten sons. Which you can derive, because Elkana said to Hannah, "Am I not better to you than ten sons?" (1 Sh 1:8). These were Penina's ten sons. You should allocate eight years for those pregnancies and one year for Shmuel's pregnancy. Behold, 19 years, after which she was remembered.

The Gemara continues to deal with Hannah’s prayer. It is said: “And Hannah spoke on her heart.” Several interpretations are offered to explain her use of the phrase “on her heart” instead of the common phrase to her heart (Maharsha). Rabbi Elazar said in the name of Rabbi Yosei ben Zimra: Hannah spoke to God concerning matters of her heart. She said before Him: Master of the Universe, of all the organs You created in a woman, You have not created one in vain. Every organ fulfills its purpose; eyes to see, ears to hear, a nose to smell, a mouth to speak, hands with which to perform labor, feet with which to walk, breasts with which to nurse. If so, these breasts that You placed upon my heart, to what purpose did You place them? Was it not in order to nurse with them? Grant me a son and I will nurse with them.

If not I am dead. When a women asks [ha-Shem] for children, sometimes they're asking for the sake of [future] joy, for it is the nature of women to raise and get enjoyment from their children. And sometimes it is for the sake of "a staff for her hand and a hoe for her burial" (Yev. 65b, i.e., economic support and life and especially old age). The one who seeks children for joy, it's appropriate to bargain with such a woman by offering alternative ways to increase her sources of love and endearment, as Elkanah did when responding to Hannah, "Why do you weep? I am not better to you than ten sons?" This is what the Mishnah (Nedarim 90b) is referring to, in the case when the woman says, "Heaven is between you and me" [while unknowable to certainty, she believes her husband's infertility is the reason they have had no children], then the proper course is to "make a feast and appease him" [i.e. persaude him to give her a divorce; see the commentary of the R"an, below].

But if her plea [for children] is because she needs [future] economic support, then appeasing her husband is not good advice. As it says in that chapter of Yevamot, if she is asking for a divorce for this reason, the husband should let her go out and should pay her ketubah. Thus when Hannah leapt up and swore her oath that "if You will grant Your maidservant male seed, I will dedicate him to ha-Shem for all the days of his life," it was because she was incited by the suspicion that Elkanah had cast upon her, that she was shaking the whole world for the sake of [her own personal] joy, which would not be fitting to do. Therefore she vowed to give him [Shmuel] to the Mishkan, and not to have any enjoyment with him [as a mother] at all.

For Hannah, mercy was also inscribed. Because initially, ha-Shem was inclined to be merciful, and the only thing missing was prayer, in order to bring forth into the world this precious soul [Shmuel] who would open the gate of prophecy. Until then, ha-Shem's word was so dear that prophetic vision did not propagate through the world. Arousal from below was needed as a prior condition.

Therefore a Bat Kol (a heavenly daughter's voice) announced beforehand, that in the future this tzaddik would be born [see the midrash from Yalkut Shimoni below]. Everyone in Yisrael davenned, yearning that it be from their birth-labor. This constituted the arousal from below from all of Yisrael.

Then it was Hannah in particular, who was already suffering from her barrenness, with her anguish and vexation, until she rocked the worlds with her prayer, swearing her oath to ha-Shem. It was by this means she merited to give birth to this soul, which had already been prepared to come out, needing only the arousal from below.

According to the teaching you should understand about Hannah. Because here is what you should come to know, that Hannah did not follow the established order of prayer that she would have prayed then. For it was after eating and drinking, and the interpretation of the law is that that is no time for prayer. Furthermore, she extended her prayer far beyond the measure of the order of the prayer according to the interpretation of the law.

Rather, it was a personal prayer according to the distress of her heart. In which case, the law is that she should have davened out loud. As the Holy Zohar writes, "a prayer cried out loud. A man raises his voice and cries to Hashem in his trouble" (1:132a). Therefore, when she was davenning silently, it was thought she was drunk. Thus it is written, "Hannah was praying in her heart" (I Shmuel 1:13), it means that the intellect of speech was upon her heart [i.e. internal dialogue]. If so, the source for what came out as her prayer, was intellectual, from the side of considered understanding.

[An example of Hannah's impassioned yet reasoned dialogue with ha-Shem:] Rashi's commentary on the name "God of Hosts" (verse 1:11) asks, "Why was this Name designated here? She [Hannah] said before ha-Shem, "Multiplier of Universes, You created two hosts in Your world. The heavenly beings neither multiply nor do they die; the earthly beings both multiply and die. If I am of the earthly beings, let me multiply and die, and if I am of the heavenly beings, let me not die."

And in the Gemara (b. Brachot 31b): “And Hannah spoke on her heart.” [Why "on", not "to"?] Rabbi Elazar said in the name of Rabbi Yosei ben Zimra: concerning matters of her heart. She said before Ha-Shem: "Multiplier of Universes, of all the organs You created in a woman, You have not created one in vain, etc." Behold, that her prayer was from understanding, intellectual and considered thought [i.e. reasoned argument]. That's why the verse (10) says that "she prayed in opposition to ha-Shem." With this understood, therefore her prayer was silent.