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

(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.

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.

“And Hannah spoke on her heart.” Why “on her heart” instead of "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: 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.

(1) ha-Shem Tzivaot. Why was this Name designated here? She [Chana] said before Him, "Multiplier of the Universe, 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." I found [this explanation] in the Aggadah of R. Eliezer the son of R. Yose Haglili (Pesikta Rabbati).

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 ("klal" Yisrael).

Then it was Hannah in particular ("prat"), 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.

As for the double language in the verse (1:11), “if you will look upon [im ra’o tireh],” Rabbi Elazar said: Hannah said before the Holy One, Blessed be He: Master of the Universe, if You will look upon [ra’o] me now, fine, and if not, in any case You will see [tireh]. What was Hannah threatening? She said: I will go and seclude myself with another man before Elkana, my husband. Since I secluded myself, they will force me to drink the sota water to determine whether or not I have committed adultery. I will be found innocent, and since You will not make Your Torah false [pelaster], I will bear children. With regards to a woman who is falsely suspected of adultery and drank the sota water, the Torah says: “And if the woman was not defiled, but was pure, then she shall be acquitted and she shall conceive” (Numbers 5:28).