Torah for Christians: Infertility in the Bible
TORAH FOR CHRISTIANS
SEASON 5 EPISODE 11
INFERTILITY IN THE BIBLE
Is it really so hard to have a baby? In the Hebrew Bible, the answer must be a firm yes. We’re going to find out why our maternal ancestors had so much trouble conceiving and bearing children. I’m Rabb Jordan Parr and this is Torah for Christians.
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Welcome to Torah for Christians. I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr.
Not surprisingly, the Hebrew Bible places great importance on childbirth. The very first commandment, one given to Adam, was to “be fruitful and multiply”. God literally has commanded us to have children. And being God, shouldn’t God facilitate pregnancy and childbirth?
But what happens when a woman cannot conceive? Does that mean that God is angry with her or her husband? Infertility places God’s Covenant, the promise of land and peoplehood, into limbo. After all, how can Abraham be the father of a people if his wife cannot bear him a son? For God’s plan to succeed, the conflict between Covenant and infertility must be resolved.
Abraham and Sarah definitely struggled with infertility. At that time in the Near East, there was a custom that if a husband and wife could not have a child, the wife’s servant could have sex with her husband. Any child born of that union would be considered the child of the husband and wife, not the husband and the handmaiden. Importantly, that child as the first-born would gain inheritance rights.
This is what happened to Abraham and Sarah. When they determined that Sarah could not bear children, she gave her handmaiden Hagar to Abraham. She became pregnant and gave birth to Ishmael. Sarah immediately became jealous of them and managed to expel them from the encampment twice, the first time before Isaac’s birth and then again after Isaac was born.
Yet, Abraham and Sarah did have a child of course: Isaac. Isaac was born in their old age; Abraham was 100 years old; Sarah was 90. Certainly, we should not take those ages literally, but we can affirm that they were older parents.
We often overlook one factor when talking about Sarah’s infertility. Until Abraham was circumcised, Sarah could not bear a child. When the 3 angels visit Abraham, recovering in his tent from his circumcision, they announce the impending birth of Isaac. To father the son of the father of the nation, Abraham had to show the outward sign of the Brit, the covenant, namely circumcision. Now that he was a true participant in the Covenant, Abraham could father a child who would lead the next generation of Hebrews.
Ishmael then had to be cast out. In her anger after seeing Ishmael fondling the 3-year-old Isaac, she cast the lad, along with his mother, into the desert. God took pity on them and made Ishmael the father of a great nation, the Arab peoples. But Isaac, who was circumcised on the 8th day after his birth, became the next patriarch. Still, it does not remove the fact that Sarah was infertile until late in life.
Isaac’s wife, Rebekkah, also had great difficulty conceiving and birthing children. She had to pray to God for children – and God gave her twins, Esau and Jacob. She had such trouble with her pregnancy, she actually begged God for death. The twins struggled in her womb – and beyond. Once again though, and this bears mentioning, the younger son, Jacob, won the inheritance – just like his father, Isaac, who also was the younger son. The younger son receiving the inheritance is a subplot of the infertility motif in the Hebrew Bible.
Then we come to Jacob. While we don’t normally think of Jacob as an infertile male, after all, he had 12 sons and a daughter, not all his wives were able to easily conceive. Certainly, Leah bore several children, as did the handmaidens Bilhah and Zilpah. But Jacob’s beloved wife Rachel had great trouble conceiving. She too prayed to God for a child and eventually, she gave birth to Joseph. Later, as the family was returning to the Land of Canaan, the pregnant Rachel died in while giving birth to Benjamin, the youngest of Jacob’s children. Jacob buried her in Bethlehem; her tomb is a shrine even today, where infertile women go to pray for a child.
Looking at these three stories from Genesis, we learn several things about the Biblical view of childbirth and infertility. First, infertility was a woman’s problem; not understanding the intricacies of human reproduction, they had no knowledge of the role that male sperm plays in the process. So, infertility was a woman’s problem, never the men.
Second, it was God who bestowed children on a couple. Later Jewish thought beautifully says that there are three partners in a marriage: a man, a woman and God. But in addition to this classical thought, we can also say that in the Bible, God is also the third partner of a husband and wife when they attempt to conceive a child. But the corollary is also true; if God declines to be a partner, the couple will have no children. Again, we return to the unanswerable question: does infertility mean that God is angry with the man and woman? In these stories, God certainly loves our Patriarchs and Matriarchs; there must be something else in play. I believe that ultimately these stories of infertility are the Bible’s way to explain a medical situation without our contemporary knowledge.
In a moment, we’ll look at two more stories about infertility, one from the Book of Judges and the second from the Book of I Samuel. I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr and this is Torah for Christians.
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Welcome back to Torah for Christians. I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr. If you are enjoying this podcast, I encourage you to go to our website, www.torahforchristians.net, where you can find previous episodes, which cover a variety of topics. You can also access them on various podcast websites, such as iTunes, Spotify and Google.
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Two important stories about infertility also appear in later books of the Bible. The first one comes from the Book of Judges, the birth of Samson. Manoah, an Israelite, prays to God for a son; his wife is never named. God gives the couple a son – on the condition that he would be a Nazirite his entire life.
A Nazirite dedicates himself to God by living by a strict code: he would vow to refrain from alcohol for example for a specified period of time. As a father, Manoah could make a Nazirite vow on behalf of his son, even a son not yet born.
Monaoh vowed that Samson would never drink wine, nor would he ever cut his hair. In return, Samson was blessed with superhuman strength – but his strength was due to his maintaining his vows. Of course, Delilah seduced him, got him drunk and while he was asleep, she cut his hair. Samson consequently lost his strength; he was even blinded. But while chained to two pillars, Samson prayed one last time to God, who restored his strength. Samson then pulled down the two pillars of the temple, killing himself and many Philistines in the process.
The final story we wish to examine is the story of Hannah and Peninnah, found at the beginning of the Book of I Samuel. Elimelech had married two sisters. Peninnah was quite fertile but Elimelech felt sorry for Hannah and continuously gifted her portions equal to her sister’s, even though Peninnah needed more resources to support her children.
Hannah offered a famous prayer to God, begging for a child. God heard her prayer and sent her a son, whom she named Samuel or in Hebrew Shmu’el, which means that God has heard. Samuel was promised to God and spent his formative years as an apprentice to Eli the Priest.
In time, Samuel became the last and greatest of the Judges. It was Samuel who chose the first two kings of Israel, Saul and David. Yet, his mother gave birth to him only after great travails and a lot of prayer.
We must ask the question then, is infertility a Biblical motif by itself or does the theme of infertility just a vehicle for a bigger story, that of a Patriarch or Judge? Either way, infertility is a recurring theme in the Hebrew Bible and the only fertility specialist in Biblical times was God. The infertility motif shows us the value of intercessory prayer, men and women alike could pray to God and in most instances, God could grant their plea. And through their sorrow came redemption and blessing, the blessing of children who would lead Israel to ever greater glory.
I want to thank you for listening to Torah for Christians. Please like and review this and all my podcasts on our website, www.torahforchristians.net or on iTunes. You can also subscribe to my Substack column, Bible Stories They (Never) Taught You in Religious School, on the website or directly on Substack.
Next week, we will discuss the topic of topic of slavery in the Bible. Just thinking of this topic is upsetting but it’s a recurring theme, one which we are obligated to explore.
Again, thank you for listening to Torah for Christians. I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr and I wish you a wonderful week. Hinei Mah Tov… L’hitraot, till we meet again. I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr and this has been Torah for Christians.
