“God said to Abraham: Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, as Sarah is her name” (Genesis 17:15). “God said to Abraham: Sarai your wife…” – it is written: “A woman of valor is her husband’s crown” (Proverbs 12:4). Rabbi Aḥa said: Her [Sarah’s] husband was crowned with her, but she was not crowned with her husband.1Rather, Sarah had status independent of the fact that she was Abraham’s wife.
The Rabbis say: She was her husband’s superior. Everywhere the man gives the orders; here, however, “Everything that Sarah says to you, heed her voice” (Genesis 21:12). Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korḥa said: The yod that the Holy One blessed be He took from Sarai2When the name Sarai was changed to Sarah, a yod was removed and a heh inserted in its place. was divided – half for Sarah and half for Abraham.3The numerical value of yod is ten.
Half is five, represented by the letter heh, which is the letter that was added to the names of both Abraham and Sarah. Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai said: The yod that the Holy One blessed be He took from Sarai soared and flew up before the throne of the Holy One blessed be He. It said before Him: ‘Master of the universe: Because I am the smallest of the letters, You have removed me from the righteous Sarah?’
The Holy One blessed be He said to it: ‘In the past, you were part of the name of a female and at the end of the letters; now I shall place you into the name of a male and at the beginning of the letters, as it is stated: “Moses called Hoshea son of Nun, Joshua [Yehoshua]” (Numbers 13:16).4The yod added at the beginning changed the name from Hoshea to Yehoshua. Rabbi Mana said: In the past she was a princess for her people.5Sarai is the singular possessive. Now she will be a princess for all the inhabitants of the world.