Wherever Scripture Says She Has None She Will Have

Pesikta DeRav Kahana 20:3

Curated by Arthur·Told by Maggid·

"That did not bear" (Isaiah 54:1). Rabbi Levi said: in every place where it says "she has none," she came to have. The rest of this section is like the parallel passage.

Themes

WomenConsolationRedemption

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Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben YochaiMiriam Led the Women in Song as Moses Led the MenA brief verse holds a quiet act of balance. The Torah has just given us the long song of Moses, sung with the men of Israel. Now it turns, in a single line, to Midrash AggadahThe Girl Whose Words Outranked Both Pharaoh and Her FatherPharaoh decreed that every Hebrew boy be drowned, and Amram, the greatest man of his generation, drew the obvious conclusion. "We labor for nothing." Why bring Pesikta de-Rav KahanaA Locked Garden and How Israel Guarded Their Purity in EgyptThe nations taunted Israel as they left Egypt: after generations under Egyptian masters, who could say whose children these really were? The sages answer with aPesikta de-Rav KahanaSing Barren One and Why Israel Is Called by RachelIsaiah's call to "sing, O barren one" sounds like a contradiction. Why would the childless woman be told to rejoice? The sages heard layers in that single word.Pesikta de-Rav KahanaWhen Sarah Gave Birth and All the Barren Were AnsweredWhen Sarah finally held Isaac, she laughed and said that everyone who heard would laugh along with her. The sages pressed on that word everyone. Why should a stYalkut Shimoni on TorahFrom the Same Line a Harlot Mother and a Loyal DaughterThe sages now flip the reading they have just given. Where one teaching said the first conception of Moab was for Heaven and the later Moabites acted for harlot