When Sarah Gave Birth and All the Barren Were Answered

"I will greatly rejoice." It is written, "Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?" (Psalms 85:7). Rabbi Acha said: Your people and Your city will rejoice in You. "And Sarah said, God has made laughter for me" (Genesis 21:6). Rabbi Yudan, Rabbi Simon, Rabbi Chanin, Rabbi Shmuel bar Yitzchak: Reuben rejoices -- what does it matter to Shimon? For Sarah our mother says, "Everyone who hears will laugh with me" (ibid.). Rather, it teaches that when Sarah our mother gave birth to Isaac, all the barren women were remembered, all the deaf were made to hear, all the blind were opened, all the mute were healed, and all the mad were made sane, and all were saying: Would that Sarah our mother be remembered a second time, that we might be remembered along with her. Rabbi Berachya in the name of Rabbi Levi: To add to the luminaries. "Doing" is stated here, "And the LORD did to Sarah as He had spoken" (Genesis 21:1), and "doing" is stated elsewhere, "And God made the two great lights" (ibid. 1:16). Just as the "doing" stated elsewhere was to give light to the world, so the "doing" stated here was to give light to the world. "Doing" is stated here, and "doing" is stated elsewhere, "And he made a release to the provinces" (Esther 2:18). Just as the "doing" stated there was to give relief to the world, so the "doing" stated here was to give relief to the world. Rabbi Berachya in the name of Rabbi Levi: You find that when Sarah our mother gave birth to Isaac, the nations of the world were saying, God forbid, Sarah did not give birth to Isaac, but rather Hagar, Sarah's maidservant, she gave birth to him. What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He dried up the breasts of the wives of the nations of the world, and their noble ladies came and kissed the dust of Sarah's feet and said to her: Do a kindness and nurse our children. And our father Abraham would say to Sarah: Sarah, this is no hour for modesty; sanctify the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, and sit in the marketplace and nurse their children. This is what is written, "Sarah has nursed children" (Genesis 21:7); it is not written child but rather children. And are these things not a matter of inference from minor to major? If a human being, when joy comes to him, rejoices and gives joy to all, then when the Holy One comes to gladden Jerusalem, how much more so. "I will greatly rejoice in the LORD" (Isaiah 61:10).