How Peninnah Provoked Hannah and What Came of It

"And her rival provoked her sorely, to make her fret" (1 Samuel 1:6). She provoked her, and provoked her again and again. What would she say? She said to her: Did you buy your eldest a cloak, and a tunic, and a shirt? Rabbi Nachman bar Abba said: Peninnah would rise early and say to Hannah, "Aren't you getting up to wash the faces of your children so they can go to school?" And at the sixth hour she would say to her, "Hannah, aren't you getting up to receive your children who are coming home from school?" Rabbi Tanchum bar Abba said: They would sit down to eat, and Elkanah would give each one of his children his portion. Peninnah, intending to provoke Hannah, would say to Elkanah, "Give this son of mine his portion, and this son of mine his portion, and to this one you have not given his portion" - why? "In order to make her storm" [reading the verse so] against the LORD. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to her: You make her storm against Me? By your life, there are no storm clouds without rain following them, and I will at once remember her, as it is said, "For the LORD remembered Hannah" (1 Samuel 2:21).