Why Did Sarah Laugh? On Sarah’s Laughter in Jewish–American Women’s Midrashic Poetry

As the Bible and its traditional Midrash are mainly androcentric, many Jewish feminists have devoted great efforts to gaining access to the Jewish canon. Alicia Ostriker claims, when considering midrash, that “Jewish tradition has been a tradition not of stasis but of continual reinterpretation of Torah in response to changing social and political needs and realities.” Herein, Midrash serves as a method for resolving crises and reaffirming continuity with the traditions of the past. That is why Midrash is a particularly apt vehicle for Jewish feminists as can be seen in contemporary poetry by American Jewish women who tries to revive biblical women.

In Gen. 17: 1–27 and 18: 1–16 there are two different versions describing the annunciation of the birth of Isaac to Abraham. In both versions there is laughing as a response to the news. In Gen 17: 17, it is Abraham who laughs, and in 18: 12 it is Sarah who laughs. Although in both cases the response to the annunciation seems similar, the reaction to it is different: while in Abraham’s case the laughter is disregarded, in Sarah’s case her laughter is being questioned and considered as disbelief in God’s omnipotence. Sarah, then, denies her laughing altogether. The different commentators and midrashists along the years regarded this differences with various explanations, giving Sarah’s laughter (and the words she utters) negative and positive meanings.

Lori Lefkovitz writes: “‘Laughing’ is always potentially ambiguous: it may be mirthful, skeptical, contained, or hysterical; ironic, nervous, delighted, humored, or mean.” And indeed the Jewish American women poets who wrote midrashic poetry on Sarah’s laughter approach it in various directions. Through her laughter they speak of her relations with Abraham, her bareness, her sexuality, her life and more. In this paper I would like to analyze the different ways in which the poets deal with Sarah’s laughter and words. The poems spans from 1994 until 2007.