Beit Yaakov on Torah, Vayera 21/בית יעקב על התורה·וירא כ״א

2And indeed, in truth, this kind of deliverance is more precious even than a deliverance in which there is a human handhold. The prayers in which a person is answered belong to the mystery of direct light (raza d'or yashar); but behold, there are also prayers in which a person is not answered and despairs of them — as in the matter we find in the Talmud (Taanit 24a) concerning several Amoraim who prayed for rain and were not answered, and grew disheartened until they despaired entirely, and only then were answered. This belongs to the mystery of reflected light (raza d'or chozer), and it is higher in rank than a prayer that comes through direct light, since it is from the side of God alone, with no human handhold in it at all. So too was the birth of Isaac regarded in the eyes of Abraham and Sarah: this they believed — that it is nothing beyond God to bring about such a deliverance. Their whole contention, rather, was that this deliverance comes from God's side alone, and that no portion of it should be reckoned to them, as though by their prayer they had effected it. And for this reason God was not displeased with Abraham, since he trusted in God that nothing is too wondrous from God's side. All the displeasure, however, fell upon Sarah. For even though she too believed in God, that from God nothing is withheld — still, in what she said, "and my lord is old" (Gen. 18:12), she pinned a deficiency on Abraham our father: that from him too the expectancy and the hope had run out, just as from her. About this God was exacting — how do you know what depends on another's mind? No person knows what lies in the hidden stores of his fellow. And in this she caused a blemish in "the place that is not known" (atar dela ityada), for it looked as though she pinned the deficiency upon God, God forbid — as though she set a measure and a boundary on God's deliverance, [reasoning] that the whole of the divine governance runs only according to her own grasp: that just as her understanding is limited, so too is the understanding and knowledge of her husband. How do you know the mind of another? This looked as though her faith were not as strong as the faith of Abraham our father, and so God was exacting over this utterance of hers.This is as we find brought in the Tanchuma (Shelach): that God said to the spies — what you said, "and we were in our own eyes as grasshoppers," I waive; but over what you said, "and so we were in their eyes," I am exacting — from where did you know? Perhaps in their eyes you were like angels! For this looks like setting a fixed measure on God's deliverance: as though the whole of God's abundant outflow (shefa) runs only to the limit of their own perception. And likewise they later said, "for he is stronger than us" (Num. 13:31) — as it were (kivyachol), [implying] that the Holy One cannot bring out the divine vessels from there, as is brought in the Talmud (Menachot 53b). And this is the matter [that explains] why, afterward, when God reported Sarah's words to Abraham our father, God altered them for the sake of the ways of peace: for though she said "and my lord is old," God told Abraham that she had said "and I am old" (Gen. 18:13). To understand this — could it ever enter a person's mind that God altered the matter, reporting something that was never said at all? Rather, God set out the [true] sense of her words: that in saying "and my lord is old," her intent was one and the same as had she said "and I am old." That is, she had not concluded that, God forbid, anything is too wondrous for God; rather she was saying that from the creation of the world onward God fixed the nature of the world so that things are created something from something (yesh mi-yesh), and only the creation of the world alone was something from nothing (yesh me-ayin) — but from that point onward it is impossible, within the nature of the world, for something to be created from nothing; only something from something. And as we find with the wife of Obadiah, who came before Elisha the prophet (2 Kings 4:1) and cried out to him, saying, "your servant, my husband, is dead… and the creditor has come to take my two children for himself as slaves." And Elisha said to her, "What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?" And she said… "a flask of oil." And he said, "Go, borrow yourself empty vessels…" "…and you shall pour into all the vessels…" It is implied from this that had she had nothing at all, the blessing would have had nothing to rest upon.