Was Sarah a Prophetess?

The Aish Rabbi Replies

In fact, the Sages teach us that Sarah was a great prophetess in her own right. The Talmud (Megillah 14a) identifies Sarah as Yiskah – the daughter of Haran mentioned in Genesis 11:29. The Talmud explains one reason for her name, which literally means “he will look,” was because she gazed with the “holy spirit” (ruach ha’kodesh) – i.e., she experienced prophecy. (The other reason the Talmud offers is because everyone gazed at her spectacular beauty.)

The Midrash further notes that Sarah was actually superior to Abraham in prophecy. When Sarah gave her maidservant Hagar to Abraham to bear a child in her stead, the Torah states that Abraham listened to the voice of Sarah. The Midrash explains that he heeded her “voice of holy spirit” – recognizing that she spoke in God’s name (Bereishis Rabbah 45:2). Likewise, when Sarah later insisted that Abraham expel that same maidservant and her wicked son Ishmael from their home, God instructed Abraham to listen to the “voice” of his wife – as she was a greater prophet than he, and he was bound to heed her instructions (Shemos Rabbah 1:1; see also Talmud Megillah 14a).

The Talmud (Megillah 14a) states that 48 prophets and 7 prophetesses prophesied to the Jewish people. The first prophetess it lists is Sarah. (The others were Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Huldah, and Esther. Incidentally, the full list of 48 prophets is not given by the Talmud, and the commentators struggle to complete the list. Although some were quite famous – such as Moses, Jeremiah and Isaiah, some were exceedingly obscure (not to deny their greatness) only receiving passing mention in Scripture.)

The Talmud there continues that in Biblical times, prophecy was actually much more prevalent. Indeed, over that entire age, prophecy was attained by twice the number of men who departed Egypt (i.e., 600,000). The Torah likewise makes occasional mention of “the students of the prophets” (“bnei ha’nevi’im” – see e.g., II Kings 2:3, 4:1, 6:1). As Maimonides (Yesodei HaTorah 7:4-5) and R’ Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (Derech Hashem 4:3:2) explain, in Biblical times there were special schools for those who aspired to prophecy – and many pious souls did in fact achieve it. Yet, the Talmud mentioned a total of 55 prophets, not 1.2 million!

The answer is that there are two types of prophecy. One is a personal connection with God. In the era of prophecy, there were many who through prayer, devotion and asceticism achieved this level, earning direct communion with God (more precisely, with one of His angels). Sometimes, such communication could be prophetic, informing the prophet about future events, but not necessarily. Such prophecies could simply be a holy bond between Master and servant, a communication between God and man simply for the purpose of connection and the sharing of Divine wisdom. Such is a very personal experience, and there is no reason for such a prophet to recount his inspiration to others. In fact, in a sense, such might be seen as a betrayal of his personal bond with God.

There is, however, a second level of prophecy – in which God communicates to His prophet a message intended for the entire Jewish people. Such prophecies are not merely a personal connection with God, but ones which the prophet must proclaim to the nation – at times delivering harsh and castigating messages to a resistant population. Only very few prophets were entrusted with such messages – and probably fewer still were given messages relevant to all future generations, which would subsequently be recorded in the Torah. The Talmud lists only 55 such prophets out of well over a million. Thus, it is quite certain that a person like Sarah – as well as our other foremothers – achieved extraordinarily high levels of prophecy and closeness to God – as in fact the Sages attest. Yet virtually none of the messages they received are known to us today. For although we tend to view prophets as formidable public figures, prophecy itself is a highly personal experience. Only a precious few of the messages such lofty souls received were meant to be shared and are known to us today.