In this week's Parasha, it says,
וַתִּצְחַ֥ק שָׂרָ֖ה בְּקִרְבָּ֣הּ לֵאמֹ֑ר אַחֲרֵ֤י בְלֹתִי֙ הָֽיְתָה־לִּ֣י עֶדְנָ֔ה וַֽאדֹנִ֖י זָקֵֽן
Sarah laughed inside herself saying, ‘After I am aged, by my husband who is old,’ etc.
The Chatam Sofer explains why it says, Sarah laughed inside of herself- She didn't enunciate the words “I'm not going to have a child,” because of the rule: Al Tiftach Peh L’Satan/Do not open your mouth to the Satan, meaning don’t say negative things. So she didn’t say it aloud, but in her mind she was thinking a thought of despair.
What is the benefit of this? The Chatam Sofer says that even though Sarah had given up, as it says, “After total despair…” Hashem saved her anyway. And this is a siman for the future, that God will save us, as Yashaya says in 54,1
רׇנִּ֥י עֲקָרָ֖ה לֹ֣א יָלָ֑דָה פִּצְחִ֨י רִנָּ֤ה
The barren woman will celebrate, which refers to Sion/ Yerushalayim- which will be happy when her children return.
So that's why Sarah denied and said, “I didn't laugh.” She wasn't lying. She didn't laugh. She didn't say, “You're lying,” but she said, “Be quiet.”In other words, she was saying, “I didn't deny it, but I didn't say it out with my mouth, so why are you saying it out loud with your mouth?” The reason why Hashem worked this out, and the reason why the angel said she did laugh, was because it should be a Siman Tov/ a good sign for the future of the Jewish people.
The Chafetz Chaim says the same thing. He says the words are היפלא מה׳ דבר
Is anything hidden from God?
It doesn't say, Is this thing hidden… is this thing too hard for God…
Rather it says is anything. And the Navi Yirmiyah says in 32,27,
הֲֽמִמֶּ֔נִּי יִפָּלֵ֖א כׇּל־דָּבָֽר
Is anything hidden from Me,
to teach us that there's nothing that's hidden from God, i.e. that God can’t do.
And we, the Jewish people, will also be redeemed in a way that would not be believed, just like Sarah Imenu, who was renewed and rejuvenated from an old woman with wrinkles, to a young woman whose bodily functions returned to that of a child-bearing woman.
So too, the Jewish people be renewed. As it says, God has the ability to renew. And that's why it's not a coincidence. Rav Sadok HaKohen asks, Why did God work it out that Avraham and Sarah, who were destined to have children, had to wait until she was in her 90s, and he was close to 100? We know that God likes to limit miracles. God likes to work with nature. So why did God make it that Avraham and Sarah were so old? It was for this very purpose- that the Jewish people should be able to look at Avraham and Sarah and say, “Look at them. Look how far they were from a salvation. And yet after all the despair, God came through. That's the way the Geula will come in the future.”
Shabbat Shalom!