Va-Yera (Genesis 21:1-34)
LA JOLLA, California — From this brief selection, I chose three passages for comparison, from the Internet, with ancient Israel’s neighbors concerning old-age parenthood, casting out children, and conflicts over water.
I. Genesis 21:5-6 “Now Abraham was a hundred years old when…Isaac was born…Sarah said, ‘God has brought me laughter…'”
I found no ancient reports of a ‘centenarian’ becoming a father, nor of a 90-year old woman bearing a child.
What I did find were 31 contemporary reports of elderly men becoming fathers. Examples: [1]
James E. Smith, age 101, in 1949 fathered twin daughters with his wife, age 38. (USA?)
Ramat Raghav, age 96, in October 2012 fathered his second son with his wife, age 52. He had previously fathered his first son in 2010 at age 94. (India)
Julio Iglesias, Sr., father of singer Julio Iglesias, age 90, in 2006, fathered a child with his wife, age 42. (Spain)
I found also a long list of elderly women, who became parents. Many were in India and generally required donated oocytes (eggs from an ovary) and In Vitro Fertility (IVF) aid. Examples: [2]
i) Omkari Panwar, estimated age 70, in 2008, with the aid of IVF treatment of donated oocytes. Delivered twins, each two pounds, via C-section. Husband was 77. (India)
ii) Mangayamma Yaramati, age 74, in 2019 bore a child with the aid of IVF treatment of donated oocytes. Husband was 82. (India)
Debate: Arguments against such late motherhood include health risks, and concern for a mother’s ability to care for a child as she ages further. France in the 1990s passed a bill that prohibited postmenopausal pregnancy. An Italian Medical Association prohibits members from providing women over 50 with fertility treatment.
As to laughter following any deliveries, I found no internet records, from either ancient or modern times, of laughter, either by parents or the public!
II. Genesis 21:9-10 “Sarah saw the son (of) Hagar the Egyptian…playing…(and) said to Abraham, ‘Cast out that slave-woman and her son…(so he) shall not share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.'”
I found very little recorded of removal of an unwanted child from a family. Boswell wrote an article (see below) which addressed the matter. He found little written admission of this, though he suggests that abandonment and infanticide were done, particularly for unhealthy or deformed children. Monastic literature in medieval times does contain descriptions of defective children filling the monasteries, i.e. children “whom parents could not bear to keep.” [3]
III. Genesis 21:25-26 “Then Abraham reproached Abimelech for the well of water which the servants of Abimelech had seized. But Abimelech said: ‘I do not know who did this…nor have I heard of it until today.'” (rationalization?)
My internet search yielded 27 recorded episodes relating to water conflicts in ancient times. Examples: [4]
Date: ~2500 BCE–In Mesopotamia, the King of Lugash diverted water from Gu’edena (‘edge of paradise’) to his region, drying up boundary ditches to deprive the king of Umma of water.
720-705 BCE After a successful campaign against the Halidians of Armenia, Sargon II of Assyria destroyed their intricate irrigation network and flooded their land.
701 BCE King Hezekiah of Judah, anticipating the onslaught of Sennacherib of Assyria, had springs and a brook outside Jerusalem stopped to keep water from the Assyrians. (2 Chronicles 32: 1-4)
600-590 BCE The Athenians threw roots of a poisonous helleborus plant into an aqueduct to Cirrha, a city they had in siege. The enemy forces became violently ill and were defeated. An alternate story is that the Athenians built a dam across the river feeding the aqueduct, cutting off the city’s water supply.
355-323 BCE Alexander the Great tore down Persian defensive dams along the Tigris, which were intended to block Alexander’s navigation.
Water conflicts continue into our times. U.S Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (2012) stated, “…water challenges–shortage, poor water quality, floods–will likely increase the risk of instability and state failure, exacerbate regional tensions, and distract countries from working with the United States on important policy objectives.” [5]
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NOTES
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_fathers
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pregnancy_over_age_50#cases_of_pregnancy_over_age_50
[3] Exposito* and Oblatio**: The Abandonment of Children and the Ancient and Medieval Family, John Eastburn Boswell, The American Historical Review, Vol. 89, No. 1 (Feb. 1984), pp. 10-33, Oxford University Press
[4] http://www.worldwater.org/water-conflict/
[5] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1936-704X.2012.03130.x
*explanation/rationalization
**solemn offering, as in religion
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Irv Jacobs is a retired medical doctor who delights in Torah analysis. He often delivers a drosh at Congregation Beth El in La Jolla, and at his chavurah.