#Paracha #LekhLekha : 10 ans, sans enfants ?! Rav Dagani Cohen #chabbat #torah #chiour #jerusalem

Hello everyone. In this parsha, we see that after 10 years of marriage, Sarah Imenu, having no children, gives Abraham Avinu a new wife to bring forth children. It is written in the Mishnah in the tractate of Yevamot, page 64, that if a person has not had the merit of having children with his wife. Of course, provided he is not sterile, he must change wives and bring forth children.

The question that arises is, how is it that it is marked as 10 years ? Abraham and Sarah were married for much longer than 10 years. So, why mark only 10 years in this parsha? In reality, in this same tractate of Yevamot, it is written that because one lives outside of Israel, and because of that, because of this sin as Rashi calls it in the tractate of Berakhot, page 57, that it is a sin to live outside of Israel, it is perhaps because of that that they did not have children.

So the verse, when it says after 10 years, means after 10 years of living in Israel, and so they saw it was not because they lived outside of Israel, and that is why he had to remarry. Because if someone spent those 10 years outside of Israel, it is perhaps because of that that they did not have children. Now, in the section Even HaEzer, chapter 154, paragraph 10 says that a man who has not had children after 10 years must divorce. There is a divergence of opinion

between the Rosh, Rashi, and others against the Ramban: they believe that this verse, stating that they had no children because they were outside of Israel, applies only to Abraham Avinu, because Hashem asked Abraham Avinu to go to Israel and promised to make him a great nation.

Given that he had not yet moved to Israel, he was punished and did not have children. But the Ramban does not agree. He says that it is a mistake to think like that. Well, even someone who lives outside of Israel, if he has not had children, he intends to move to Israel, because if he intends to stay there, it is certain that after 10 years he must divorce.

But if he plans on moving to Israel, well, by moving to Israel, he resets the countdown once again: that, after 10 years of being in Israel, if you haven't had children, he must get a divorce, because it is very possible that by coming to Israel, well, his wife will succeed in getting pregnant and having children. Bye.