ht at seeing such abundant opportunities for holiness dedicated to the wrong cause.(1) Withe her luck, a similar situation occurs with Avimelech, the king of Philistine. Yet, Sarah is once again returned to her husband unmolested.(Bereishis 20:3-18)
             There is no greater example of Sarah's remarkable relationship with Avraham than the fact that, being barren, she was ready and willing to let her husband father children with other women. She knew how importnat it was for Avraham to procreate, since God promised him earlier that his children would become a great nation. Sarah offers Hagar, her maidservant, to Avraham, to bear a child who would become his heir. Once Hagar conceived, Hagar lowered her opinion of Sarah, and Sarah began to treat her harshly. Hagar ran away and returned only after God spoke to her, blessed her and ordered her to go back to Sarah. When Abraham was 86 years old, Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.
             Finally, at the age of 99, Sarah is informed that she will have a child. From Sarah's "laughter" in last week's parsha when she was told that she would soon give birth, we can discern the great pain that she must have felt living a life of childlessness. Certainly, the thirteen years preceding Yitzchak's birth, when Hagar her maidservant had given birth to Yishmael from Avraham, leaving Sarah alone in her childless predicament, must have been especially painful. Another explanation notes that Sarah's laughter was a clear expression of j
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