130 Year Old Mother

The מעינה של תורה asks the question as to why Yocheved’s age of 130 was not given the same notoriety as Sara’s giving birth to Yitzchak. Wasn’t this an even greater miracle than שרה אמנו?

The answer is given by way of a parable. Two poor individuals were discussing a particular town and their success or failure at collecting charity from that town. One of them bemoaned the fact that he had very little success in raising funds, and concluded that it was not a very generous community.

The second poor person said he did extremely well when his request for help was answered generously. They realized that this success was due to coming on Purim when there was a special Mitzva to help the poor.

Moshe’s birth was like Purim in the sense that babies were being born miraculously and in abundance. Women regularly had sextuplets in six months and they all came out healthy.

Therefore, in an environment like that, a 130 year old woman giving birth, did not stick out.

Sara’s birth of Yitzchak was not during supernatural times, so the knowledge of a ninety year old woman giving birth, was big news!