The Life of Sarah

In Jewish  practice, we bless our daughters and sons on Friday nights. We call down the blessings of heaven upon our daughters in the name of The Mothers, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah. But why? Do we REALLY want them to struggle with infertility, jealousy, being passed off as a sister and possibly taken as another man's wife? Do we want them to have to have a vision of the longed for child being abducted and possibly sacrificed by that touched-and maybe not by an angel-man they married? Well, those were the trials and tribulations, yes, but Sarah was also one who saw God, talked to God, a prophetess in her own right- although flawed, as noted above, by jealousy. She was also said to have been a leader to the women around her, as Abraham was to the men, and as any clergy or clergy spouse knows, there are times when you want to just throw in the towel, except that you then recall the person you followed from place to place, heeding God's call. IS THIS the blessing? Perhaps. I also think that, just as we can't know what a child's fate will be until they grow, we wish them the STRENGTH to meet those challenges. Now THAT is a true blessing.