The Gemara states explicitly (Bava Metzia 87a): “The ministering angels knew that Sarah our matriarch was in the tent.” These angels, whom we cannot grasp or comprehend at all, knew where she was, and nevertheless asked “Where is Sarah your wife?” so that Avraham would answer “Behold, in the tent” and her endearment would be strengthened in his eyes. It is a wonder that the ministering angels themselves needed to strengthen Sarah’s endearment in the eyes of Avraham Avinu.
And this is Avraham Avinu, a”h, the source and essence of the trait of kindness and love, and a man of great recognition, for he recognized his Creator at the age of only three. Nevertheless, in the matter of endearment between a man and his wife, the angels needed to strengthen.
The Tent of Sarah Our Matriarch
In Parshas Chayei Sarah (24:67) it is written: “And Yitzchak brought her into the tent,” and Rashi explains there: “Into the tent of Sarah his mother: he brought her into the tent, and she became like Sarah his mother, meaning that she was Sarah his mother. For as long as Sarah lived, a lamp burned from Shabbos eve to Shabbos eve, there was blessing in the dough, and a cloud was bound over the tent,” see there.
The Maharal in the Gur Aryeh (his words are brought in the Sifsei Chachamim) explains in Rashi’s words that these correspond to three mitzvos that women are commanded: corresponding to challah, blessing in the dough; corresponding to lighting Shabbos candles, a burning lamp; and the bound cloud is the cloud of the Divine Presence, and this is in honor of the holiness of purity, for she was careful in her state of niddah to purify herself, for purity brings to divine inspiration.
And see the Sifsei Chachamim (there, note 20), who writes: “According to this one can explain what Avraham answered, ‘Behold, in the tent’, an allusion that she had become niddah, and therefore she sits apart, as is the way of women in niddah, and it is easy to understand.”
Testimony About a Woman Who Is Not Seen
It is a wonder that the Torah testifies about Sarah our matriarch by saying that we know nothing about her. Usually testimony comes to tell what was seen; here the testimony is about what is hidden. This is the way of true modesty: the virtue is not seen, and yet it is recognized by one who knows how to see, like the angels, who knew that she was in the tent.
Blessing, Lamp, and Cloud
The three signs that were in Sarah’s tent, blessing in the dough, a lamp burning from Shabbos eve to Shabbos eve, and a cloud bound over the tent, are not a coincidence. The Maharal explains that they correspond to three mitzvos in which women are commanded: challah, lighting the Shabbos candle, and niddah. And there is an order here: one who performs these three mitzvos properly merits to have in her home a sign corresponding to each. And the cloud, which is the cloud of the Divine Presence, comes in honor of the holiness of purity, for purity brings to divine inspiration.
“And She Became Like Sarah His Mother”
What Rashi writes, “and she became like Sarah his mother,” teaches that the tent is not merely a place. One who enters it and fills it with her deeds becomes like Sarah. And the home, the tent, becomes a place where these wondrous things return to appear.