Peninnah (Hebrew : פְּנִנָּהPəninnā; sometimes transliterated Penina) was one of Elkanah's two wives, briefly mentioned in the first Book of Samuel (1 Samuel 1:2). [1] [2] Her name derives from the word פְּנִינָּה (pəninā), meaning "pearl." [3] [4]
Peninnah was less favored than Elkanah's other wife, Hannah; although she had borne him children whilst Hannah was childless, Peninnah also brought grief and disharmony to the household by her mocking of the infertile Hannah. Every year, when Elkanah offered up a sacrifice at Shiloh, he would share out the portions of meat and give Hannah a double portion, which incited the jealousy of Peninnah. [5] Peninnah would taunt Hannah for being childless. She would grieve Hannah by means of ordinary everyday activities, taking pains to remind her, at all hours of the day, of the difference between them. [6]
According to Jewish writer Lillian Klein, "Because the reader’s sympathies are directed toward the childless Hannah, Peninnah comes across as a malicious woman. In fact, she is probably a literary convention, a foil for the independence and goodness of Hannah, and should be regarded as such." [7]
Eventually, in answer to her desperate prayer, Hannah's womb was opened, and she bore Samuel, and later another three sons and two daughters. [8] After the birth of Samuel, Peninnah is not mentioned again, and 1 Samuel 2:20 says that Eli "would bless Elkanah and his wife", referring to Hannah.
According to the midrash, Hannah was Elkanah's first wife; after they had been married for ten years, he also took Peninnah as a wife (Pesikta Rabbati 43). The midrash explains that Elkanah was compelled to marry Peninnah because of Hannah's barrenness, which explains his preference for Hannah, his first wife. Another tradition has the initiative to marry Peninnah coming from Hannah, thus comparing her to Sarah and Hagar, and Rachel and Leah, in which the beloved wife, who is barren, initiates the taking of an additional wife in order to produce offspring. The different midrashim highlight the difficulty Peninnah faced living in the shadow of another woman. [9]
A different midrash suggests that Peninnah's actions were in fact noble, and that Peninnah "mocked" the barren Hannah in order to further drive Hannah to pray even harder to God to give her children. She vexed Hannah at Shiloh, thereby causing her distraught rival wife to pray fervently. Thanks to Peninnah, Hannah's prayer was answered, and she gave birth to children. [10]
Midrash is expansive Jewish Biblical exegesis using a rabbinic mode of interpretation prominent in the Talmud. The word itself means "textual interpretation", "study", or "exegesis", derived from the root verb darash (דָּרַשׁ), which means "resort to, seek, seek with care, enquire, require", forms of which appear frequently in the Hebrew Bible.
Samuel is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the biblical judges to the United Kingdom of Israel under Saul, and again in the monarchy's transition from Saul to David. He is venerated as a prophet in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In addition to his role in the Bible, Samuel is mentioned in Jewish rabbinical literature, in the Christian New Testament, and in the second chapter of the Quran. He is also treated in the fifth through seventh books of Antiquities of the Jews, written by the Jewish scholar Josephus in the first century. He is first called "the Seer" in 1 Samuel 9:9.
Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire spectrum of rabbinic writings throughout Jewish history. However, the term often refers specifically to literature from the Talmudic era, as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic writings, and thus corresponds with the Hebrew term Sifrut Chazal. This more specific sense of "Rabbinic literature"—referring to the Talmudim, Midrashim, and related writings, but hardly ever to later texts—is how the term is generally intended when used in contemporary academic writing. The terms mefareshim and parshanim (commentaries/commentators) almost always refer to later, post-Talmudic writers of rabbinic glosses on Biblical and Talmudic texts.
Hannah is one of the wives of Elkanah mentioned in the First Book of Samuel. According to the Hebrew Bible she was the mother of Samuel.
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Midrash Samuel is an aggadic midrash on the books of Samuel.
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