Peninah is a bit player in the opening scenes of the biblical Book of Samuel (her name appears there just three times within a couple of verses). She appears seemingly as just the foil and nemesis of her far better known rival wife Chanah (Hannah), the heroine of the story.

Then, too, the Talmud1 places Peninah in the same basket as Satan,2 the prosecuting archangel, saying that “Satan3 and Peninah intended [their actions] for the sake of Heaven.” Not exactly a ringing endorsement! Yet it was Peninah’s actions that, as we shall see, inspired one of our classic examples of prayer, and led to the birth of Samuel, one of the greatest leaders of the nation of Israel. So there is much that we can learn from Peninah and her experiences.

Peninah and Her Family

The Hebrew word peninah refers to a precious jewel, usually identified as the pearl.4 In the Bible its plural is often used for superlative comparisons (implying that such gems were considered even more valuable than gold5), as where “wisdom” or “a woman of valor” exceeds peninim in value.6 Presumably her parents had such associations in mind when naming her. That said, the name also points to a mentality in which such treasures are an end in themselves;7 it can also be related to Hebrew roots for “turning away” and “face,”8 which allude to a darker side of her personality, as we shall see.

Of Peninah’s origin and background we are not told, and she first steps into history as the second wife of Elkanah, a righteous man and a prophet. Her story is in fact inextricably intertwined with those of Elkanah and of his first wife, Hannah.

The family lived in Ramathaim-Zophim, a town in Mount Ephraim, the hill country in the center of the Land of Israel. Elkanah was a Levite of distinguished lineage, tracing back to Korach (a contemporary of Moses and Aaron, who had opposed them some four centuries earlier);9 while Korach was wicked,10 his children repented and merited prophecy, as did many of their descendants,11 including Elkanah himself.12 Hannah too was a prophetess, one of seven named in Jewish tradition.13

Sadly, the marriage of Elkanah and Hannah was not blessed with children, though there was no obvious physiological impediment.14 Ten years passed, and finally Hannah, like our matriarch Sarah,15 urged her husband to take a second wife,16 so that he would be able to fulfill the biblical command to procreate,17 and in hopes that this step itself would evoke G‑d’s mercy so that He would grant her children of her own.18 (At the time, and for several thousand years afterwards, polygamy was permitted by Jewish law.19) And so Elkanah married Peninah.

Peninah turned out to be quite fecund, and within a few years she and Elkanah had ten children.20 Hannah remained childless, and perhaps Elkanah—satisfied with the fact that he now had children—slackened somewhat in his prayers for her.21 Peninah’s children, unfortunately, were badly behaved;22 it seems that this may not have bothered Elkanah either, but it motivated Hannah to pray not only for herself to have children,23 but for Peninah’s children to improve their ways and become worthy scions of their father.24

Tabernacle and Torment

At the time the Mishkan (Tabernacle) had been standing in the city of Shiloh for some three hundred years, since shortly after the entry of the Jewish people into the Land of Israel. The Torah mandates that Jewish men make a pilgrimage to “the place that G‑d will choose”—the Tabernacle, and later the Holy Temple in Jerusalem—on the three major festivals of Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot,25 but this practice had become widely neglected.26 (Part of the reason was that the sons of the High Priest, Eli, treated the pilgrims and their sacrifices disrespectfully.27) Elkanah made it his mission to restore this mitzvah to its rightful place in Jewish life, and so every so often28 he would travel to Shiloh with his growing family, each time taking a different route so as to inspire as many Jews as possible to re-adopt this mitzvah.29 At the Tabernacle they would prostrate themselves before G‑d and offer sacrifices. When he distributed portions of those to his wives and children, Elkanah would make sure to show Hannah that his love for her was as strong as ever, and that he was still upset that she had no children30—although he did his best, at the same time, to not make Peninah feel inferior either.31

And it was particularly during these visits to Shiloh32 that Peninah began to draw attention to her fertility as contrasted with her co-wife’s33 infertility—in a way calculated to provoke a reaction from Hannah. “Did you buy a jacket for your older child? What about a shirt for the younger one?” she would ask with feigned innocence.34 In the mornings she would query Hannah, “Aren’t you going to wash your children’s faces before they go to school?” and in the middle of the day, “Isn’t it time to greet your children, who just came home from school?”35 Worst of all, at mealtimes Peninah would make a point of announcing to Elkanah, “You gave a portion to this child of mine, but not to this one.”36 She seems to have even flat-out accused Hannah of being wicked and thus not deserving of blessing.37

Why was she doing this? We cannot entirely discount the possibility that it was out of simple jealousy at Elkanah’s preferential treatment of her,38 or, conversely, arrogance born of the fact that she had been blessed with children—and so many, at that.39 The Talmudic passage quoted above, though, gives a more positive reason: she acted “for the sake of Heaven”—i.e., to deepen the relationship between Hannah and Elkanah,40 and to motivate Hannah not to give up hope, but to keep praying for a child,41 especially in view of the fact that G‑d desires the prayers of the righteous and often causes them to suffer hardships precisely to motivate such prayer.42 It may also be that Hannah was particularly depressed on the holidays, so that while Elkanah would try to make her feel better by giving her special attention, Peninah felt that a more “tough love” approach was needed.43

Turning Point and Aftermath

Hannah had been married to Elkanah for close to twenty years44 when matters came to a head. On one holiday, either Shavuot45 or Rosh Hashanah,46 after another barrage of Peninah’s taunts, Elkanah attempted to soothe her feelings, telling her that “I am better for you than the ten children” of Peninah.47 He also meant, as a subtext, that her relationship with G‑d Himself outweighed her lack of children.48 As well-meaning as this was, though, it told Hannah that Elkanah had given up hope of her ever having offspring. And so she stood there in the Tabernacle and let loose a plea of such tearful intensity that it became for all time the model of how a Jew is to stand before G‑d in prayer.49 Sure enough, on Rosh Hashanah—the day on which G‑d passes judgment on each individual50—G‑d “remembered” Hannah,51 and soon after she bore her son Samuel, whom she dedicated to ongoing service of G‑d in the Tabernacle. She was to eventually give birth to more children, both boys and girls.52

In her exultant praise of G‑d afterwards, Hannah speaks of how G‑d can, inscrutably, cause “a barren woman to bear seven [children], while the one with many children is cut off.”53 In this brief description we get a glimpse of her family dynamics over the next few years. Each time Hannah bore one child, the Midrash tells us,54 two of Peninah’s died; after four rounds of this, having lost eight of her ten children, Peninah finally realized that this was Heavenly retribution for how she had treated Hannah. She pleaded with her for forgiveness and to pray that her last two children live, which Hannah did, so that her five biological children plus Peninah’s two remaining ones—whose survival can be credited to her—make seven.

Peninah’s tragedy serves as a stark lesson on the dangers of causing distress to another, even if, as the Talmud tells us, she had the noblest of intentions; it is “playing with fire,” so much so that the consequences are almost a law of nature rather than a specific Divine punishment.55 (All the more so if there was actual malice involved too.) Yet must we assume that those poor children actually lost their lives? And would a righteous woman like Hannah gloat over that? Most certainly not. Rather, the Midrashic account must mean that Hannah was successful in winning over Peninah’s children—“cutting them away” from their mother’s materialistic outlook and redirecting them towards a G‑d-centered approach to Judaism (akin to the way that her Samuel was raised).56

And that, ultimately, is the lesson we can take from the co-wives Hannah and Peninah: the “children of Peninah,” focused on the jewels of the world, can and must become the “children of Hannah,” whose name stems from the Hebrew word chen, the grace of G‑d that we earn through single-minded devotion to what He wants of us.57