Chana was satisfied with her one son; that’s all she had prayed for. When more children were born to her, that was wonderful, but that isn’t what she had asked for. Numbers weren’t her priority. I’ve been telling people my theory for a few years already, and most people agree once they think about it, because the Bible was written without vowels.
The accepted commentary from the midrash for the next few words, that the mother of many was miserable, a better definition than the “languished” in the translation above, is usually explained that with each new child born to Hannah, one of Pearl’s died. I can’t imagine Hannah gloating over this. Today, at the Tel, when I told one of the women about my reading of שבעה she continued and said that Penina’s personality was to be miserable. She wasn’t happy even with her many children. The אֻמְלָלָה feeling miserable/depressed is an antonym for being satisfied with life, Chana’s emotional state.
Some people manage to always see the best and be happy, while others are always finding fault in their situation. Chana does begin the story unhappy, wanting a child, but instead of being jealous wishing bad on others, she prayed to G-d, knowing that her fertility was in G-d’s hands. She made her deal with G-d and didn’t renege. Her precious first born son was sent to serve G-d, and he was Shmuel HaNavi, Samuel the Prophet who anointed Israel’s first two kings, Saul an David. He did what he was born to do. He changed the world. Shmuel, like his mother accepted that they were just tools of G-d.
We all must learn to stop saying “I want…” and learn to hear what G-d wants us to do and be satisfied with it.
Chodesh Tov and Shabbat Shalom