Parshas Lech-Lecha - Sarai to Sarah

Oct 31, 2025

I had the privilege of learning something incredible from a guest speaker in my fertility awareness training. Her name is Julia Indichova and she teaches the OVUM method to help people get pregnant.

O.V.U.M. stands for Orphan, Visionary, and Ultimate Mother. This is a path of deep internal shifts, rewiring, literally rebirthing as a new woman, and this method has helped thousands of women, many who endured years of failed treatment, finally reach their dream of motherhood.

However, this journey existed way before Julia created this program.

I believe our matriarch Sarah went through this exact process and it's poignantly expressed through her name change from Sarai to Sarah in this week's Torah portion.

I've felt this intuitively for a long time - and yes, I fully own the right to share Torah concepts of my own that aren't quoted from someone else. Though it definitely builds on things I've learned from others as well.

Here's the verse where Sarah's name was changed:

“‘As for Sarai your wife, do not call her name Sarai, for Sarah is her name.

I will bless her, and, I will also give you a son through her;

I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples will rise from her.'”

Bereishis (Genesis) 17:15/16 (Retrieved from chabad.org)

Why did she become fertile and conceive after her name was changed?

Sarai means “my princess.” We can take this to be an expression of the Maiden energy. The little girl inside of us who wants to be cared for and nurtured.

Sarah means “princess” but carries a more mature version of this meaning. Think of when Kate Middleton became the Princess of Wales. This title of “Princess” holds a very different energy than what we encountered above. It’s more regal. More elevated. This would be the Mother energy. When we come into the fullness of who we are.

At some point, every woman has an opportunity to make a shift.

To step into the Mother energy.

This is when she takes full ownership of her life and BECOMES the nurturer. First inwardly to herself and all the inner parts, but eventually it overflows.

The physical manifestation of this overflow is fertility: the capacity to create and expand beyond the self.

The nuance notes:

Obviously, I’m not here saying that women struggling with fertility haven’t stepped into this elevated version of themselves. Fertility is multifaceted and there are so many different angles to consider.

I’m sharing this perspective to offer another angle that often goes unconsidered. Sarah expressed a deep inner shift and her body responded. As mentioned earlier, there are actually methods today that help women get pregnant using a similar concept.

The bottom line:

Sarah went through many versions of herself in her lifetime, as do many of us!

Her transformations are expressed in her choice to change her name, first when she was younger, from Yiscah to Sarai, and then later, G-d gave her the name Sarah as a reflection of her elevated status in reclaiming her full feminine power as she went from Maiden to Mother and became the vessel to birth a great nation.

These principles ended up forming the backbone of Vitality - a supportive small group for women to heal their cycles and actually thrive again.

There's very limited space - by application only, which will open again in the spring. (Embodied members get first dibs, so I recommend starting there.)

Wishing you a beautiful Shabbos!