This week’s Torah portion, Chayei Sarah, (Gen 23:1-25:18)
includes the choosing of Rebecca as a wife for Isaac and their meeting, but not
in the expected order. At the beginning
of the portion, we learn of Sarah’s death, and after Abraham buys a burial
place for her and mourns her, he turns his energies to finding a wife for his
son Isaac. He sends his servant back to
his birthplace so that Isaac will marry a woman of Abraham’s own people. The servant prays to God that he will find
the right woman for his master’s son, and devises a test. He will go to the well, and the first woman
who offers to water his camels will be the one that God has chosen. What follows is according to plan; Rebecca
turns out to be the granddaughter of Abraham’s brother Nahor and she is eager
to go with him and be the mistress of a prosperous and large homestead. What was not expected was the love that would
grow between Isaac and Rebecca.
In The Torah: A Woman’s Commentary, Professor Tamara
Eskenazi points out that Isaac’s love for Rebecca is the first mention of
spousal love in the Torah. Although
Isaac took no active role in the search for his bride, he is smitten when she
arrives. “Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, he took Rebecca
and she became his wife and he loved her” (Gen. 24:67). Rebecca’s reaction to their meeting is more
visceral. When she and the servant
arrive at their destination, she sees Isaac coming to meet them and asks the
servant, “Who is this man coming to meet us?” When the servant responds, “He is
my master”, Rebecca simply falls off her camel.
Recovering herself, she takes a veil and goes to meet him. Isaac is the only one of the patriarchs who
is monogamous. Rebecca is all that he
needs.
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