Parshat Toldot-- Mother Knows Best

This Shabbat we read Parshat Toldot, the story, in Bereishit, Genesis, which tells the saga of Yitzchak and Rivka, their marriage, the birth of their two children, Essau and Jacob and of how Jacob bought the birthright and had to leave his family and flee.

You can translate toldot to mean saga.

Rivka (Rebekkah) was the second of our matriarchs. She married young, according to our sages. Actually, some say they didn't marry immediately after Avraham's servant brought her to Yitzchak, but the text says:

סג וַיֵּצֵא יִצְחָק לָשׂוּחַ בַּשָּׂדֶה, לִפְנוֹת עָרֶב; וַיִּשָּׂא עֵינָיו וַיַּרְא, וְהִנֵּה גְמַלִּים בָּאִים. 63 And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide; and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, there were camels coming.
סד וַתִּשָּׂא רִבְקָה אֶת-עֵינֶיהָ, וַתֵּרֶא אֶת-יִצְחָק; וַתִּפֹּל, מֵעַל הַגָּמָל. 64 And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she alighted from the camel.
סה וַתֹּאמֶר אֶל-הָעֶבֶד, מִי-הָאִישׁ הַלָּזֶה הַהֹלֵךְ בַּשָּׂדֶה לִקְרָאתֵנוּ, וַיֹּאמֶר הָעֶבֶד, הוּא אֲדֹנִי; וַתִּקַּח הַצָּעִיף, וַתִּתְכָּס. 65 And she said unto the servant: 'What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us?' And the servant said: 'It is my master.' And she took her veil, and covered herself.
סו וַיְסַפֵּר הָעֶבֶד, לְיִצְחָק, אֵת כָּל-הַדְּבָרִים, אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה. 66 And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done.
סז וַיְבִאֶהָ יִצְחָק, הָאֹהֱלָה שָׂרָה אִמּוֹ, וַיִּקַּח אֶת-רִבְקָה וַתְּהִי-לוֹ לְאִשָּׁה, וַיֶּאֱהָבֶהָ; וַיִּנָּחֵם יִצְחָק, אַחֲרֵי אִמּוֹ. {פ} 67 And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her. And Isaac was comforted for his mother.

So it does sound like they didn't wait very long. But she did wait a long time until she was finally pregnant. And then, what a pregnancy! She felt a "war" going on in her womb. After consulting with the wise men, she realized that she'd have to keep them separate.

Today I was at my usual Shabbat women's class. As we discussed this, all I could think of was "politics." Our "tired" !#$%$#%! government is enthusiastically going off to .... be the victim of a gang raper, or worse. Or are they like Abraham's nephew, Lot, who offered his virgin daughters to the mob that wanted to kill his house-guest? Those are the things going through my mind when I think of that Annapolis Conference.

Over the years my attitude towards Rivka has changed.

This year I think of Yitzchak as blinded and incapable of seeing the truth, the opposite of the blind man in Greek literature. Yitzchak was convinced that his sons could somehow share the blessing, share the Land. But Rivka knew that they couldn't.

Rivka had hoped that Yaakov would be able to get both Esau's blessing and his own. Esau would have to leave and make his fortune and future someplace else. She had no doubt that he was talented and strong enough to do so.

Rivka knew that Yaakov was meant to get all of Avraham's blessings. He was meant to be the only one to inherit. Some things cannot be shared, and some people are incapable of sharing.

And that's the message for now. There's no way that we can "share" our Land with the Arabs. They have to understand that it's ours. We're the inheritors, not them.

Unfortunately, our real problem isn't with them, it's with the "Yaakov"'s among us. They think that we can and should share our only Homeland with the Arabs, the same Arabs who have been trying to destroy us.

When Rivka's plan failed and Esau came home before Yaakov could clean off the smell of his brother's clothes, she had to go for "Plan B." She sent him back to her family to marry her nieces. That's next week's story...

Chodesh Tov!