Weekly D'var Torah

Rebecca at the Well by French artist Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (1839)

We Steer the Future

This week’s Torah portion Toldot is filled with familiar biblical figures.  Abraham makes a short appearance as a grandfather and unifier as his death brings his sons Isaac and Ishmael together.  Sarah is mentioned as the first Jew to be interred in the family cemetery.  Jacob and his fraternal twin brother and rival Esau make an appearance.  The blind Isaac, bestowing blessings hither and yon like a lawn sprinkler features prominently in a role marked by pathos and tragedy.  
 
However, the star and MVP of Parsha Toldot is unquestionably Rebecca.
She fearlessly challenges G-d when her long-prayed-for pregnancy causes her confusion and anguish.  G-d answers, as G-d seems to when challenged by those who seek justice and truth, with a mind-blowing prophecy that vouchsafes to her and to her alone the future destiny of her family and the Jewish people that will  shape the course of the world.   Realizing what’s at stake and willing to sacrifice it all, Rebecca jeopardizes herself, her relationships with her husband and sons and even with G-d, to ensure that the firstborn blessing goes to Jacob, the future Israel, seeing in him something that no one, including Jacob himself, sees.
 
Rebecca has been blamed for destroying her family, manipulating her son Jacob and husband Isaac to obtain a blessing that Isaac has already decided to give to Jacob.  I reject this claim.  It is only when Isaac realizes that Rebecca has been right all along that he finally makes the correct choice.  Her bold action steers history away from the eternal dominance of the violent, cruel Esau toward the spiritual hope embodied in Jacob.  She loves both of her sons just as she loves her husband but love cannot become a blindfold to truth and that ultimately kindness, the quietest virtue, must speak with the loudest voice.
 
None of us knows which decisions and actions that we take will outlive us to guide the course of the future.  The number of those who had an inkling of their own power and awesome responsibility throughout history has been very small.  Unique among them, Rebecca teaches that every journey, every word, steers the course of the future.