Rebecca’s Origin Story
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz wrote a wonderful book entitled “Biblical Images.” In this book, Rabbi Steinsaltz takes our biblical heroes, and writes an easily readable narrative to explain the person’s life and story. Just like we have many movies that speak to a superhero’s origin story – Superman, Batman, Captain Kirk in Star Trek, and the like – Steinsaltz similarly tells us about the origin stories of our biblical heroes, based on the Torah and later rabbinic understandings and interpretations.
One of the most fascinating characters is the character of Rivka, or Rebecca. Steinsaltz picks up on the fact that Rebecca is the exact opposite of her husband, Yitzchak, Isaac, and that she is complementary to him (Biblical Images, pg. 43). Isaac appears outstandingly as a person who does not make decisions, as a person to whom things happen. In his first great test, the binding on the altar, Isaac did not act but was acted upon. He did not go to seek a wife; a wife was brought to him. And when Rebecca arrives on the scene, it is Rebecca who makes decisions, who acts, confidently.
Steinsaltz, picking up on rabbinic midrashim, explores Rebecca’s origin story. He explains that while Abraham and his family is described as great and powerful; Abraham’s brother and his descendants, that of Nahor, declined, lost its property, and engaged in petty trade. Rebecca, Nahor’s granddaughter, was the opposite of Isaac who grew up surrounded by trustworthy folk. According to Steinsaltz, Isaac’s world was supportive, secure; he could hesitate or even err because there were always others, loving and concerned to back him up. Isaac knew little of the world of evil and deceit, because his immediate world was harmonious and whole. Rebecca , on the other hand, grew up in a world whose failings she knew all too well. She had learned the meaning of cheating, of hypocrisy.
This narrative shapes the image of Rebecca that we read about in the Torah. Rebecca is assertive, confident; and yet she also brings with her a deceptive side, one that manipulates her husband, Isaac, to do what she knows is right – to give her son, Yaakov, Jacob, the birthright in place of Esav, his older brother.
In the coming weeks, as we read these fascinating stories about our ancestors, I hope that you will take time to explore who they were, how they grew up, and how their origin stories affected who they became as people. For by learning about where we and our ancestors come from, we can learn more about ourselves, our families, and our communities.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi David Russo
