"VeRav Yaavod Tzair,"
"And the Older Shall Serve the Younger" A Portrait of Rivkah Imenu Like the other "Imahot," Mothers, of the Jewish People, Rivkah had a lot of trouble, initially, conceiving. She and Yitzchak prayed to Hashem to open her womb, she in one corner and he in the other, according to the Midrash. The Torah says that his prayer was answered, "And Rivkah, his wife, conceived." As her pregnancy wore on, Rivkah felt a gigantic struggle going on inside her, and the pain was unnaturally intense. And she went to ask Hashem the meaning. The Parshah records that Hashem told her, "Two nations are within you, and two kingdoms will separate from your womb, and one of the kingdoms will prevail over the other, and the older will serve the younger." (Bereshit 25:23) That fateful and prophetic final phrase, "And the older will serve the younger" became the "raison d'etre," the reason for being, for Rivkah. As she observed her sons growing up, she saw the constant efforts of the younger to reverse hi role with his older brother. It was as if Yaakov too realized that much was at stake in his contest with Esav. "And Yitzchak loved Esav." (Bereshit 25:28) The one who had gone out "lasuach basadeh," to "meditate in the field" (Bereshit 24:63) identified with his son who had become an "ish sadeh," a "man of the field" (Bereshit 25:27). "But Rivkah loved Yaakov" (Bereshit 25: 28), because she saw the inwardness of the son who had inherited from his father the "lasuach" aspect of his personality. When Rivkah learned of Yitzchak's intention to give his blessing to Esav, she encouraged Yaakov, at least on the surface, to deceive his father, and receive the blessing meant for his older brother. When Yaakov protested that he feared that he would be cursed by his father rather than being blessed if he were found out, Rivkah accepted upon herself any such curses. What gave her the courage to accept upon herself any "curses," or negative consequences which would follow upon the struggle between her two sons throughout history, the pogroms and massacres and Holocausts, was the Prophecy given her by G-d that ultimately, "the older would serve the younger," that in the "Acharit HaYamim," the End of Days, the victor in the battle for closeness to Hashem would be Yaakov, under the name changed by G-d to Yisrael. Rabbi Pinchas Frankel Rabbi Frankel is an Educational Coordinator at the OU |
