{"id":43635,"date":"2018-11-09T15:35:15","date_gmt":"2018-11-09T13:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=43635"},"modified":"2022-03-09T22:32:57","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T20:32:57","slug":"getting-the-answer-is-only-half-the-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/getting-the-answer-is-only-half-the-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting the Answer is Only Half the Story"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Very few people are so lucky as to get answers to their existential and theological questions.<\/p>\n

In this week\u2019s portion, our matriarch Rebecca goes directly to God to ask a question and receives a rapid and solid response. As with many women, pregnancy is not an easy thing for Rebecca\u2019s body to bear.\u00a0 She feels her twins struggling in her womb; I can say from experience that having one baby kicking can be incredibly uncomfortable. I cannot fathom how it is with two. Rebecca asks, \u201cIf it is so, why then am I, and she went to seek out God\u201d (Genesis 25: 22).\u00a0<\/p>\n

I cannot think of another instance in Tanach (though I am happy to be corrected) where a woman speaks directly to God and is answered openly and immediately.\u00a0 Close analogies include the response of God to Job out of the whirlwind in Job 38-42, or the revelation Moses receives in Exodus 33.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The divine reply to Rebecca is immediate, \u201cTwo nations are in your womb and two races shall be separated from your inner organs, one nation shall rule the other and the older shall serve the younger.\u201d (Genesis 25:23).<\/p>\n

The problem for the recipient of this information is what to do with it.<\/p>\n

Rebecca thinks that because she is told the fate of her sons, \u201cthe older shall serve the younger,\u201d it is up to her to ensure that this result comes about, though God never says that she is the one responsible for guaranteeing this outcome.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This could be a case study in the misunderstanding that underlies all divine\/human communication.\u00a0 Instead of allowing for God to enable events to unfold so that this oracle will be upheld and the older will serve the younger, Rebecca is moved to intervene.<\/p>\n

Her intervention, involving tricking her blind and elderly husband Isaac into giving the blessing meant for the older son to the younger one is entirely misguided.\u00a0 If we examine the text of the blessing bestowed when Jacob is costumed as Esau, (Genesis 27:27-29) it is a personal blessing of father to son for dew, fatness of the earth, corn and wine. There is a request that he be master over his brethren but no mention of the patriarchal inheritance. By contrast, when Jacob is being sent away to the house of Rebecca\u2019s brother Laban, the blessing bequeathed is \u201cthe blessing of Abraham\u201d (Genesis 28:4).<\/p>\n

In other words, the interventions of Rebecca to secure the proper blessing were entirely unnecessary as God and Isaac had a secure plan.<\/p>\n

All of us should continue to have humility in the face of the many unanswerable questions that exist in the world.\u00a0 Though the answer Rebecca got appears<\/em> to be clearer than the instructions to Moses in Exodus 33: 23 (‘you can see me from behind,’ i.e. incompletely) and the reply to Job out of the whirlwind (where were you when the world was created), it is equally mysterious.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though we wish we were able to comprehend better, humans must always accept that our knowledge of any divine plan is entirely incomplete.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Beth Kissileff is married to Rabbi Jonathan Perlman of New Light Synagogue in Pittsburgh.\u00a0 Visit her online at www.bethkissileff.com<\/a>. \u00a0Aspects of this essay are expanded in Kissileff’s essay in the anthology\u00a0Reading Genesis<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":92501,"id":92501,"title":"pro11-planning preparation","filename":"pro11-planning-preparation.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/pro11-planning-preparation.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/righteousness-takes-planning\/pro11-planning-preparation\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"pro11-planning-preparation","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":92500,"date":"2021-04-26 12:13:38","modified":"2022-03-09 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