Shavuah Tov!!! Wishing you a blessed week.
This week we read the Torah portion of “Toldos” (these are the descendants).
The Parasha begins saying:”And Yitzchak was forty years old when he took Rivkah, the daughter of Besuel the Aromite, from Padam Arom, the sister of Lavan the Aromite, for himself for a wife.”(Bereshit 25:20)
Rashi raises the question that the information in this verse is superfluous, for Rivkah’s background was already given to us.
The answer, says Rashi, is that this time the Torah wants to praise Rivkah. She was the daughter and sister of two very evil men. She came from a not so good background and she was surrounded by an evil community. It’s more, she is compared as “a rose amongst thorns.”
We learn from Rivkah, that regardless our background we can always choose to rise above the situation. Obviously this is not the easy way out, but when a person chooses to live in a higher way, H”S for sure will send him the salvation.
I’ve heard of cases of people who are born in the worst environments, surrounded by drugs, gangs, thievery, criminal acts, etc… and nevertheless they decide this is not what they want to follow. Their stories are courageous and difficult, but they are able to come out of it.
A basic Torah principle teaches us that we are responsible for our own actions.
Just as Rivkah was able to recognize the evil in her mist, because she was willing to change and not be part of her surroundings, she merited to marry Yitzchak and be one of our foremothers. As they say “if nothing changes, nothing changes.”
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