“The servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife. He loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.”
(Genesis 24:62-65)
The servant held nothing back. I’m sure Isaac had some doubts or at least some questions about this whole arranged marriage thing – even though it was the standard practise of the times. But through hearing the entire story, Issac could take comfort in that it had entirely been directed by God. That this was clearly the correct woman, and he could take comfort that it would be a good match.
Isaac had cared about his mother very much. Her death had affected him. But with the arrival of his wife, he received some comfort. Not because he had a wife who could mother him, but because he had a partner. He was not alone. He had someone to connect with, grow with, and carve a life with. Someone to lean on, not just someone to protect. Someone who wouldn’t take his mother’s place, but would inhabit her own place in their life together.
The sage Rashi writes: ‘ויספר העבד AND THE SERVANT RELATED — He reported to him the miracles that had been wrought for him — how the earth had shrunk for him, and how Rebecca was ready for him in response to his prayer (Genesis Rabbah 60:15). האהלה שרה אמו INTO HIS MOTHER SARAH’S TENT — He brought her into the tent and she became exactly like his mother Sarah — that is to say, the words signify as much as, [And he brought her into the tent] and, behold, she was Sarah, his mother). For whilst Sarah was living, a light had been burning in the tent from one Sabbath eve to the next, there was always a blessing in the dough (a miraculous increase) and a cloud was always hanging over the tent (as a divine protection), but since her death all these had stopped. However, when Rebecca came, they reappeared” (Genesis Rabbah 60:16). אחרי אמו [AND ISAAC WAS COMFORTED] AFTER HIS MOTHER’S DEATH — It is natural that whilst a man’s mother is living he is wrapped up in her, but when she dies he finds comfort in his wife (Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 32).’
The sage Rav Hirsch writes: ‘V. 67. Again a principle which, thank God, has not disappeared from the descendants of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca. The more she became his wife the more he loved her! Like this marriage of the first Jewish son, Jewish marriages, most Jewish marriages, are contracted, not by passion but by reason and judgment. Parents, relations and friends consider which young people are really suited to each other, bring them together and then love grows more and more, the more they get to know each other. But most non-Jewish marriages are made by what they call “love”, and one has only to glance at the novels depicting life to notice what a gulf there usually yawns between the “love” before marriage and after, how rapid and insipid everything then seems, how different from all the glamour one had imagined etc. etc. Such “love” is blind, every step into the future brings disappointment. But of Jewish marriage it says: ויקה את רבקה ותהי לו לאשה ויאהבה. There the wedding is not the culmination but the seed, the root of love! And then four more words, which, since God led Eve to Adam, until the end of time, nothing more glorious has been said וינחם יצחק אחרי אמו. A man, forty years old who is inconsolable for the death of his old mother, does find himself consoled again by his wife. And to what wretched drivel does all the talk about oriental sensuality and harem life which people like to impose on Jewish married life too, shrink. With Sarah’s death the whole spirit of a home, the whole feminine sweetness and feelings disappeared from the house. Isaac found his mother again in his wife (hence also “to him it was as if his mother was again in the tent, when he introduced Rebecca therein”). This is the highest tribute that has ever been paid to the nobility, to the worth of Woman — and it is on a page of the most ancient Jewish history that it is written.’
The Torah: A Women’s Commentary writes: ‘As if the presence of Rebekah as wife elevates Isaac to the role of master, the servant tells Isaac (not Abraham) all that had occurred. Isaac is now fully established as the legitimate successor to his father. CONCLUSION: REBEKAH MOVES INTO SARAH’S TENT (24:67) The appearance of Rebekah, who is brought to his mother’s tent, comforts Isaac for the death of his mother and hints to the reader to expect the continued fulfillment of the divine promises to the line of Abraham, through Isaac and Rebekah. This final verse, which focuses on Isaac’s emotional connections to his mother and to his new wife, reasserts the central role that women play in realizing God’s covenantal promises. Sarah’s death had inspired Abraham to purchase the field of Machpelah as a burial site (chapter 23), while Rebekah’s marriage to Isaac will soon allow the family to be blessed with more children. tent of his mother. The combination of “tent” with “mother” appears only here. (On the similar combination of “household” with “mother,” see at 24:28.)’
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