After a long negotiation, Rivka is ready to return to the house of Avraham in order to marry Yizhaq. After her formal agreement, (verse 59) the family stands ready and gives her the following blessing:
"…They blessed Rivka and said to her: Our sister! May you become thousands of myriads, and may your descendents inherit the gate of their enemies…" (24: 60).
The blessing is being offered by Lavan, her brother, and her mother (verse 58). The words reflect a profound understanding of the relationships between Hashem and the family of Avraham. First, Rivka's family seems to know about the sacrifice of Yizhaq and the subsequent blessing that Avraham received for increased descendents. Second, they seem to understand that there is no guarantee that Rivka will be Yizhaq's main wife and the mother of the children of the blessing. Therefore, they bless their sister/daughter (according to Rashi) with more than children: they are hopeful that Rivka will become an essential part of the blessing to Avraham. They hope that Rivka will truly integrate into Avraham's family. This seems, at first blush, to be quite remarkable.
In Breshit Rabba 60:13 (and with several parallels), we find the following exegesis:
"R Hama b Hanina asks: 'why didn't Hashem remember Rivka (grant her children) until Yizhaq prayed for her to be blessed? In order that the idol worshipers should not say that it was our prayer which granted her this blessing. Rather the Torah teaches, 'Yizhaq entreated Hashem…' (25: 21)."
Lavan and Rivka's mother blessed her in good faith but that caused an educational problem for the Torah. We should not be misled to think that the idolaters had the power of prayer, or even that their exhorting Hashem to fulfill a prior promise (to Avraham) had any meaning or was effective. In order to dispel this possible assumption a radical step was taken and Rivka was rendered barren. This would remain the case until Yizhaq, her husband and a concerned party to the blessing of Mount Moriah, would pray on her behalf. Clearly, it was not the blessing from the house of Lavan but the blessing of Yizhaq which brought her children.
Rashbam quotes a similar interpretation in the name of R. Yosef Kara, and this explains where Rashi source was from but does not explain why Rashi chose this line of commentary over the one presented in the Medrash.
Rashi may have questioned why the blessing of the idolaters was reported to us at all? Would it be important for us to learn about the blessing of Rivka's "spiritually disadvantaged" family it that blessing were of no use?
Is there any chance that we will think that the idolaters have some advantage as blessing givers? After the blessing of Mount Moriah, could we possible think that the Divine blessing needs some kind of affirmation from Yizhaq's in-laws?
Rashi may have seen something else in the pasuk:
Rivka was going to be the mother of the Jewish people. She came from an idolatrous home and, unlike Sara, we are familiar with that home. Is it possible that the home she came from had no redeeming features? Is it possible that the wickedness was all there was?
According to Rashi, Rivka's family recognized the power of prayer and the fact that blessings come from the G-d of Avraham. Though they themselves were unable to affect the situation through their prayer, since they were idolaters, they were nevertheless able to add their wishes to the prayers of Avraham and Yizhaq. This indicates that there was some redeeming feature in the background of Rivka that made her appropriate to be the wife of Yizhaq.
Gut Shabbos, Chaim Brovender
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