Parashat Chayei Sara

The only parsha named after a woman (Sarah) is primarily about another woman, Rivka (Rebecca).

According to the midrash, Rivka was born on the day that Sarah died and something of Sarah's extraordinary presence returned to the world through Rivka.

As her only child, Isaac had a unique bond with Sarah. The loss he felt after her death was not consoled until Rivka came to him to be his wife.

In fact, Isaac does not appear in the narrative of the Torah from the moment that Abraham lifts up the knife to offer him as a sacrifice until the moment that Rivka alights from her camel ready to be his wife. Only then is he ready to return to the world of the living, even though he is never portrayed as a forceful individual. As the text says, 'Isaac loved her and thus found comfort after his mother's death'.

Rivka, on the other hand, is a prominent actor in the parsha and continues to be the dominant personality of the Hebrews until Jacob leaves their home.

The servant sent to find Isaac a wife discovers in her a kind, intelligent and decisive personality, even though she is very young. According to the narrative, she precisely fulfils the 'test' that the servant devises to discover the right woman for his master's son.

Despite the fact that she comes from a family steeped in deception and greed, she herself rises above the values surrounding her and demonstrates her willingness to submit herself to the values of ethical monotheism that characterised the family of Abraham and Isaac.