Genesis 24 Aging
Aging was not visible until Abraham was 137 years old. WHY??
Until Abraham, there was no old age. People were not markedly distinguished by aging.
Whoever wished to speak to Abraham might speak to Isaac instead, and vise versa because they looked identical. So Abraham asked the Lord to distinguish between fathers and son by making aging apparent. People were old, but they looked the same as far as age. Their bones were not brittle, faces not wrinkled. Their hair was not gray, white, or balding from age. Their teeth were youthful.
Immediately after Isaac’s binding on Mount Moriah following the death of Sarah, people began showing age. Thus from the beginning of the Book until here, old age was not distinguishable. Then old age was granted. The Holy Scriptures say, ‘And Abraham was old, well stricken in age, Genesis 24.1. So in 2085, From Creation, everyone began to show age in their physical appearance.
The Torah says, ‘AND’ after these events, Abraham was Zaw Kayn – Baw – Bah Yaw Meem old, an elder who was advanced in days. In the blink of an eye Avraham aged. That is the first time a Tzaddik, a righteous man, is referred to as old. Noach was six hundred years old when the floods came. Mesushelach, the oldest individual in The Holy Scriptures, was 969 years old. The Torah does not refer to them as a Zaw Kayn.
In addition to Abraham The Torah discusses another form of aging.
When Avraham and Isaac were departing Mount Moriah, the place of the Akeidah, our sages state that Avraham was feeling distressed because had Isaac died, his son would have been childless. It was at that precise time. ‘immediately after these events,’ in Genesis 22.20, that the Lord announced the birth of Isaac’s soul mate, Rebekah, to Avraham.
In Genesis 22.23, Holy Scripture states that Bethuel fathered Rebekah. At that time, Avraham was 137 years old, and Isaac was 37 years old. Rebekah was a newborn.
Three years later, we observe Rebekah as a young adult carrying a pitcher on her shoulder to draw water. No one is with her. She is performing adult responsibilities. Today, three-year-old children do not travel by themselves to a local well to draw water.
Eliezer, Avraham’s senior servant, questioned Rebekah. She responds as an adult to his questions. Also, Rebekah shows honor to an older man, a stranger, which is far beyond what a three-year-old would do today. Then she shows great kindness to the stranger and his camels even though his male servants were present.
Rebekah draws water for ten thirsty camels.
If these ten camels had been traveling carrying up to 400 lbs. each numerous miles without water for days, it showed. A camel can tolerate water loss up to about 25% of its body weight. A mature male camel stands up to 7 ft. tall and weighs about 1,500 lbs. Therefore an adult male camel could require as much as 375 lbs. of water or about 57 gallons of water. When one considers ten thirsty camels that may require as much as 570 gallons of water, perhaps less, it is hardly possible for a three-year-old in our day to do what Rebekah did. Children then, in Abraham’s time, were more developed physically and mentally. So when Eliezer requests that Rebekah accompany him back to the land of Canaan, they objected. They felt she was attached to her present family; she was too young to leave home. Rebekah’s mother and brother Laban refer to Rebekah as Hah Nah Ah Raw, the girl. Still, they allow Rebekah to choose.
Genesis 24.57 – 59
And they said. We will call the girl and inquire at her mouth. And they called Rebekah and said to her, Will you go with this man? And she said I will go. And they sent away Rebekah, their sister, and Devorah, her nurse.
Rebekah was righteous. How do we know this? When Sarah died, the Shabbat lights went out in Sarah’s tent, the Presence of Hashem in the form of a cloud Departed the entrance to Sarah’s tent, and the challah stopped flowing from Sarah’s tent. {The challah had been a source of food for the world.} When Rebekah entered Sarah’s tent, our sages say all three returned, thank God!!
Notice Rebecca’s modesty in meeting Isaac. Who taught her Rebekah and her nurse Deborah in the path of The Torah?
Genesis 24.63 – 67
And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the evening time, and he lifted his eyes and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming. And Rebekah lifted her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel. She said to the servant, What man is this who walks in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master; therefore she took the veil, and covered herself. And the servant told Isaac all things that he had done. And Isaac brought her to his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her, and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.
Isaac married Rebekah when she was three years old. How do we know that? The Torah states Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah as his wife, Genesis 25.20. Their marriage was by agreement. That is the marriage stage in which the couple does not live in the same house or engage in physical relations, yet they are husband and wife. That is why the Torah states that ‘he took her into the tent of his mother, Sarah. They were married but did not have a physical relationship until after Rebekah reached Bat Mitzvah’s age, the age of twelve.
Rebekah was not your typical three-year-old. She was exceptional, extraordinary. She was selected to be a matriarch of Spirituality and Judaism. Rebekah was to be the wife of the beloved sacrifice, Isaac.
May we reach high levels of spirituality and maturity like Rebekah, our matriarch.
May our Sabbath be great, refreshing and beautiful.
Dr. Akiva Gamliel Belk
