Parshas Chayei Sarah
1. On the verse "And Yitzchak brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother…,"[1] Rashi quotes from the verse the words "into the tent, Sarah his mother" and explains: "He brought her into the tent, and behold, she is Sarah his mother — that is to say, she became like Sarah his mother.[2] For as long as Sarah was alive, a candle burned[3] from Erev Shabbos to Erev Shabbos, a blessing was found in the dough,[4] and a cloud was attached to the tent; when she died these ceased, and when Rivkah came they returned."
The commentators[5] explain that Rashi derives his interpretation precisely from the word ha'ohelah ("into the tent") that stands before "Sarah his mother":[6] if the meaning were as it seems simply — that "Sarah his mother" defines "the tent" (into the tent of Sarah his mother) — it should have said ohelah Sarah imo[7] or l'ohel Sarah imo. It cannot say ha'ohelah (with the definite article hei), which means it is already known whose tent this is.[8] From this Rashi takes the explanation that with "And (Yitzchak) brought her into the tent" the matter is closed, and "Sarah his mother" is a further matter — "and behold, she is Sarah his mother."[9]
According to this explanation, however, it is not understood:
a) Why does Rashi (every one of whose words is measured) also quote from the verse the word "his mother"? The precise inference and the proof are connected with the fact that after "into the tent" comes "Sarah"; and since the word "his mother" has no bearing on the inference, he did not need to quote it.
b) Why does Rashi explain that "and behold, she is Sarah his mother" means "For as long as, etc." — that miracles took place in connection with it — and is not satisfied with saying that her deeds were like those of "Sarah his mother"?
c) Granting that Rashi has a proof that a miracle took place here, the plain meaning does not compel which miracle it was; all the more so it does not compel that there was more than one miracle; and still more, that there were all three of these details. [As we see in Targum Yonasan ben Uziel,[10] which (although it is further from the way of plain meaning than Rashi's commentary) brings only the detail of the burning candle.]
2. One could say that the three details Rashi brings in his comment are indeed not compelled by the plain meaning of the verse, but that he brings the exposition of Midrash Rabbah in connection with the plain meaning of the verse, and that is why Rashi notes the source,[11] "Bereishis Rabbah"[12] [for from the manuscripts of Rashi's commentary[13] it is evident that the reference "Bereishis Rabbah" here is Rashi's own wording — not an addition by the copyists, as with many other source references in his commentary].
But besides this — even granting that the three matters he brings are taken from, and based only on, the exposition of Bereishis Rabbah — it is not understood: if so, (a) why does Rashi omit the fourth detail brought in the Midrash — "doors open wide" — through which, too, Rivkah was "like Sarah his mother";[14] (b) why does Rashi place the three details in a different (and, moreover, a reversed) order from that in which they are listed in the Midrash ("a cloud attached to the entrance of the tent… blessing… and a candle burning, etc.")?[14]
In truth, it is difficult from the outset to say that Rashi means here merely to bring down an exposition of our Sages. It has been discussed many times, in explaining the reason, why Rashi generally does not mention the source of the explanations that have a basis in the Midrashim of our Sages: because these explanations, too, are built on and taken from the plain meaning of the verse (in their "source" is the plain meaning of the verse).[15] And in a case where such an explanation from the Midrashim of our Sages is not entirely in accord with the plain meaning of the verse, and Rashi brings it only because the simpler explanation is not "smooth," or the like[16] — then Rashi indeed forewarns of this and prefaces, "Our Rabbis expounded," or the like.[17]
It is not understood, then — either way: if all three things are compelled by the plain meaning of the verse, Rashi need not add the words "in Bereishis Rabbah"; and if they are not compelled by the plain meaning and he brings them only as a Midrash of our Sages that bears on the plain meaning, Rashi should have prefaced and underlined: "Our Rabbis expounded that as long as Sarah was alive, etc."
3. The explanation of this:
The difficulty that Rashi addresses lies in all three words he quotes — "into the tent, Sarah his mother" — for on the surface they are superfluous. The Torah sets out here to relate that when Rivkah arrived with Eliezer, and Eliezer, while still outside, immediately told Yitzchak about everything that had happened to him, Yitzchak afterwards brought Rivkah in and took her as his wife. The verse need only have said: "And Yitzchak brought her (to him[17*]), and he took Rivkah, and she became his wife." What do the words "into the tent, Sarah his mother" add?[18]
It is understood from this that "into the tent, Sarah his mother" adds something that bears on the conclusion, "and he took Rivkah, and she became his wife." With this the Torah tells the reason and cause that moved Yitzchak to take Rivkah; until then the matter was not yet decided for him.
That is to say: although Eliezer told Yitzchak about the wondrous, miraculous way in which everything had happened, exactly according to the signs he had set for himself — "he revealed to him the miracles that were done for him: that the earth contracted for him, and that Rivkah came his way through his prayer"[19] — all of which Eliezer took as proof that "her You have designated for Your servant, for Yitzchak,"[20] that Rivkah with her qualities was fit to be Yitzchak's wife; nevertheless Yitzchak was not yet entirely certain that she was indeed like his family, like his mother Sarah in righteousness, etc. (which was why Avraham had sent Eliezer "to my land and to my birthplace…"[21]), until "he brought her… into the tent, Sarah his mother."[22]
And since Yitzchak's decision came with "And Yitzchak brought her into the tent…," we must say that he saw greater miracles and wonders (than the earlier ones), which brought out her full resemblance to Avraham's family, and to Sarah in particular. And this, Rashi learns, is indeed alluded to in the words "into the tent, Sarah his mother": he saw a miracle connected with "the tent," a miracle connected with "Sarah," and a miracle related to "his mother."[23]
4. In detail, in order:
"Ha'ohelah" (with the definite article hei): a miracle connected with the tent — that is, one that distinguished this tent from all other tents, so that it is called ha'ohelah, with the definite article, "the" well-known, famous tent. This leads to the understanding that it means "a cloud attached to the tent."
For we have already learned something similar on the verse[24] "And he saw the place from afar": that a certain place is distinguished (in holiness) to the point of being called "hamakom," "the place" (with the definite article), came about through "a cloud attached to the mountain."
One understands that here too the emphasis ha'ohelah (with the definite article) points to the same miracle, "a cloud attached to the tent," which thereby distinguished the tent from others.
"Sarah": a miracle in something that has a special connection with Sarah — which one understands from what one has already learned earlier (in Parshas Vayeira). When the angels came as "guests" to Avraham, he himself was busy preparing and serving the food for them; but the Torah relates one exception: "And Avraham hastened into the tent to Sarah and said: Hurry, three se'ah of meal, fine flour; knead and make cakes."[25] That is, despite Avraham Avinu's great effort to fulfill the mitzvah of hospitality, to the point that he himself (although he was in great pain that day) "ran" and brought them a calf,[26] he left the kneading and preparing of the dough[27] entirely to Sarah — because this belongs specifically to her.
Consequently, since our verse indicates that a special miracle took place in something that has to do specifically with Sarah, it is understood that it was in connection with the dough: "a blessing was found in the dough."
"His mother": even a five-year-old beginning Chumash knows and notices (although he has not yet learned about it) that lighting candles on Erev Shabbos is a distinctive matter that belongs to (women in general, and in particular to) "his mother."
So when he learns about a miracle connected with "his mother," even the five-year-old beginning Chumash understands the connection with lighting the Shabbos candle, seeing how his mother does it every Erev Shabbos.
[And although candle lighting belongs not only to "his mother" but also to those who are not yet married (as will be explained further on), it is not found everywhere and always like the candle lighting of "his mother" — for it may be that the five-year-old has no sister, or that his sister is very small.]
According to this, it is understood why Rashi does not bring the fourth matter in which Rivkah resembled Sarah, as found in the Midrash: according to the plain meaning, the verse contains an indication of only these three things.
There still remains the question: what compels us to say that the candle burned so long — from Erev Shabbos to Erev Shabbos? Even had it burned a full twenty-four hours[28] or the like,[29] that too would be a great miracle!
Rashi addresses this question by adding "Bereishis Rabbah": in the way of plain meaning there is indeed a doubt how long the candle burned, but so it is stated in Bereishis Rabbah — that the candle burned from Erev Shabbos to Erev Shabbos.[30]
5. According to this, however, the order in Rashi becomes even less understood: "a candle burned from Erev Shabbos to Erev Shabbos, a blessing was found in the dough, and a cloud was attached to the tent." Not only is this the reverse of their order in the Midrash; it is also the reverse of the order in which they are alluded to in the verse, as explained above ("into the tent" — the attached cloud; "Sarah" — a blessing found in the dough; "his mother" — the burning candle, etc.).
[One cannot say that the order in Rashi corresponds to the order in which the three things happened with Rivkah. For even granting that she arrived on Erev Shabbos toward evening and the very first thing she did was to light the candle, it is obvious that the miracle of "a candle burned from Erev Shabbos to Erev Shabbos" could be seen only after the attached cloud had been seen, etc.]
Rashi should therefore have begun (according to the order in the verse and in the Midrash) with "a cloud attached to the tent" — the first miracle, which happened when Rivkah entered the tent — then "a blessing found in the dough," a miracle seen as soon as she worked with the dough, and only afterwards the miracle of "a candle burned from Erev Shabbos to Erev Shabbos," which was seen in its entirety only on the second Erev Shabbos.[31]
The explanation of this:
Since the matter of "into the tent, Sarah his mother" brought about "and he took Rivkah… as a wife," because through it it became evident that she was equal to Sarah his mother, it is understood that what bears first and foremost on this is the comparison in the detail of righteousness, etc.
Therefore Rashi brings first the miracle of "a candle burned from Erev Shabbos to Erev Shabbos" — a miracle in a mitzvah that she performed, which brings out her virtue, her righteousness in fulfilling the mitzvah.[32]
After that comes the miracle of "a blessing was found in the dough," which is also connected with her actions, but no longer in connection with a mitzvah.
And only after that, a miracle in something already outside her actions — "a cloud attached to the tent" — not in a mitzvah, and also not in an action that she performed.
6. Among the wondrous matters in this comment of Rashi:
Since "and he took Rivkah…" came only after he saw with her "a candle burned from Erev Shabbos to Erev Shabbos," as said above, we see from this that Rivkah's practice was to light the candles of the holy Shabbos even before her marriage.[33]
Moreover: according to Rashi's view,[34] Rivkah was three years old at the time of her marriage — an age at which there is not yet an obligation in mitzvos — and nevertheless she already then fulfilled the mitzvah of candle lighting.[35]
Furthermore, this was a principal matter (and sign) for clarifying that "behold, she is Sarah his mother," and for deciding on "and he took… as his wife." And especially since here it was not a case in which, without her lighting, no Shabbos candle would have burned in the home: Avraham Avinu kept the entire Torah, including the Rabbinic mitzvos (as Rashi brings[36]), and the law[37] is that if the woman does not light candles on Erev Shabbos (for whatever reason), the man must do so. We must therefore accept that from the time Sarah passed away, Avraham (and Yitzchak) lit candles every Erev Shabbos.[38][39]
Nevertheless Rivkah was not satisfied with the candle lighting of Avraham Avinu (who was an adult and obligated in the mitzvos of that time), but lit candles herself, although she was then a minor of three years.
From this we have a clear instruction (in keeping with what has been spoken about many times[40]) that not only girls of bas mitzvah age before marriage should light Shabbos candles, but that little girls too, from the age of three (who are not yet obligated in mitzvos),[41] if they are already able to understand the meaning of lighting the Shabbos candle, should be trained[42] in the mitzvah of lighting the candles of the holy Shabbos — even when the mother (or others) is in the home and lights candles as one who "is commanded and does it" (one who is obligated in it by law).
And although Rivkah at three was far more mature than an ordinary girl of that age[43] — as one sees clearly from the events with Eliezer, who examined her deeds closely [and for that very reason her understanding, her consent to the match, was required, to the point that, as Rashi says earlier,[44] we learn from this that "a woman" (in general, an adult[45]) "is not married off except with her consent"] — nevertheless, since she was still no more than three years old (long before bas mitzvah), she still had (according to Torah law[45*]) the law of a minor.[46]
7. Another wondrous matter is seen in this:
As said, Avraham Avinu himself certainly lit candles every Erev Shabbos [and the Torah testifies that he "was advanced in days, and G‑d had blessed Avraham with everything,"[47] which surely means also (or all the more so) in spiritual matters]; nevertheless, in his candle lighting (as in Yitzchak's) there was not the wondrous matter of "a candle burned from Erev Shabbos to Erev Shabbos"[48] — as there was with the candle lighting of Sarah, and afterwards with Rivkah when she began lighting candles at the age of three.
Here we see the tremendous power that lies in the mitzvah of candle lighting, even by very small three-year-old Jewish girls — every Jewish daughter is called a daughter of Sarah, Rivkah, Rachel and Leah — that through her lighting of the candle the whole home is illuminated throughout an entire week, until the coming Erev Shabbos.
The difference is this: the candles that Sarah and Rivkah lit — their light affected and illuminated the physical home openly, since the physical candle burned (miraculously) from Erev Shabbos to Erev Shabbos.
But in the inner dimension of things, this is so with everyone who lights candles. Although with eyes of flesh one does not see it — since "the deeds of the fathers" are a "sign" and an empowerment for "the children"[49] — every woman who is a daughter of Sarah, Rivkah, etc., has the power that the light of the mitzvah of her Shabbos candles should affect the whole week.
8. Another wondrous matter — specifically in the candle lighting of young girls. When our Sages extol the breath of Torah study, upon which the world stands,[49*] they say at once that this is the breath in which there is no sin, specifically of schoolchildren.
From this one can understand the virtue of a lighting, and an action of the hand, in which there is no sin specifically.
According to this, however, it requires investigation: this virtue applies to all the mitzvos and matters that boys and girls do by way of training — yet it is not discussed in the sefarim?!
9. The reason why specifically the candles of Sarah and Rivkah (and likewise the candles of all their daughters — all Jewish women and girls — in all times) burned from Erev Shabbos to Erev Shabbos, and not the candles of Avraham (and of the Jewish men in general), is understood from the saying of our Sages[50] that the man's part consists in "bringing wheat" — only bringing it into the home; while the work of the woman, the "helpmate opposite him," is to transform the wheat into food fit for a person.
That is to say, G‑d set up the nature of the world so that "it is the way of a man to conquer"[51] — to win things from the outside world and bring them into his home; whereas the woman, on the contrary, "All the glory of the king's daughter is within"[52] — and therefore, as the mainstay of the home, her task is "within," inside the home: to refine and transform these things that have been brought in, so that they become fit for a person — even fit, as it were, for the Supernal Man.
Therefore, when Avraham lit candles, since it is not his role to occupy himself with the needs of the home, it did not need to bring about a miracle to illuminate the home in a physical sense beyond nature — that is not his service.
Specifically Sarah and Rivkah, and after them all the daughters of Sarah and Rivkah, etc. — all Jewish daughters — to whom G‑d gave the role and the mission to be occupied with the needs of the home,[53] and to have an effect also in the physical matters of the home, have the mission and the power to affect and illuminate with their candles the entire home throughout the whole time, so that throughout all the weekdays one sees that this is a home in which a daughter of Sarah and Rivkah has lit a Shabbos candle.
10. According to the above, we will also understand the order of the three things in Rashi's comment — in the inner dimension of things:
Commentators[54] say that the three matters Rashi brings — "a candle burned from Erev Shabbos to Erev Shabbos, a blessing was found in the dough, and a cloud was attached to the tent" — correspond to the three mitzvos that were given (especially) to Jewish daughters: challah, niddah (family purity) and lighting the candle. Through keeping the mitzvah of lighting the candle there is "a candle burning from Erev Shabbos to Erev Shabbos"; care in the mitzvah of challah brings about "a blessing found in the dough"; and through care in the mitzvah of niddah one merits "a cloud attached to the tent" — purity brings the "clouds of the Shechinah."[55]
And in accordance with the order in time of these three mitzvos, Rashi arranged the order of the three things (which depend on these three mitzvos): as soon as a girl reaches the age of training she begins to keep the mitzvah of lighting the candle ("a candle burned from Erev Shabbos to Erev Shabbos"); later, when she grows older and begins to help with the housework, she also works with the dough ("a blessing was found in the dough"); and later still, when she marries, she then fulfills the mitzvah of niddah — family purity ("a cloud attached to the tent").
From all this the great merit is understood in the effort that every Jewish girl, as soon as she has reached the age of training, should light candles every Erev Shabbos Kodesh (and Erev Yom Tov).
And through lighting the Shabbos candle we will merit, as it says in Yalkut Shimoni,[56] the lights of Zion that G‑d will show us, truly soon, in the true and complete Redemption.
(From talks of 20 MarCheshvan and Shabbos Parshas Chayei Sarah, 5735)
Key Lesson
Yitzchak decided to marry Rivkah only after he saw that, like Sarah, her Shabbos candle burned from one Erev Shabbos to the next — though she was a girl of three and Avraham was already lighting in the home. Every Jewish girl, a daughter of Sarah and Rivkah, should be trained to light Shabbos candles from the age of training, for a woman's candle has the power to fill her whole home with light all week long and hastens the lights of the Redemption.