Rebecca: The Three Qualities That Define the Jewish People
The Spiritual Significance of the Water Rising Toward Her
Eliezer’s Mission: Finding a Wife for Isaac
Eliezer, Abraham’s servant, was sent by Abraham to find a wife for Isaac.
When he arrived in Aram Naharayim, Abraham’s birthplace, he proposed a test: He would ask a young woman to give him some water to drink, and if she would also offer to draw water for his camels, she would be the woman whom G-d had designated for Isaac.
He then saw Rebecca. Noticing that she was exceedingly beautiful and modest, and that she had filled her pitcher with water, he “ran toward her.”
Why Does the Torah Mention Rebecca’s Beauty?
The commentators are puzzled by why the Torah tells us that Rebecca was beautiful. Eliezer was going to choose a wife for Isaac based on his test of her kindness. Physical beauty would seemingly have nothing to do with his selection of a bride.
A second question is: Why did Eliezer run toward her?
Rashi seems to have anticipated this question and comments: “Because he saw that the water was rising toward her.” In other words, she did not have to draw the water from the well; the water rose out of the well and came toward her.
Here, too, we must understand why this miracle was necessary and what significance it had in terms of Eliezer’s selection of Rebecca as Isaac’s wife. Why would this miracle impel him to run toward her?
Eliezer had already witnessed miracles. Indeed, the entire journey had miraculously been completed in a single day, as Rashi mentions. What was unique about this particular miracle of the water rising toward Rebecca?
More Than Finding a Righteous Woman
To answer these questions, we must recognize that the selection of Rebecca was about far more than finding a righteous and kind woman.
The Patriarchs and Matriarchs would become the progenitors of the Jewish nation. Their role was to implant within their descendants the fundamental qualities that would make the Jewish people unique.
Moreover, the future of the Jewish people—their ability to survive the countless challenges they would encounter throughout history and ultimately lead the world toward the Messianic Era—depended on the Patriarchs and Matriarchs planting the appropriate spiritual seeds.
This also explains why Eliezer’s journey was miraculously completed in a single day. The mission was not an ordinary matrimonial undertaking. It was crucial to the very future of the Jewish people and, indeed, of the entire world.
This, the commentators explain, also sheds light on why the Torah repeatedly uses the word “ran” in describing the events surrounding this encounter. Eliezer ran toward Rebecca; Rebecca ran to draw water; and Laban, too, ran to greet Eliezer.
They all sensed, consciously or subconsciously—even Laban, who was wicked—that this was no ordinary match. It was a union ordained in Heaven, one that would determine the future of humanity.
The Three Qualities That Define the Jewish People
Based on this premise, we can understand why the Torah describes Rebecca’s beauty and modesty, as well as her drawing water for Eliezer and his camels.
The Torah wants us to recognize that Rebecca possessed the three fundamental qualities that characterize the Jewish people. She was the one through whom these qualities would be implanted in the Jewish nation.
The Talmud (Yevamot 79a) states that there are three distinguishing characteristics of the Jewish people: they are compassionate, modest, and kind. Anyone who possesses these three qualities is worthy of cleaving to this nation.
These three qualities correspond, in Kabbalistic terminology, to three of the principal Divine emotional attributes:
- Chesed — Kindness, love, and benevolence.
- Gevurah — Strength, judgment, discipline, and restraint, which find expression in the Jewish quality of modesty.
- Tiferet — Beauty, harmony, and compassion.
The connection between these three Divine attributes and Rebecca’s three qualities provides a deeper understanding of Eliezer’s mission.
Beauty and Compassion: The Attribute of Tiferet
Chassidic literature explains that beauty and compassion derive from the same Divine attribute, Tiferet.
Beauty connotes synthesis, balance, and harmony. A single color may be attractive, but it does not necessarily possess the beauty that emerges from the harmonious combination of different colors. A work of art becomes more beautiful when it incorporates a variety of hues. Similarly, a symphony is far more beautiful than a single instrument playing alone.
True beauty is created through the harmonious integration of different elements.
How does this concept relate to compassion?
Chassidic thought explains that kindness, when expressed without restraint or consideration of circumstances, can be one-dimensional. This points to an inherent limitation, because unmitigated kindness can sometimes lead to negative consequences. For example, giving money to a drug addict, ostensibly as an act of kindness, may actually enable the addiction and cause further harm.
Likewise, unrestricted Gevurah, expressed as harsh judgment and uncompromising discipline, can be destructive.
Compassion, by contrast, takes both qualities into consideration. It combines kindness with judgment, balancing the desire to help with an awareness of what is genuinely beneficial for the recipient.
Compassion is therefore a synthesis of Chesed and Gevurah. It produces a balanced, harmonious, and ultimately beautiful outcome. This is the deeper meaning of Tiferet: beauty that emerges from the harmonious integration of seemingly opposing qualities.
Eliezer Recognizes Two of the Three Qualities
When Eliezer saw Rebecca’s physical beauty, he recognized in it a reflection of her spiritual beauty, specifically the quality of compassion, which is associated with Tiferet.
When he observed her modesty, he realized that she possessed two of the three crucial qualities associated with the Jewish people: compassion and modesty.
The only remaining question was whether she also possessed the third quality: kindness.
To establish this, he asked her for some water. Rebecca not only readily agreed but went further and offered to draw water for all his camels as well.
At that moment, Eliezer knew that she possessed the complete triad. She embodied all three qualities that would become defining characteristics of the Jewish people.
But what impelled him to run toward her even before she had passed the final test of kindness?
The answer lies in the miracle of the water rising toward her.
The Miracle of the Water: A Sign of Divine Origin
What was this miracle all about?
Although Rebecca appeared to possess two of the three qualities, Eliezer was not yet sufficiently convinced that these qualities reflected the spiritual nature required of the future Matriarch of the Jewish people.
Perhaps, he reasoned, her beauty and modesty were simply natural human characteristics. They might be admirable, but were they expressions of a genuinely G-dly nature?
Although all physical and emotional characteristics ultimately derive from a higher spiritual source, in the process of their descent into the physical world, they can become distorted or diminished. A quality that originates in holiness can, in its earthly manifestation, degenerate into a merely natural characteristic, or even assume a negative expression.
Eliezer wanted to establish that Rebecca’s beauty, modesty, and kindness did not merely originate in a spiritual realm, but remained connected to their Divine source even as they manifested themselves in her physical existence.
This is where the miracle of the water becomes significant.
The natural order of the world is that water, like all physical phenomena, descends downward. Yet, in Rebecca’s case, the water rose upward toward her.
This extraordinary phenomenon symbolized something far deeper than a supernatural occurrence. It represented a reversal of the ordinary order of existence.
Normally, when something descends from a lofty spiritual source into the physical world, its original Divine character can become compromised. Its spiritual energy becomes concealed beneath the limitations of nature and physical existence.
Rebecca, however, represented the opposite phenomenon. Her qualities, even as they were expressed in her physical existence, retained their connection to their Divine source. They had not become merely human characteristics; they remained expressions of G-dliness.
The water rising toward her was therefore a sign that her spiritual qualities had not been compromised by their descent into the physical world.
Human Qualities Versus G-dly Qualities
The distinction between ordinary human qualities and G-dly qualities is profound.
Human characteristics, even admirable ones, are subject to change. They can be weakened, distorted, or lost. They are limited by the circumstances and conditions of human existence.
G-dly qualities, by contrast, are rooted in an eternal and unchanging Divine source. They possess the capacity to endure beyond the limitations of time and circumstance.
Eliezer understood that the future Matriarch of the Jewish people had to possess more than admirable human characteristics. Her qualities had to be rooted in G-dliness, so that they could become permanent fixtures of the Jewish nation.
And indeed, the Midrash connects Rebecca’s experience of the water rising toward her with the miraculous provision of water for the Jewish people in the desert. The miracle she experienced was a portent of the miracles that would accompany her descendants.
In this way, her personal experience left its imprint upon the Jewish nation for posterity. The qualities she embodied would empower the Jewish people to endure throughout history and ultimately bring about the Messianic Era, when the entire world will become a dwelling place for G-dliness.
The Ultimate Significance of Eliezer’s Discovery
We can now understand why Eliezer ran toward Rebecca.
When he saw that the water rose toward her, he recognized that her qualities were not merely natural human attributes. They remained connected to their Divine source.
Her beauty reflected Tiferet, her modesty reflected Gevurah, and her kindness reflected Chesed. Together, these three qualities formed the spiritual foundation of the Jewish people.
The miracle of the water demonstrated that these qualities would not be diminished by their descent into the physical world. On the contrary, they would remain expressions of G-dliness and become enduring characteristics of the Jewish nation.
Eliezer was therefore not simply searching for a suitable wife for Isaac. He was searching for the woman who would establish the spiritual DNA of the Jewish people and, through them, help transform the entire world into a dwelling place for G-d.
That is why he ran toward Rebecca. He realized that he had found not merely a beautiful, modest, and kind woman, but the Matriarch through whom the Divine qualities necessary for the ultimate redemption would be implanted in the Jewish people.
