Difficult Pregnancy

Parshat Toldot begins with the story of Rivka and Yitzchak praying for children. He prayed in his corner and she prayed in her corner.

Yitzchak’s prayers were stronger as he was the son of a Tzaddik. Rivka was the daughter of an evil person, Betuel, so her prayers were a little weaker than those of her husband.

It was miraculous that she was able to conceive, since she did not have womb. When she did conceive, and her pregnancy progressed, she felt great turmoil.

The Torah uses the word, ויתרוצצו, “and they ran,” to describe what she was facing. Rashi explains that when she passed the Yeshiva of Shem and Ever, Yakov “ran” to get out. When they passed a place of idol worship, Eisav “ran” to get out.

It was explained to Rivka that she was carrying two nations, and רב יעבוד צעיר, “the one with the greater number, will worship the younger one.”’This explanation did not make her very happy.

The thought of carrying an idol worshipping son, made her feel that it wasn’t worth the effort to have a child at all.

Great men like Avraham and David prayed for sons who would carry the mantel of Judaism. David’s request was that the sons he would have would be G-d fearing and not be capable of angering Him. Avraham wanted his son to carry on his mission of teaching the world about monotheism.

Rivka wanted the same for her sons, only to be told that one would be evil. She saw this as a sign that she would need to help her saintly son achieve his goals, without being harmed by his evil brother.

Rivka taught us how to deal with adversity in life. She would not question Hashem and allow herself to feel wronged. She would turn the negative into a positive. It would motivate her in ways that she didn’t realize she could achieve.

We must never let our challenges and difficulties defeat us. We should embrace them and allow us to achieve that which we thought impossible.