Where was the Beit Midrash of Shem and Ever?
In Parshat Toldot, when Rivka finally conceives, she doesn’t understand what is happening inside of her womb (Breisheet 25:22):
The children struggled together within her. She said “If this is so, why am I living?” So she went (vatelech) to inquire of God.
The word “vatelech” connotes that she went somewhere.
The Midrash, Breisheet Raba 63:6 asks where Rivka went to inquire of God as there were no synagogues or Batei Midrash (study halls) in existence at the time aside from that of Avraham and Yitzchak and that of Shem and Ever.
Since it says “vatelech”, it must mean that she went to the further Beit Midrash of Shem (Noach’s son) and Ever (Shem’s great grandson), the leaders of the generation who were both still alive at the time. This teaches us that visiting a sage is like visiting the Divine Presence.
Where was the Beit Midrash of Shem and Ever?
One option is that it was located in Shalem (the city that would eventually be called Yerushalayim) since according to the Midrash Aggada, Malki Tzedek the King of Shalem is none other than Shem, the son of Noach.
Maharsha’s opinion (Megila 17a) is that it was in Be’er Sheva.
However, associating the Beit Midrash with Be’er Sheva doesn’t fit with the idea that Rivka went away to inquire of God, since Yitzchak and Rivka lived locally in the Negev.
At the other extreme, Zev (Jabo) Erlich z”l, an Israeli historian, archeologist and tour guide who was killed in Lebanon last year, made the claim that the Beit Midrash of Shem and Ever was located in Ebla, Syria since Yaakov stopped to study there on his way to Haran and many tablets from the time period of our forefathers were found there.
However, Ebla seems too far away for Rivka to have visited especially while going through such a difficult pregnancy.
There are those including Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kaminetz who stated in 1833 that the Beit Midrash was in a cave in Tzfat which the Arabs called “Ma’arat Yaakov.”
Although we are not sure exactly where this Beit Midrash was, it makes sense that Rivka probably felt more comfortable travelling a little bit further to discuss the spiritual difficulties that she was having with her pregnancy with her distant relatives, Shem or Ever rather than with her husband, Yitzchak or her father in law, Avraham.
