During a Torah study sesion, someone brought up the story that Rebecca was 3 (three) years old when she was brought to Issac.
I was told that someone did the artithmetic and that’s how it worked out.

PG

Great question … The tradition of her being three is actually recorded in the Talmud … and I am surprised when people hear that and do NOT ask the question!

And to address it, I think it is important to address the larger issue of stories in the written Torah as opposed to stories recorded by the Rabbis of the Talmud. Please note that I did not say Torah vs. Talmud. Because Jewish tradition is that both the written Torah as well as the Oral tradition are both Torah and both true. However there is a major difference between them – and the good news is that this opens up a whole world of truly fascinating Torah study.

Because Jewish tradition is that stories recorded in the written Torah are literal truth – i.e. a video camera present would have recorded the event. Splitting the sea, manna from heaven … as stated. And by the way if we accept Genesis 1:1, and agree that there is a G-d Who created the seas from absolute nothing, then splitting those seas would be child’s play for him! So the miracles recorded in the Written Torah happened as stated.

And then there are traditions recorded in the Oral Tradition / Talmud / Midrash. Those are also true. But sometimes, theirs is a moral, ethical, mystical or other kind of truth, where the story serves as a metaphor; and they are not necessarily literal, video camera? kind of truth. On the other hand, many times the Talmud’s “add-ons” to the story are also literal truth where they are simply filling in additional historical data that was preserved in the rich oral tradition of the Jewish People.

Okay, so which is it here?

Personally, I tend to agree that it seems pretty unlikely that Rebecca was literally three years old. Let’s forget about marriage for a moment – what about ‘her schlepping’ all the water for the camels?

So, might it be a metaphor? I think it certainly may. In fact one interpretation offered is based on a kabalistic teaching of the Jewish mystics: That sometimes a soul goes from one person after he or she dies into another. And in fact there is such a mystical tradition about Rebecca’s soul; that when Sara died, her soul was given over to Rebbaca. And according to the traditional chronology, Sara dies just three years before Rebecca married Isaac.

So, might this be what they meant when they said Rebecca was three years old at that time? Yes it certainly may be. Why didn?t they say it outright? The Rabbis of the Talmud often used codes and metaphor to cloak the lessons especially the more mystical ones.

Might there be another interpretation? There certainly may be. And in fact, I think our intellectual honesty should allow us to say, that as strange as it sounds, it is possible that it actually is literal. Who knows? We do not have to be convinced that we absolutely know the answer, in order to study it and go further. Often, the more Torah we study, the more we explore the depth of the traditional commentaries, the more things begin to make sense and fall in to place.

That’s the thrill and excitement of in depth Torah study with the rich tradition and commentary that goes with it.

So all I can say is, keep it up!