Liberating Imprisoned Soul-Sparks

"Isaac sent Jacob…to Laban, the son of Bethuel the Aramean, brother of Rebecca, mother of Jacob and Esau." (Gen. 28:5)

Why is Laban described as Rebecca's brother, something we have known for a long time? Why is Rebecca described here once more as both Jacob's and Esau's mother?

Actually, the Torah found it necessary to explain why Isaac would send a pious son to a person such as Laban, seeing the latter was known to be wicked. True, Abraham had dispatched Eliezer to take a wife for Isaac from the house of Bethuel; however, Bethuel was not a well-known evil person, like Laban.

Besides, Abraham had never told Eliezer in so many words to go to the house of Bethuel, whereas he had named Laban specifically as Jacob's destination. He instructed him to marry a daughter of the wicked Laban. By repeating that Laban was after all a brother of the pious Rebecca, the Torah alerts us to the probability that one or both of Laban's daughters could be just as pious as Rebecca who stemmed from the house of Bethuel. One must not assume that the children and grandchildren of a wicked father or grandfather will automatically turn out to be of evil character. The Torah hints at this by reminding us that even Rebecca was the mother of both a pious person such as Jacob and an evil person such as Esau.

You have to appreciate that in the period under discussion [prior to the revelation at Mount Sinai], the holy souls had not yet been separated from the regions in which they were imprisoned. Seeing that Abraham's family was recognized as a place where holiness had found a foothold, both he and Sarah being the first proselytes, anyone who would subsequently convert to Judaism would be called either Abraham if a male, or Sarah if a female.

It is a fact that holy members of a holy species look for other members of the same species. Abraham was still incomplete in this regard, as neither he nor his son Isaac had as yet produced female offspring, i.e. holy female souls. Perhaps this is even the reason that we are told in Genesis 25:19, "Abraham begat Isaac": to remind us that he had succeeded only in producing a holy male soul. This situation still existed when Isaac sent out Jacob to secure a wife. The holy female souls had not yet been separated from their place of spiritual imprisonment. Isaac therefore had to send Jacob to search for his lost mate, i.e. the girl in whose body such a holy soul was imprisoned.

It was only during subsequent generations that Jews were no longer forced to roam the world to find their mates amongst the gentiles. If nonetheless some "sparks" of holiness [holy souls in captivity] still exists among the gentiles, they will eventually convert and then be recognized as holy souls returning to their home [the Jewish people].

This raises the question of Abraham's insistence that Isaac not marry someone of Canaanite descent. Isaac also instructed Jacob not to marry a Canaanite. The Midrash Bereishit Rabba explains this prohibition against marrying girls specifically of Canaanite descent as being due to the tribe being cursed, whereas Abraham's seed was blessed. Actually the words of the Midrash are somewhat obscure. In light of what we have written Abraham may have meant that Canaan [Noah's grandson] had been denied holy female souls amongst his seed as a result of Noah's curse. Hence, there was no chance of finding the girl who possessed a holy soul amongst his tribe. This is deeper meaning of Noah's curse, i.e. that Canaan would be denied access to holiness.

[Selected with permission from the five-volume English edition of "Ohr HaChaim: the Torah Commentary of Rabbi Chaim Ben Attar" by Eliyahu Munk.]