Sunday, May 6, 2012
Opposites Attract?
We spent some time discussing the "attraction" between Yaakov and Rivka and between Esev and Yitzchak. The Torah seems to suggest that each parent has a favorite child, and we said that the parents were attracted to the child most unlike them. Since Yitzchak was perhaps more passive and inward as a person, he liked that Esev was a man of the field or a more physical manly man. Rivka on the other hand seems to share some characteristics with Avraham and her family influenced her to be more worldly. Therefore she liked Yaakov who as an "ish tam" was more spiritual. So do opposites really attract?
Other couples in the Torah do not always have this element of opposites attracting. Avraham and Sarah seemed more like partners than Rivka and Yitzchak (who had some serious communication problems) and they do not seem so different. Both Avraham and Sarah were active leaders who together gathered many followers and influenced the world in a brand new way. Although we have not delved into the relationships between Yaakov and his wives, specifically Rachel and Leah, it does not seem like they had the same amount of opposites attract as Rivka and Yitzchak and with their kids. So was this really just picking favorites or do opposites really attract? What do yall think?
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I think that the whole idea of people being attracted to the opposite person applies well to the situation of Yizchak loving Esav and Rivkah loving Yaakov. We can really see that they each had a genuine relationship with the child that was opposite them. Maybe they were picking favorites, but if that was the case, it seems like they would have prefered to choose the son who was more like them. I definitely think that Yitzchak and Rivkah, who were complete opposites, were not right for each other. Their personalities were meant to come together and strengthen each other, but they had very bad communication. I think the fact that Rivkah was pretty much afraid of her husband was a bad sign from the beginning, but it was more of a personal issue than the issue of opposites being attracted to each other.
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