Commentary for Genesis 35:8

ותמת דבורה AND DEBORAH DIED — How came Deborah to be in Jacob’s house? But the explanation is: because Rebékah had promised Jacob (Gen. 27:45) “then I will send and fetch thee from thence”, she sent Deborah to him to Padan-aram to tell him to leave that place, and she died on the return journey I learnt this from a comment of R. Moses Ha-darshan.

AND DEBORAH REBEKAH’s NURSE DIED. I do not know why this verse has been placed between the verse, And he called the place El-beth-el¹⁸³Verse 7 here. and the following verse, And G-d appeared to Jacob again.¹⁸⁴Verse 9 here. Scripture thus interrupts one subject which occurred at one time and in one place for when Jacob came to Luz, that is Beth-el,¹⁸⁵Verse 6 here. he built an altar there and he called the place El-beth-el,¹⁸³Verse 7 here. and G-d appeared to him there and He blessed him.¹⁸⁴Verse 9 here. Why then was this verse concerning Deborah’s death placed in the midst of one subject?
A feasible answer is that which our Rabbis have said,¹⁸⁶Bereshith Rabbah 81:8. namely that the verse alludes to the death of Rebekah, and therefore Jacob called the name of that place, Alon-bachut (the oak of weeping), for the weeping and anguish could not have been such for the passing of the old nurse that the place would have been named on account of it. Instead, Jacob wept and mourned for his righteous mother who had loved him and sent him to Paddan-aram and who was not privileged to see him when he returned. Therefore G-d appeared to him and blessed him, in order to comfort him, just as He had done to his father Isaac following the death of Abraham.¹⁸⁷Above, 25:11. With reference to both of them the Sages have said¹⁸⁸Sotah 14 a; Bereshith Rabbah 82:4. that He gave them the blessing of consolation addressed to mourners. Proof for this is that which is said below, And Jacob came unto Isaac his father to Mamre,¹⁸⁹Verse 27 here. for had Rebekah been there, Scripture would have mentioned “unto his father and unto his mother” for it was she who sent him. to Paddan-aram and caused him all the good, for Isaac commanded him to go there at her advice.
Now Rashi commented: “Because the time of her death was kept secret in order that people might not curse her — the mother who gave birth to Esau — Scripture also does not make mention of her death.” This is a Midrash of the Sages.¹⁹⁰Tanchuma Ki Theitzei 4. But neither does Scripture mention the death of Leah! Instead, we must say that the intent of the Sages was to explain why Scripture mentions Rebekah’s death by allusion, connecting the matter with her nurse. Since Scripture did refer to it, they wondered why the matter was hidden and not revealed. And the justification for the curse stated by Rashi is not clear since Scripture mentioned Esau at the death of Isaac, And Esau and Jacob his sons buried him.¹⁹¹Verse 29 here.
It is, however, possible to say that Rebekah’s death lacked honor, for Jacob was not there, and Esau hated her and would not attend; Isaac’s eyes were too dim to see,¹⁹²Above, 27:1. and he did not leave his house. Therefore, Scripture did not want to mention that she was buried by the Hittites.
I found a similar explanation in Eileh Hadvarim Rabbah,¹⁹³I found this not in Midrash Rabbah but in Tanchuma Ki Theitzei, 4. in the section of Ki Theitzei Lamilchamah,¹⁹⁴Deuteronomy 21:10. where the Sages say: “You find that when Rebekah died, people said, ‘Who shall go before her? Abraham is dead. Isaac is confined to the house and his eyes are dim. Jacob is gone to Paddan-aram. If wicked Esau shall go before her, people will say, “Cursed be the breast that gave suck to this one.’” What did they do? They took out her bier at night. Rabbi Yosei bar Chaninah said, ‘Due to the fact that they took out her bier at night the Scriptures mentioned her death only indirectly. It is this which Scripture says, And he called its name Alon-bachut, two weepings, [one for Deborah and one for Rebekah]. Thus Scripture says, And G-d appeared unto Jacob… and blessed him.¹⁸⁴Verse 9 here. What blessing did He give him? He gave him the blessing of consolation addressed to mourners.’” Thus far the Midrash. Now because Esau was the only one present at her burial, they feared the curse, and they did not view the burial as an honor to her, this being the significance of the Scriptural hint.
Deborah was in Jacob’s company because after accompanying Rebekah to the land of Canaan, she had returned to her country, and now she was coming with Jacob in order to see her mistress. It may be that she was engaged in raising Jacob’s children out of respect for Rebekah and due to her love for her, and thus she resided with him. Now it is possible that she is not “the nurse” of whom it is said, And they sent away Rebekah their sister, and her nurse,¹⁹⁵Above 24: 59. but that she was another nurse who remained in the house of Laban and Bethuel, and now Jacob brought her with him to support her in her old age out of respect to his mother, for it was the custom among the notables to have many nurses. It is improbable that the old woman would be the messenger whom his mother had dispatched to Jacob [to have him return to the Land of Israel], as Rabbi Moshe Hadarshan would have it.¹⁹⁶Mentioned by Rashi in this verse. A preacher in the city of Narbonne, Provence, France, who lived in the second half of the eleventh century, Rabbi Moshe Hadarshan, compiled a collection of Agadic material on the book of Genesis. The book itself, which had a great influence upon Rashi and other writers, has been lost except for the quotations made by other scholars.

אלון בכות, this is mentioned only because all the locations at which Yaakov stopped on his return from Lavan and which were mentioned in the Torah were mentioned because of something that happened there. They were: Pnuel, Sukkot, El Elo-hey Yisrael, Shalem, the city of Shechem. Luz(ah), El Bet El, Alon Bachut, the second Bet El, Bet Lechem (Efrat), Migdal Eder.

אלון בכות. Mourning results in the withdrawal of the Divine Presence as we know from Shabbat 30. Until Yaakov had passed this tree after mourning Deborah the Divine Presence did not return and accompany him. [He was deprived of such a Presence during all the 22 years that he was mourning for his son Joseph, thinking him dead. Ed.].

ותמת דבורה, according to Rashi, Rivkah had sent word to Yaakov by means of Devorah in accordance with her promise at the time that as soon as Esau’s anger would subside she would recall him from his exile. (27,45) When Devorah delivered the message at Bet El she died forthwith.

ותמת דבורה, “Deborah died, etc.” Nachmanides writes that he does not know why this piece of information was included by the Torah at this point between Yaakov naming the site of the altar Beyt El, and the blessing G’d gave Yaakov when he added the name Yisrael to his previous name. Possibly, the reason was, as our sages suggest, that the news of Deborah’s death was meant to tell Yaakov that his mother Rivkah had died, and that this explains why Yaakov called the site of Deborah’s interment אלון בכות,”the oak of mourning.” Yaakov wept tears for his mother’s death when burying Deborah. He was especially saddened by the fact that he had not been granted a reunion with her after all these years. As soon as he had stopped mourning for his mother, G’d appeared to him and complimented him. (verse 9) Rashi claims that the reason why the precise date of Rivkah’s death has not been revealed was to prevent people to use that date to curse the womb that had produced a person as depraved as Esau, although the date when Leah died has also not been revealed by the Torah. The reason why the sages did not attribute any special reason to the omission by the Torah of the date on which Leah died, was that only the fact that the Torah made a point of mentioning when a servant of Rivkah died, without also at least telling us when her mistress died, calls for further investigation. Nonetheless this is not a good enough reason. The Torah did not omit reporting the death of Yitzchok who had sired Esau, but even reports that Esau partook in his father’s funeral. (Genesis 35,29) It is possible that the Torah omitted a direct report of Rivkah’s death and burial as it was not surrounded by honour, seeing that her son Yaakov did not attend the funeral and her son Esau hated her, and her husband Yitzchok who was practically blind, could not perform the rites, probably was even unable to leave his house. The Torah did not want to report that the Hittite neighbours of Rivkah had to bury her. This would have drawn attention to the lack of honour bestowed on her during her funeral.

The plain of Beis Eil was called Allon. Rashi is saying that Allon does not mean “plain.” Rather, Allon is the name of the plain, as Rashi explains in Parshas Lech Lecha, on איל פארן (14:6). See there.

Wieso diese, jedenfalls hochbetagte Frau, sich in Jakobs Begleitung befunden, ist nicht angegeben. Ob sie, wie einige vermuten, von Rebekka mit einer Botschaft an Jakob gesandt, oder ihm aus Labans Hause gefolgt war, um das einstige Kind ihrer Pflege noch einmal wieder zu schauen, wie רמב"ן vermutet, lässt sich eben nur vermuten. Der Name des ihr Grab überschattenden Baumes zeigt jedenfalls die Pietät Jakobs für seine Mutter, die er selbst in ihrer betagten Amme also geehrt, dass er deren Verlust schmerzlich beweinte.

ותמת דבורה, Deborah, Rivkah’s nursemaid died (near there) the reason why we are told about this at this point may be on account of the prophetess Deborah sitting and holding court near this tree, by the grave of Deborah (Judges, 4.5.)

ותמת דבורה, “Deborah died;” Rashi explains why the Torah suddenly inserts this statement and how it is relevant. We never knew that she was part of Yaakov’s entourage. After all, Yaakov himself had said that when he crossed the river Jordan the first time he had been accompanied only by his walking stick (Compare Genesis 32,11) Rivkah had told Yaakov (Genesis 27,4445) that she would let him know when it was safe to return, when Esau’s wrath had cooled off. She had dispatched Deborah to Padan Arom to inform Yaakov of this. Yaakov had not been willing to return already. Deborah remained with him in the house of Lavan and passed away on the journey on the way back to the land of Canaan. When she had been mentioned the first time (Genesis 24,59) she had only been described as Rivkah’s nursemaid; now the Torah supplied her name.

מתחת לבית אל BELOW BETHEL — The city was situated on a mountain and she was buried at the foot of the mountain.

תחת האלון, beneath the oak. This category of tree also appears in Hoseah 4,13 and in Ezekiel 27,6. According to Onkelos the word is the same as אלוני ממרא with the vowel tzeyreh, i.e. it describes a certain valley or a grove of trees. In Bereshit Rabbah 81,5 Rabbi Shemuel bar Nachman understands the meaning of the word alon as derived from the Greek, where it means “double, additional,” The Torah hints that before the mourning for Deborah was over, news reached Yaakov that his mother Rivkah had died.

He was told that his mother had died. [Rashi knows this] because she did not die earlier, for she sent Devorah to Yaakov, indicating that she had not yet died. However, when Yaakov comes to his father’s house it is written only (v. 27), “Yaakov came to Yitzchok his father,” omitting, “To Rivkah his mother.” Yet, Yaakov came because Rivkah had sent Devorah to him! This implies that Rivkah had [just] died. And since Yaakov now received tidings of a second mourning, as it is written אלון בכות, which means “another mourning,” perforce he was informed of his mother’s death.

תחת האלון UNDER THE OAK — The Targum renders it by “on the lower part of the plain” because there was some level ground above on the slope of the hill and her grave was beneath this. The plain of Bethel bore the name of Allon (cf. Rashi on Genesis 14:6). An Agada (Genesis Rabbah 81:5) states that he there received news of another mourning for he was informed that his mother had died. — In Greek allon means “another”. — Because the time of her death was kept secret in order that people might not curse the mother who gave birth to Esau, Scripture also does not make open mention of her death (Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Teitzei 4).

It is for the following reason that the date of her death was kept secret so that... I.e., Yitzchak was confined to his home due to blindness. And Yaakov was in [transit from] Padan Aram. The only one still with Rivkah was Eisov. Thus the day of her death was kept secret, so that Eisov should not be involved with her burial, for this would cause people to curse the womb from which he came. Some ask: Why would people curse her after her death more than during her life? The answer is: Before her death, people did not see Eisov since he was with his father-in-law in Seir, for that is where Yaakov sent his gift to Eisov. But now, if he would be the only one to come and bury her, people would curse her. Maharshal answers: Her death was kept secret so people would think she was still alive, and they would not be permitted to curse her due to, “You shall not curse a deaf person” (Vayikra 19:14). But this applies only to a live person, [and to the non-deaf as well. See Rashi there].