창세기 25:22의 유대 사상

After recounting the miraculous nature of this conception, the parshah goes on to relate how the origins of these children foreshadow and illumine their later history. First we are told that the brothers warred with each other while yet in the womb, until their mother, in the consciousness that nothing of this kind had ever happened to a pregnant woman before and that it must perforce presage something of great moment, determined to probe it by making inquiry of the L-rd. This is subsumed in (Genesis 25:22): "And the children wrangled within her, and she said: 'If so, why am I thus?' And she went to inquire of the L-rd."

In this context the verse is to be interpreted as meaning that after she had asked these women if they had ever experienced anything similar and had been answered in the negative, she said: "If so, why am I thus" — placed in this strange situation which was never the lot of others? (The Midrash itself does not explicitly interpret the conclusion of the verse, but R. Abraham ibn Ezra interprets it in this manner, and it is, indeed, an apt interpretation.)

After ascertaining that her situation was atypical, she went to inquire of the L-rd by way of prophets (or she isolated herself for the reception of the spirit of the L-rd, which would reveal it to her) what would be her latter end (according to Rashi of blessed memory) — that is, she yearned to know what was presaged by this strange phenomenon. And though the Ramban takes exception to this interpretation, saying that he had never encountered "inquiry of the L-rd" as connoting anything other than prayer, as in (Psalms 34:5): "I have inquired of the L-rd…", (Amos 5:4): "Inquire of me and live," (Ezekiel 20:3): "As I live, I will not be inquired of by you" — it would seem that the following escaped his notice (II Kings 8:8): "And the king said to Hazael: 'Take a present in your hand, and go meet the man of G-d, and inquire of the L-rd by him, saying: "Shall I recover from this disease?"'" and, similarly, (Ibid 1:2): "Go and inquire of Ba'al Zevuv, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover form this disease." These latter inquiries are to determine what will transpire — as is the case here, Rivkah yearning to know the import of the strange thing occurring to her.