Can Prayer Change the World? An Exploration of Divine Intervention in Isaac's Quest for a Soulmate

(12) And he said, “O Hashem, God of my master Abraham, grant me good fortune this day, and deal graciously with my master Abraham:

(13) Here I stand by the spring as the daughters of the townsmen come out to draw water; (14) let the maiden to whom I say, ‘Please, lower your jar that I may drink,’ and who replies, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels’—let her be the one whom You have decreed for Your servant Isaac. Thereby shall I know that You have dealt graciously with my master.”

(15) He had scarcely finished speaking, when Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel, the son of Milcah the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor, came out with her jar on her shoulder.

(62) Isaac had just come back from the vicinity of Beer-lahai-roi, for he was settled in the region of the Negeb. (63) And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the evening time: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, camels were coming.

Rav Shmuel bar Rav Yitzḥak says: When Reish Lakish would introduce his discussion of the Torah passage of sota he would say this: Heaven matches a woman to a man only according to his actions.

Rabba bar bar Ḥana says that Rabbi Yoḥanan says: And it is as difficult to match a couple together as was the splitting of the Red Sea.

Every day a Divine Voice issues forth and says: The daughter of so-and-so is destined to be the wife of so-and-so

(6) The statement found in the sayings of the Rabbis, (Berachot 33b, Niddah 16b, Megillah 25a) "All is in the power of God except the fear of God" is, nevertheless, true, and in accord with what we have laid down here. People are, however, very often prone to err in supposing that many of their actions, in reality the result of their own free will, are forced upon them, as, for instance, marrying a certain woman, or acquiring a certain amount of money. Such a supposition is untrue. If a man espouses and marry a woman legally, then she becomes his lawful wife, and by his marrying her he has fulfilled the divine command to increase and multiply. God, however, does not decree the fulfillment of a commandment.

Rav said in the name of Rabbi Reuven ben Itzterobili as follows: From the Torah, and from the Prophets, and from the Writings; it implies that the decree that a specific woman is destined to be married to a specific man is from God. From where is this derived? It is from the Torah, as it is written: “Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said: The thing comes from God, we cannot speak to you either bad or good” (Genesis 24:50). From the Prophets, as it is written: “But his father and his mother knew not that it was of God” (Judges 14:4). From the Writings, as it is written: “House and riches are the inheritance of fathers; but a prudent woman is from God” (Proverbs 19:14).

YHVH corresponds to matchmaking, as in “From YHVH this thing has come” (Genesis 24:50), and “an intelligent woman comes from YHVH” (Proverbs 19:14). It also corresponds to truth, as in “Who guided me on a true path” (Genesis 24:48).