Freudian Torah - Parshat Chayei Sarah

(63) And Isaac went out walking in the field toward evening and, looking up, he saw camels approaching. (64) Raising her eyes, Rebekah saw Isaac. She alighted from the camel (65) and said to the servant, “Who is that man walking in the field toward us?” And the servant said, “That is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself. (66) The servant told Isaac all the things that he had done.

(67) Isaac then brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he took Rebekah as his wife. Isaac loved her, and thus found comfort after his mother.

This is why it says that “Isaac loved her, and thus found comfort”: to hint to us that he had been in profound suffering over his mother’s death, and 'comfort was far away from him.’ (Lam. 1:16) Until he was comforted by his wife - by his love for her.

Into the tent of Sarah his mother -

He brought her into the tent and she became exactly like his mother Sarah — as if it say, "And behold, she was Sarah, his mother!"

For while Sarah was living, there was a candle burning in the tent from one Sabbath eve to the next, there was always a blessing in the dough, and a cloud [of protection] was always hanging over the tent. But since her death all these had stopped. However, when Rebecca came, they reappeared” (Genesis Rabbah 60:16).

After his mother - It is natural that while a man’s mother is living, he is wrapped up in her, but when she dies he finds comfort in his wife (Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 32).

Rabbi José said: Isaac observed mourning during three years for his mother. After three years he married Rebecca, and forgot the mourning for his mother. From here you learn that until a man marries a wife his love is directed toward his parents. When he marries a wife his love is directed toward his wife, as it is said, "And that is why man leave his father and his mother, and he shall cling to his wife" (Gen. 2:24).

But does a man then leave his father and mother with reference to the mitzvah of honor? Rather, the love of his soul clings unto his wife, "And he shall cling to his wife." (Gen. 2:24).

(21) So the Eternal God cast a deep sleep upon the person; and, while he slept, God took from one of his sides and closed up the flesh at that spot. (22) And the Eternal God fashioned the rib that God had taken from the person into a woman; and God brought her to the person. (23) Then the person said, “This one at last, Is bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh. This one shall be called Woman, For from Man was she taken.” (24) And that is why a man will leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, so that they become one flesh.

Rava said to Rabba bar Mari: From where is this matter derived whereby people say: Sixty discomforts come to the teeth [lekhakha] of one who hears the sound of another eating and does not eat? Rabba bar Mari said to him that the source is as it is written with regard to what Nathan the prophet said concerning the coronation banquet of Adonijah, to which he was not invited: “For he is gone down this day, and has slain oxen and fatlings and sheep in abundance, and has called all the king’s sons…But me, even me your servant, and Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and your servant Solomon he has not called” (I Kings 1:25–26). Rava said to him: You said the proof from there, from a verse in the Prophets, and I say the proof from here, from a verse in the Torah. As it is written: “And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her, and Isaac was comforted for his mother” (Genesis 24:67). And it is written immediately afterward: “And Abraham took another wife, and her name was Keturah” (Genesis 25:1). After seeing his son marry, Abraham was disquieted by the fact he was not married. This is akin to one who sees another eating and does not eat.

(67) Isaac then brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he took Rebekah as his wife. Isaac loved her, and thus found comfort after his mother.

(1) Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah.