Mitzvos for Misses and Mrs.

מֹווַיְבִאֶהָ יִצְחָק הָאֹהֱלָה שָרָה א מֹו וַּיִּקַח אֶת רִבְקָה וַּתְהִי ל ו לְאִּשָׁה וַּיֶאֱהָבֶהָ וַּיִּנָחֵם יִצְחָק אַחֲרֵי א

Yitzchak brought her to the tent of his mother Sarah, and he wedded Rivkah and she became his wife, and he loved her; and Yitzchak was comforted after losing his mother.

Mitzvos for Misses and Mrs.

Miraculous things happened in Yitzchak’s home when his new bride Rivkah arrived. Rashi tells us:

He [Yitzchak] brought her to the tent, and beheld that she was like his mother Sarah… As long as Sarah was alive, the candle burned from one Shabbos eve to the next, blessing was found in the dough, and a cloud hovered on the tent. These things ceased when Sarah died, but when Rivkah arrived they resumed.

Strangely, Rashi lists these miracles in exactly the oppo‑site sequence than the order in which Yitzchak noticed them. The cloud began hovering over the tent immediately upon Rivkah’s arrival. Later, when she settled in and began going about her daily activities, the blessing in the food she prepared became evident. And finally, Yitzchak saw the full extent of the miracles associated with Rivkah when the candles she lit before Shabbos were still burning a full week later.

Why does Rashi list the miracles in the opposite order? In doing so, Rashi alludes to the mitzvos that are associated with these miracles, and the order in which every Jewish woman begins to observe them.⁶

The cloud hovering on the tent represented the Shechinah, the Divine Presence, which dwells in homes where the laws maintaining the purity of married life are observed. Because the observance of this mitzvah begins only with marriage, Rashi mentions it last. Before that, Rashi tells us of the bless‑ing found in Rivkah’s dough, which was due to her observance of the mitzvah to separate challah from the dough she pre‑pared—a mitzvah that a girl can fulfill as soon as she is old enough to help with the household chores, even before she starts a family of her own. But long before she is capable of helping in the home, a girl can already observe the mitzvah of lighting candles for Shabbos.

Rashi therefore mentions the miracle associated with the Shabbos candles first, to teach us that, like Rivkah (who lit Shabbos candles at the age of three), even young girls should begin lighting the Shabbos candles as soon as they can un‑derstand the significance of this mitzvah (even before they become bas mitzvah, actually obligated in the mitzvos).

—Likkutei Sichos, vol. 15, pp. 167–173

6. See Chizkuni and Gur Aryeh, Bereishis 24:67.