Toldoth: the good wife

Toldoth ends as Yaakov is sent away to marry a daughter of his uncle Lavan , and NOT marry any of the local girls! Toldoth begins by identifying Yitzchok as the son of Avraham, This identification follows immediately after the genealogy of Ishmael, which in turn followed the list of Avraham’s third family with Ketura. Yitzchok was really the son of Sarah. The mother makes the man.
What kind of mother was Rivkah? A mother who saw that the goal (advancing the right son) was more important than the rules. Yitzchok was blind, Rivkah saw the future. Rivkah always examined the purpose of her life :לָמָּה זֶּה אָנֹכִי

Today is the Yahrzeit for my mother (z”l). She once told me that it is an important skill to be able to tell a good lie. ( She named her daughter Rivkah. ) She used that skill to survive the holocaust. She used it to rescue my father from prison. She used it so that my sisters and I could live and celebrate her Thanksgiving Yahrzeit.