[4] Rebecca and Isaac were one of the four couples that some believe are buried in the Cave of the Patriarchs, the other three being Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, and Jacob and Leah.

He commanded his servant (whom the Torah commentators identify as Eliezer of Damascus)[7] to journey to Aram Naharaim to select a bride from his own family, rather than engage Isaac to a local Canaanite girl.

Rebecca continued to draw water until all the camels were sated, proving her kind and generous nature and her suitability for entering Abraham's household.

Her family sent her off with her nurse, Deborah (according to Rashi), and blessed her, "Our sister, may you come to be thousands of myriads, and may your offspring inherit the gate of its foes."

Before the bride and bridegroom stand under the chuppah, they take part in a special ceremony called badeken (veiling).

[11][12] Twenty years elapsed before they had children; throughout that time, both Isaac and Rebecca prayed fervently to God for offspring.

[14] Thinking that she was carrying one baby who was displaying conflicting propensities, Rebecca sought enlightenment at the yeshiva of Shem and Eber.

[15] The prophecy also said that the older would serve the younger; its statement, "One people will be stronger than the other" has been taken to mean that the two nations will never gain power simultaneously; when one falls, the other will rise, and vice versa.

When the time came for Rebecca to give birth, the first child to come out emerged red and hairy all over, with his heel grasped by the hand of the second to come out.

[24] According to the Talmud, immediately after Abraham died, Jacob prepared a lentil stew as a traditional mourner's meal for his father, Isaac.

[25] The Hebrew Bible states that Esau, returning famished from the fields, begged Jacob to give him some of the stew.

[26] At a later time, a famine struck the land of Israel and Isaac moved his family, upon God's command, to Gerar, which was ruled by Abimelech, king of the Philistines.

Rebecca overheard this conversation and realized that Isaac's blessings should go to Jacob, since she was told before the twins' birth that the older son would serve the younger.

Before she sent Jacob to his father, she dressed him in Esau's garments and laid goatskins on his arms and neck to simulate hairy skin.

Isaac proceeded to eat the food and to drink the wine that Jacob gave him, and then he blessed him with the dew of the heavens, the fatness of the earth, and rulership over many nations as well as his own brother.

Rashi explains that Isaac smelled the heavenly scent of Gan Eden (Paradise) when Jacob entered his room.

Here again, Rebecca prophetically perceived his murderous intentions and ordered Jacob to travel to her brother Laban's house in Haran, until Esau's anger subsided.

She then convinced Isaac to send Jacob away, by telling him that she despaired of him marrying a local girl from the idol-worshipping families of Canaan (as Esau had done).

After Isaac sent Jacob away (to find a wife), Esau realized that his own Canaanite wives were evil in his father's eyes.

As he did, Deborah (Rebecca's nurse) died and was buried at a place that Jacob calls Alon Bachuth (אלון בכות), "Tree of Weepings" (Gen. 35:8).

The Talmud adds that Jacob spent 14 years in the yeshiva of Shem and Eber before proceeding to Laban, arriving when he was 77.