Every so often, life throws us a question — a quiet nudge that makes us pause — something along the lines of: So… are you actually going to do this?
When this question (or some version of it) comes our way, most of us try to ignore it. We answer — not out loud, of course, but internally — Not now, life. Maybe later. I’m not ready.
But this week, the Torah introduces us to someone who doesn’t run away from that question at all. In fact, she confronts it head-on.
In the Torah portion known as Chayei Sarah, we meet a young woman named Rivkah who is asked to make a life-altering decision. A stranger named Eliezer — Abraham’s trusted servant — arrives at her home far from where Abraham lived, explaining that he believes she is destined to leave everything she knows, travel with him, and marry Isaac, Abraham’s son.
And then something remarkable happens — something we don’t always expect from the Torah: Rivkah’s family asks her what she wants. They turn to her and say, “Do you want to go with this man?”
And Rivkah doesn’t hesitate. She says, “I will go.”
Three words — astonishingly brave ones — perhaps ones that even catch us off guard.
Because she has no map.
No guarantees.
No certainty about how it will feel or who she will become.
No real sense of who Isaac is or what her life with him will look like.
She simply listens to something inside herself — a spark of intuition, conviction, a sense of readiness — and she steps toward it, showing her family that this is where she needs to go.
And that step shapes the next chapter of the Jewish story — a pivotal one.
While it might feel impulsive, Rivkah’s “I will go” is anything but. It’s a reminder that sometimes the most important choices we make are the ones we make without perfect clarity — choices guided not by certainty, but by a sense of direction, purpose, or inner truth — the very places where courage is called for in our own lives.
Which raises the question: Where in your life are you waiting for guarantees…when what you actually need is courage?
Rivkah reminds us that we don’t have to know the whole story to take the next step. We just need enough trust in that inner voice that says, This matters. This is yours to do.
May Rivkah’s words echo within us this Shabbat — a bold, honest reminder that some journeys begin not with certainty…but with a simple, steady “I will go.”
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