“Rebecca and her maids rose, and rode upon the camels, and followed the man. The servant took Rebecca and went” (Genesis 24:61). “Rebecca and her maids rose, [and rode upon the camels]…” [Why did they ride on camels?]47Camels are difficult to ride. Rabbi Levi said: It is the nature of camels that they grow in the East.48So Rebecca and her maids were used to riding them.
The Rabbis say: [Camels were used for a symbolic reason.] Just as a camel has one sign of purity49It chews its cud. and one sign of impurity,50It does not have split hooves. so Rebecca produced one righteous person and one wicked person. “And followed the man” – as it is unbefitting for a man to walk behind a woman. “Isaac came from going to Be’er Laḥai Ro’i and he was living in the land of the south” (Genesis 24:62).
“Isaac came from going [ba mibo]” – he was coming [ba] back from bringing something.51Mibo is interpreted to mean: From bringing. And where had he gone? To Be’er Laḥai Ro’i. He had gone to bring Hagar back [to Abraham], she being the one who had sat by the well [be’er], and who had said to the One who lives [laḥai] forever: ‘See [re’eh] my misery.’52See Genesis 21:14–21:19. “Isaac went out to have some words in the field toward evening, and he lifted his eyes, and behold, he saw camels coming” (Genesis 24:63).
“Isaac went out to have some words [lasuaḥ] in the field toward evening” – siḥa is nothing other than prayer, as it is stated: “The prayer of a poor man, when he feels overwhelmed and pours out his prayer [siḥo] before the Lord” (Psalms 102:1). Likewise it says: “Evening and morning and noon, I pray [asiḥa]…” (Psalms 55:18).