CU3-15

**Goal**: Students will use the myth of Isaac marrying Rebecca as a way to discuss the desire to maintain ethnic purity. Students will also compare relevant secular and traditional Jewish values about intermarriage. **Materials**: want ads, paper pencils ** 1. **** Gain attention of the learner**: If you wanted to find a wife for someone, what would you look for and where would you look? ** 2. **** Review relevant past learning**: Abraham and Sarah have a son. He is ready to be married and he needs to find the woman that will be the second matriarch of the Jewish people. ** 3. **** Present new material**: Abraham’s servant goes to where Abraham’s brother lives to look for a wife. A test is devised to find a woman that is truly generous. The servant will sit next to the well with his camels and other bridal gifts. If someone offers to care for him and his flock, that will be the woman for Isaac. Rebecca, passes the tests, brings the servant to her father and then returns home. Genesis 23, 24. Possibly compare attitude toward intermarriage with that in story of Ruth. Note that women were considered property. To lose a daughter, the owner (i.e. father) needed to be repaid with a bride price. ** 4. **** Provide guided practice**: Some say that since future stories in the Bible describe how the Canaanites had to be destroyed, no Canaanites could be ancestors. Is Abraham’s decision to make Isaac marry a relative a type of discrimination or is it a way to maintain tribal identity or both? ** 5. **** Provide independent practice**: Ask students to write an advertisement for a wife for Isaac. The ad should consider, the bride price, the gifts for the bride’s family, and what the bride will be bringing with her to her new family.
 * 3-15 Ethnic Purity – the marrying of Isaac **
 *  6. Close the lesson **: Share ads. How does Isaac’s path change at this stage? Does his family continue in his father’s land or his father-in-law’s? Mark this on the mythological Jewish family tree.