The Midrash Tanchuma asks why was it that only Yitzchak became blind from the actions of Eisav and his wives and not Rivka. The Midrash answers because Rivka grew up with Lvan and Besuel, while Yitzchak grew up in the house of Avraham, and so was more sensitive and effected. Compare this with the beginning of the parsha, where Rashi tells us the Tefilos of Yitzchak were answered before Rivkas, as he was a Tzadik ben Tzadik, while she was a Tzadeikes bas Rasha.

It’s a difficult question, how “exposed” should we allow our children to be to the world and outside influences. Certainly to allow our kids to be exposed without limits because they “need to know whats going on in the world” is not logical. Even to some de-gree, society expects that exposure needs to be gradual, as we see from say, movie ratings (though even that seems to be inad-equate or misjudged). It would seem that sheltering would be the best possible course, except it leaves one open to being un-prepared if every they do accidentally get exposed (we cant control our kids lives and so cant garauntee they will never be ex-posed to anything. This is not a pashut issue. Most parents, I believe take it as it comes, and wait for the child or some event to make an issue relevant and so discuss it with their child. I have heard of some parents taking their kids for short walks, to talk and bond, and often through these conversations and strolls things will come up and many important issues get discussed. If we can, it is important to try and preempt an issue rather than waiting for our kids to be exposed and then dealing with it. But of course, we don’t want to bring up an issue unnecessarily and get a child thinking about something they didn’t know existed yet. In any case, its good to have people to turn to, parents, Rabanim, professionals, to help guide when and how to deal with these issues.

I would point out, both Rivka and Yitzchak had their strengths that resulted from their upbringing. Yitzchaks tefilos were an-swered quicker. But he was blinded by (and perhaps blind to) Eisavs behavior. Rivka had more of an understanding and so was able to navigate Yaakov and Eisavs chinuch, she was able to see better than Yitzchak, and was not blinded by Eisav.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Soloveichik