By JOSHUA GUTOFF
The idea of romance is so strong that few can escape its allure. Here, for example, is a passage from a wicked Cold War thriller: "There is an immutable phrase at large in the language of the world that places fabulous ransom on every word in it: The love of a good woman... Eugenie Rose Cheney was a good woman and she loved Marco. That fact gave Marco a large edge, tantamount to wiping out the house percentage in banker's craps. No matter what the action, that is a lot of vigorish to have going for anybody" (Richard Condon, "The Manchurian Candidate").
If there is anyone in the Bible who could use the healing "love of a good woman," it is surely Isaac. His father had bound him on the altar ready for slaughter, and now his mother, who had caused a woman and her son to be cast into the desert for his sake, is gone. How alone he must feel; adrift, like one wandering aimlessly in a field. The medieval theologian Ramban describes him as inconsolable. He is like the speaker in the psalm, "For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me up" (Ps. 27:10) - but even God's comfort seems to have eluded him.
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