Similar to the majority of Bereishit (Genesis), this
week’s parsha is full of stories. But
unlike the rest of the Torah up until this point, Parshat Vayeira expounds upon
Avraham’s servant’s search for a wife for Isaac in detail. Throughout the past month, the Torah has
raced through Creation, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah and the flood, the
Tower of Babel, and numerous stories of Avraham and Sarah. This week, the Torah seems to be catching its
breath. Until this week, everything is
compact and brief and requires many details to be filled in by the oral tradition,
sages, and future commentators. So why
does the Torah relay the search for Isaac’s wife in such detail (and even
repeat a part of the story twice!)? The
Torah doesn’t even mention Avraham’s youthful years and discovery of monotheism…why
is Eliezer’s (Avraham’s servant) search for Rebecca, Isaac’s wife, given at
such length?
Parshat Vayeira does not contain any mizvot
(although there are very few commandments in all of Genesis), which makes this
parsha entirely story-based. There must
be some other lessons that can be learned from this story. I think that Eliezer’s first conversation
with Rebecca at a watering teaches us one significant lesson:
She [Rebecca] went down
to the spring, filled her jar, and came up.
The servant [Eliezer] ran toward her and said, “Please let me sip a
little water from your jar.”
“Drink, my lord,” she
said, and she quickly lowered her jar upon her hand and let him drink. When she had let him drink his fill, she
said, “I will also draw for your camels, until they finish drinking.”
Eliezer had been searching for the woman who would
give both him and his camels water on their journey, and this was the woman he
knew was meant to be Isaac’s wife. Why
was this action the specific one he was looking for? And exactly what vital character trait does
this action represent?
Each of the patriarchs represents a different trait. Isaac is most commonly associated with gevurah, strength, which references his
devotion in serving God even through self-sacrifice. One of the primary ways in which people show
their devotion to God, however, is the way in which we interact with
others. It is not possible to be truly and
fully devoted to God, without having God’s presence in your life impact the way
in which you interact with others.
Dedication to God doesn’t stop with prayer (i.e. conversation with God)
but extends to our conversation with others; it doesn’t stop with keeping
Shabbat, but extends to up-keeping your commitments to family, friends, and
others. Dedication to God encompasses
all of one’s actions – speech and deed. From
the way in which Rebecca acted towards the servant Eliezer, calling him “my
lord” and letting him drink and letting his camels drink, despite the
inconvenience it may have caused her in both time and loss of water, which likely
was not overly abundant, Eliezer knew that she also showed the attribute of gevurah.
She behaved in such a manner towards people, because of her reverence
for God. But she also displayed the
attribute of Chessed, kindness, which
Avraham, Eliezer’s master and Isaac’s father, is most prominently known
for. Not only did she display this act
through the way she treated Eliezer, but also graciously opened her house (her
father’s really) to him and his cammels, warmly offering food and shelter for
the night.
It was these actions of Rebecca that guided Eliezer
to pick her as Isaac’s wife. And it is a
woman such as this for whom Isaac was able to “find comfort after his mother’s
death” (Bereishit 24:67)…and, as we are told during the creation of woman, it
is for a woman with Rebecca’s character that Isaac became a “man [who] leaves
his father and mother and clings to his wife, so that they become one flesh”
(Bereishit 2:24).
Shabbat Shalom.
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