Repetitive Words, Original Lessons in the Servant's Speech
INTRODUCTION TO PARASHAT
HASHAVUA
Parashat
Chayei Sarah
Repetitive
Words, Original Lessons in the Servants Speech
By
Rabbi Yaakov Beasley
In
the central chapter in our parasha, chapter 24, the Torah relates in tremendous
detail how Avrahams servant fulfilled his masters request to bring back from
Aram-naharaim an appropriate match for Yitzchak. The text recounts the original
conversation between Avraham and his servant, his prayer at the well, Rivkas
enthusiastic fulfillment of the condition that he had laid out before Hashem,
the giving of gifts, and the meeting with the family. At that point, how simple it would have
been had the Torah chosen to simply state and the servant related all that had
occurred to him. Instead, the
Torah allows the servant to describe all of his experiences for his hosts. This led the Midrash to exclaim in
wonderment More beloved is the chatter of the forefathers servants than the
minutiae of the children laws (Bereishit Rabbah 60:11). Granted, Betuel and family are hearing
these details for the first time.
We readers have followed the servant from the beginning. For us, the apparently superfluous
recapitulation begs explanation.
Rabi
David Kimche, one of the leading medieval French commentators on the Tanach
(FIND YEARS), flatly rejects any value in investigating any differences between
the accounts. He
cautions:
In
fact, he (Eliezer) reported the events as they occurred. But we cannot explain the reason for all
the addition and omissions in his account; for they are legion. He told them all that transpired between
himself and his master, his transactions with Rivkah, and that Hashem had
providentially arranged matters just as Avraham had promised. His emphasis on this point was to
impress on them that they had no alternative. They could not stop the girl from
accepting the marriage offer since the matter was clearly from Hashem. The recapitulation involves merely a
variation in reported speech, but the sense is the same. This is unavoidable in
reported speech it preserves the sense but not the exact wording. (commentary on
24:39)
Most
other Rishonim, however, made an effort to uncover the meaning of the
variances. between the two. Rashi, for example, points our that
Eliezer changed the order of events, for though he gave her the jewelry before
and only afterwards asked who she was, he reversed the order on retelling, so
that they should not question him How could you give her jewels before you
should know who she was? (commentary to v. 47). Rabbi Yitzchak Arama, in his work
Akeidat Yitzchak, elaborates:
Previously,
the servant had emphasized that he came on a mission especially to Avrahams
family, how they were preferred above our other peoples for his son. If he had stated that he presented the
ring to Rivkah before he even knew to which family she belonged, this would have
contradicted his previous assertion.
A man does not give away his valuables for no purpose! Presumably, they must have been given as
marriage gifts. This is what Rashi
referred t when he stated that Eliezer was afraid that they would catch him [in
an inconsistency].
This
approach runs throughout all the traditional commentaries. If the servant made a change, it was for
successfully convincing Betuel and Lavan to allow Rivkah to travel with
them. They noted the elaboration of
Avrahams great wealth and prosperity, the glossing over of the religious
differences between the two families, and the changing of the direction given to
the servant from taking any girl from the area to specifying only one from
Avrahams family. Rav Hirsch notes
the servant deemphasizes what for us is the central reason Rivkah was chosen
the test of kindness. To Lavan and
Betuel, the entire test would have been seen as sentimental and comical not
becoming for such a serious matter.
For us, however, only the chessed she performed justified her
becoming a mother of the Jewish people.
Following
the commentators example, we shall also briefly examine the servants speech to
Betuel and Lavan, concentrating on the rhetorical and persuasive elements he
utilizes to convince them to release Rivkah into his care. For ease of explanation, the speech is
divided into smaller components.
The
speech actually begins with the bridging episode, where Rivkah runs to her
family to inform them of the strange man and encounter she just
experienced:
28
And the damsel ran, and told her mother's house according to these words.
29
And Rivkah had a brother, and his name was Lavan; and Lavan ran out unto the
man, unto the fountain.
30
And it came to pass, when he saw the ring, and the bracelets upon his sister's
hands, and when he heard the words of Rivkah his sister, saying: 'Thus spoke the
man unto me,' that he came unto the man; and, behold, he stood by the camels at
the fountain.
31
And he said: 'Come in, you blessed of Hashem; wherefore do you stand outside?
for I have cleared the house, and made room for the camels.'
32
And the man came into the house, and he ungirded the camels; and he gave straw
and provender for the camels, and water to wash his feet and the feet of the men
that were with him.
33
And there was set food before him to eat; but he said: 'I will not eat, until I
have told mine errand.' And he said: 'Speak on.'
The
first point we note is that our characterization of Rivkah is completed with her
return to her house. She runs, not
walks. The same energy that
characterized her kindness in filling the water embodies all her actions. Apparently, for a brief moment, we are
willing entertain the possibility that her brother Lavan is cut from the same
cloth as her. He also runs to greet
the man. However, the text has set up a red herring. He runs but because he saw the gold
and jewelry on his sisters wrists.
If she is kindness personified, he is avarice in human form. The reversal in our appraisal of him
only serves to increase our earlier favorable impression of Rivkah. If we had thought that all of Avrahams
family, even the extended members, behaved in a giving and unselfish manner,
then we now comprehend that only a select few carry within them the temperament
and kindheartedness that make them worthy of becoming the heads of the nascent
people. Character, not genes, will
be the building blocks of the Jewish people.
34
And he said: 'I am Avraham's servant.
35
And Hashem hath blessed my master greatly; and he is become great; and He hath
given him flocks and herds, and silver and gold, and men-servants and
maidservants, and camels and asses.
36
And Sarah my master's wife bore a son to my master when she was old; and he has
given all that he has unto him.
In
his first words, the servant clearly demonstrates that he has quickly discovered
what we as readers already knew the way to impress Betuel and Lavan is through
their pocketbook. As such, he
begins immediately, eschewing even the offer of a home cooked meal, by
identifying himself as Avrahams servant.
As such, he transfers immediately the benefits of the impression that he
made with his caravan of riches to Avraham. The servant is not blessed of Hashem,
as Lavan described him earlier, but rather Avraham is the blessed one. What they have seen is only a small
fraction of the vast riches that Avraham enjoys and it will all go to
Avrahams only legal son and heir Yitzchak (in fact, Eliezer suggests that
this transfer of wealth has already take place new information for the reader
if true, effective hyperbole if not).
Even the detail of his birth is added, that his mother was old a fact
that both legitimizes him as heir (his birth clearly miraculous, destines him
for greatness) and of his relative youth (an additional attraction). Clearly, any parents would want this son
for their own a point the servant emphasizes before outlining the condition
that stands as an obstacle between them.
37
And my master made me swear, saying: You shall not take a wife for my son of the
daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell.
38
But you shall go unto my father's house, and to my kindred, and take a wife for
my son.
39
And I said unto my master: Peradventure the woman will not follow me.
40
And he said unto me: Hashem, before whom I walk, will send His angel with you,
and prosper thy way; and you shall take a wife for my son of my kindred, and of
my father's house;
41
then shall you be clear from my oath, when you come to my kindred; and if they
give her not to you, you shall be clear from my oath.
Shifting
from the material blandishments in marrying off Rivkah to Yitzchak to the
conditions attached therein, the servant must carefully navigate a minefield of
potential dangers. The first change
that he makes is from Avrahams original requirement to go to my country, and
to my kindred (v. 4) to go unto my father's house, and to my kindred (v.
38). Instead of a religious divide,
we have an appeal to family ties and kinship. The issue is not between Canaanites and
non-Canaanites, a question of nationality, but the natural ties that exist
between family members, despite the geographical distances between them. Avrahams leaving
Aram-Naharim is ignored, along with the Divine urging that he do so. Similarly, the servant makes no mention
of the possibility that Yitzchak might leave the land ('Per adventure the woman
will not be willing to follow me unto this land; must I needs bring thy son back
unto the land from whence you came?), even though Avraham ruled it out
immediately. The omission
apparently serves to pre-emptively exclude any suggestion by the family that
Yitzchak join them.
Finally,
the servant makes a subtle change in the contingency that he suggested to
Avraham (the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land) to
the woman will not follow me.
The shift is from the subjective, her feelings, to the objective result
(does she follow or not). The
responsibility is no longer hers; what girl would pass up such a
opportunity. Implied but left
unsaid, the responsibility for the failure to procure the young maiden lies
solely on the shoulders of the family who stand in her
way.
42
And I came this day unto the fountain, and said: Hashem, the G-d of my master
Avraham, if now You do prosper my way that I go:
43
behold, I will stand by the fountain of water; and let it happen, that the
maiden that cometh forth to draw, to whom I shall say: Give me, I pray you, a
little water from thy pitcher to drink;
44
and she shall say to me: Both drink you, and I will also draw for thy camels;
let the same be the woman whom Hashem hath appointed for my master's son.
45
And before I had done speaking to my heart, behold, Rivkah came forth with her
pitcher on her shoulder; and she went down unto the fountain, and drew. And I
said unto her: Let me drink, I pray you.
46
And she made haste, and let down her pitcher from her shoulder, and said: Drink,
and I will give thy camels drink also. So I drank, and she made the camels drink
also.
47
And I asked her, and said: Whose daughter are you? And she said: The daughter of
Betuel, Nahor's son, whom Milcah bore unto him. And I put the ring upon her
nose, and the bracelets upon her hands.
48
And I bowed my head, and prostrated myself before Hashem, and blessed Hashem,
the G-d of my master Avraham, who had led me in the right way to take my
master's brother's daughter for his son.
49
And now if you will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me; and if not,
tell me; that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left.'
Though
the servant could have concluded at the end of the previous section, the servant
unveils here his final, most effective argument. If previously he had concentrated on
Avrahams tremendous wealth and the importance of family bonds, now the Divine
approval of the suggested match, implied previously (Hashem hath blessed my
master greatly, Hashem, before whom I walk, will send His angel) takes
center stage to seal the argument.
For the reader, the
four-fold repetition of Hashems name, twice I the prayer before Rivkas
appearance, and twice when the servant recognizes that his efforts have been
blessed with success, serve to verbally enclose both his speech, and
thematically to demonstrate that Hashem has been in control from the beginning
until the end of the journey. He
does not mention that the episode occurred as the daughters of the men of the
city came out to draw water; otherwise, the family could have questioned him
that if he was indeed directed to find Avrahams family, why did he rely on
prayer when he could have simply asked for directions. Instead, through the ellipsis, he
portrays himself as totally dependant on Divine favor to find the right
maiden. The aspect of kindness
contained within the test is subordinated; instead, it became a means of
identifying the proper girl.
Instead of being a test of character, the servant reframes it as a
manifestation of Hashems choice.
Therefore, in his account, until the girl demonstrates that she comes
from the proper lineage, he refrains from showering her with gifts. Hashem led him not only to Avrahams
kin, but also directly to my master's brother's daughter for his son. It is not coincidental that the four
mentions of the Divine name are supplemented and completed by three more
utterances when Lavan and Betuel express their acceptance of the events as
having occurred as reflecting the Divine will:
50
Then Lavan and Betuel answered and said: 'The thing comes from Hashem; we cannot
speak unto you bad or good.
51
Behold, Rivkah is before thee, take her, and go, and let her be your master's
son's wife, as Hashem has spoken.'
52
And it came to pass, that, when Avraham's servant heard their words, he bowed
himself down to the earth unto Hashem.