Weekly D'var Torah

G-d is Close..

Eliezer’s Adventure in Haran

This week’s Torah portion contains one of the longest and maybe strangest narratives in the entire Bible.  It’s well worth looking at… here’s a rundown:

1. Eliezer, the student/servant of Abraham is given a mission: find a shidduch (a “match”) for Abraham and Sarah’s son , Isaac
2. Traveling back to the land of Haran, home of the family clan, Eliezer offers an audacious prayer to G-d: When I arrive with my caravan at the well and ask for water, let the young woman who offers to give not only me but all of my men and camels water be the one intended for Isaac.
3. Are we actually supposed to make deals like this with the Divine?  Leaving that question aside for a moment, what comes next is wild. 
4. As Eliezer is still praying, the young women of the community arrive to fetch water.  One of them, the beautiful and graceful Rebecca, offers Eliezer and his entire caravan precious water and even draws it from the well to pour into the vessels for man and beast.
5. Eliezer thanks her with two pure gold bracelets that are worth a fortune.  He then asks her name.  She tells him that her father is Bethuel, son of Nahor, son of Terach who is Abraham’s father.  In other words, not only is Rebecca kind, generous, strong, compassionate and beautiful, but she is part of the Abraham clan! 
6. Eliezer gives thanks to G-d for answering his prayer.

What an amazing story- G-d brings about Eliezer’s prayer instantly!  But then…

7. Rebecca’s brother, Laban, sees the gold bracelets and rushes out to welcome the wealthy strangers and invites them in.  Eliezer meets Rebecca’s parents who invite him to eat with them.  Eliezer refuses until he is allowed to tell his story.  The parents agree.

And then… Eliezer repeats almost verbatim the ENTIRE NARRATIVE above. The Torah doesn’t say, “Eliezer then told them all that had happened,” which is generally what the Torah writes to avoid repetition.  Instead, we get the WHOLE MEGILLAH over again! 

This is the Torah we’re talking  about, the book that describes the creation of the world in ten sentences!  The book that is so terse that generations and even millenia whip by in a few words.  But davka now, the Torah decides to repeat Eliezer’s lengthy story even though we’ve just had the whole thing described to us. 

Why?

The Talmud notices this and says the following: How precious is even the small talk of the righteous.  

Eliezer concludes by saying that his meeting with Rebecca was no accident but came as the answer to his prayer.  The parents ask Rebecca if she is prepared to go with Eliezer to marry Isaac, a man she has never met in a land she has never seen and she says yes.

And so the next crucial chapter of Jewish history is written.

What is so important about Eliezer’s “small talk” is that he seeks G-d’s involvement in life here and now.  He brings a faith-infused mindfulness and purposefulness into even the smallest aspects of his life. 

Our lives have meaning and purpose.  Events and people connect in ways that are both completely impossible to predict or even understand but at the same time move us forward. 

Does that purpose come from G-d or does that purpose come from us, humankind seeking meaning? 

In Judaism, we understand that each of us is created in the Divine Image, containing something of the Divine Essence.  G-d works through us, within us, in partnership with us.  G-d seeks us and we seek G-d, whatever name or nomenclature we use.  G-d is within and without. 

And it all depends on one thing: do we notice?  Do we live in a world and in a way where we are mindful of the miracles and connections that hides a deeper purpose? 

We are asked to read and reread Eliezer’s adventure in Haran to teach us– pay attention.  Someone is trying to speak with you-

Shabbat Shalom!