Riddle: In this week's parsha, a person did something that has impacted on each of us to this day. What was this action?
This Drasha is respectfully dedicated to the victims of the attack on the Etz Chayim * Or Lesimcha Congregation, Pittsburgh,
Logo - "More light, more life"
Joyce Fienberg, 75
Richard Gottfried 65
Rose Mallinger, 97
Jerry Rabinowitz, 66
Cecil Rosenthal, 59
David Rosenthal, 54
Bernice Simon, 84
Sylvan Simon, 86;
Daniel Stein, 71
Melvin Wax, 88
and Irving Younger, 69.
Aleyam Hashalom.
Before Love Island, JDate, JSwipe, Speed Dating tea dances - there was a different way that people met one another - different criteria were used.
Joke about the Shadchan, Yankel, Miriam and the 3 F's
Journey from Hebron to Haran - 173 miles, 58 hours walking distance (more time with 10 camels!)
Discussion amongst commentators (Rashi, Rambam and Abarvanel - did Eliezer use sorcery/divination to choose Rivka or did he employ a character test?
Abarvanel and Malbim say that he used a character test:
"After selecting the most outwardly attractive of the young girls, he needed to find out more about her inner qualities and so he did this by asking himself, whether she would ask him to drink and also give water to the camels"
She could have responded in four different ways when he would ask her for some water:
1) Her reaction on seeing him standing by the well could be: "You are next to the well, help yourself to some water"
2) As there were plenty of girls fetching water, she could have thought to herself that as she'd already replaced the jug on her shoulder, he could ask another girl who was holding a jug of water to give him a drink
3) If he asked her to tilt her jug to give him a drink, she might have got annoyed and told him to tilt the jug himself to have some water, without bothering her
4) If she offered to give the camels some water, this would show she was a thoughtful and compassionate young lady. She would have taken pity on him, as he might not be able to draw the water himself as it would be too much effort to lower the jug. If he couldn't obtain water for himself, he certainly wouldn't be able to give some to the camels. She would therefore show kindness to both himself and the animals.
It wasn't just giving the water to the camels that made her so special:
Some more details:
Camels, the ships of the desert store water for many days and when it reached the destination, the copious amount of water had been exhausted.
The Torah details how much effort she went to, in order to give water to him first, before giving to the camels
(16) ...She went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up.
He waited quite a while, until she had finished giving the camels to drink
(21) The man, meanwhile, stood gazing at her, silently wondering whether the LORD had made his errand successful or not. (22) When the camels had finished drinking, the man took a gold nose-ring weighing a half-shekel, and two gold bands for her arms, ten shekels in weight.
Summing up: Eliezer applied a character test to sample her kindness and generosity and she passed with flying colours.
Answer to the riddle: Rivka displayed chesed towards both man and animals - she therefore showed herself to be suitable to be the wife of Isaac, mother of Jacob and grandmother of the twelve tribes!
Conclusion:
Rebecca demonstrated that Chesed, kindness to people, to animals is a trait that defines someone who will have a lasting impact on others – maasei le’avot, siman lebanim.
We are all capable to demonstrating kindness to each other and sometimes, it only takes a little action to make that difference.
Learning about the people who were killed last Shabbat, we have read that each one was a beacon of chesed in that community.
The chesed that they showed others, has inspired the rest of us this on Show Up 4 Shabbat.
We can’t bring those people back, but if we bring some more chesed to this world, by being here together, praying as one – we can maybe cause some more light to shine onto our world and to hopefully avoid another tragedy.