Chayei Sarah -חַיֵּי שָׂרָה - Genesis B'reisheet 23:1 - 25:18 Making Torah Personal ~ Chesed

(1) Sarah’s lifetime—the span of Sarah’s life—came to one hundred and twenty-seven years.(2) Sarah died in Kiriath-arba—now Hebron—in the land of Canaan; and Abraham proceeded to mourn for Sarah and to bewail her.

(2) Shimon the Righteous was one of the last of the men of the great assembly. He used to say: On three things the world stands: the Torah, {Divine} service, and acts of loving kindness. ~trans. Ruth Schapira

(6) But in your loving kindness I trust, my heart will rejoice in Your redemption.
I will sing to Hashem for what God has given to me. ~trans. Ruth Schapira

"And Sarah died in Kiryat Arba" (Gen. 23:2). Rabbi Abba noted that, of all the women in the world, only for Sarah are the number of her days and years and the time of her life in the world mentioned, as well as the place in which she was buried. This shows that there was no other woman in the world like Sarah.

(1) Abraham was now old, advanced in years, and יהוה had blessed Abraham in all things.(2) And Abraham said to the senior servant of his household, who had charge of all that he owned, “Put your hand under my thigh(3) and I will make you swear by יהוה, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell,(4) but will go to the land of my birth and get a wife for my son Isaac.”

מבנות הכנעני, “from among the daughters of the Canaanite nation.” Avraham did not want that in the future anyone could claim that his claim on the Holy Land was based on intermarriage with the previous owners of that land. It had to be established beyond any shadow of a doubt that the Israelites’ claim to the land was based on G-d having promised it to their founding father, and that He used His Power to do this on their behalf.

(5) And the servant said to him, “What if the woman does not consent to follow me to this land, shall I then take your son back to the land from which you came?”(6) Abraham answered him, “On no account must you take my son back there!(7) יהוה, the God of heaven—who took me from my father’s house and from my native land, who promised me on oath, saying, ‘I will assign this land to your offspring’—will send a messenger before you, and you will get a wife for my son from there.(8) And if the woman does not consent to follow you, you shall then be clear of this oath to me; but do not take my son back there.”

(9) So the servant put his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore to him as bidden.(10) Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and set out, taking with him all the bounty of his master; and he made his way to Aram-naharaim, to the city of Nahor.(11) He made the camels kneel down by the well outside the city, at evening time, the time when women come out to draw water.(12) And he said, “O יהוה, God of my master Abraham’s [house], grant me good fortune this day, and deal graciouslywith my master Abraham:

(13) Here I stand by the spring as the daughters of the townspeople come out to draw water;(14) let the maiden to whom I say, ‘Please, lower your jar that I may drink,’ and who replies, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels’—let her be the one whom You have decreed for Your servant Isaac. Thereby shall I know that You have dealt graciously with my master.”(15) He had scarcely finished speaking, when Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel, the son of Milcah the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor, came out with her jar on her shoulder.(16) The maiden was very beautiful—[and] a virgin, no man having known her. She went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up.(17) The servant ran toward her and said, “Please, let me sip a little water from your jar.”(18) “Drink, my lord,” she said, and she quickly lowered her jar upon her hand and let him drink.(19) When she had let him drink his fill, she said, “I will also draw for your camels, until they finish drinking.”(20)Quickly emptying her jar into the trough, she ran back to the well to draw, and she drew for all his camels.(21) The man, meanwhile, stood gazing at her, silently wondering whether יהוה 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.(23) “Pray tell me,” he said, “whose daughter are you? Is there room in your father’s house for us to spend the night?”(24) She replied, “I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.”(25) And she went on, “There is plenty of straw and feed at home, and also room to spend the night.”(26) The man bowed low in homage to יהוה(27) and said, “Blessed be יהוה, the God of my master Abraham’s [house], who has not withheld steadfast faithfulness from my master. For I have been guided on my errand by יהוה, to the house of my master’s kin.”

HER THOU HAST APPOINTED FOR THY SERVANT, EVEN FOR ISAAC. Rashi comments: “She is fit for him since she is charitable [filled with loving kindness, translation RS] and worthy of admission into the house of Abraham. And thereby shall I know — this is a petition: ‘Let me know through her that Thou hast shown kindness unto my master.” If so, Eliezer is saying, “I know for certain that You have appointed her for Your servant Isaac.” But in that case [his petition, which still indicates a doubt as to whether she was the appointed one,] does not connect well.
Its interpretation however is as follows: “Make it happen to me this day that the girl to whom I will speak be the one that You have appointed for Your servant Isaac, and with this, show kindness to my master Abraham for with this I will know that You have shown kindness to him if she be of his family and of good mind and of beautiful appearance.” And so he said [when recounting the events of the day]: And let it come to pass, that the maiden, etc., let the same be the woman whom the Eternal hath appointed.

I will also water your camels. A supplicant should ask for less than his needs and the giver should provide him with all his needs or more.

(2) Shimon the Righteous was one of the last of the men of the great assembly. He used to say: the world stands upon three things: the Torah, the Temple service, and the practice of acts of loving kindness.

The world is built on loving kindness

(6) For I desire goodness, not sacrifice;
Obedience to God, rather than burnt offerings.

“He has told you, O man, what is good,
And what the LORD requires of you:
Only to do justice
And to love goodness,
And to walk modestly with your God;^-c

(4) Even if a person gives someone the most precious gifts in the world but his face is gloomy, then the Torah considers it as if he gave nothing. But one who greets his friend with a pleasant countenance is considered to have given the best gifts in the world, even if he did not actually give any gifts at all.

You will find the respective attributes of the patriarchs alluded to in the story of this journey to secure a wife for Isaac. In 24,11 Eliezer prays that G–d should perform an act of חסד, kindness, i.e. Abraham's cardinal virtue, for Abraham.

ותמהר ותער כדה של השוקת ותרץ עוד אל הבאר לשאוב ותשאב לכל גמליו . Rebeccah displayed remarkably ethical conduct here. She showed respect for fellow human beings. First she let Eliezer drink. When some water was left over in the jug, she did not know what to do. She debated whether to give the left-over water to the camels. In doing this, however, she would place man and beast on the same level by letting both of them drink from the same vessel. If, on the other hand, she would pour out the left-over water, this would also be a lack of respect, since drinking water would be demoted to the status of dirty waste water. What did she do? She "ran" as if to give the camels to drink. While running, she pretended to fall, so that the water spilled from the jug. She then had an excuse to fill the jug anew from the well. In this way Eliezer was not slighted at all.

על עין המים, “at the town’s water fountain.” This is where I can test a potentially eligible girl on her suitability as Yitzchok’s wife to be. When such a girl is away from her home, whatever she decides to do has not been what she had been told to do by her mother or father, but reflects her true personality.

I will also water your camels. A supplicant should ask for less than his needs and the giver should provide him with all his needs or more.

(1) Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah.(2) She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.(3) Jokshan begot Sheba and Dedan. The descendants of Dedan were the Asshurim, the Letushim, and the Leummim.(4) The descendants of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Enoch,*Enoch Or “Hanoch.” Abida, and Eldaah. All these were descendants of Keturah.(5) Abraham willed all that he owned to Isaac;(6) but to Abraham’s sons by concubines Abraham gave gifts while he was still living, and he sent them away from his son Isaac eastward, to the land of the East.

AND ISAAC BROUGHT HER INTO HIS MOTHER SARAH’s TENT. The construct is missing here [for the noun ohel (tent) appears with the definite article, and in this form it cannot be used in construct with “his mother Sarah.” The verse then should be understood as if it were written, “and Isaac brought her into the tent which was the tent of his mother Sarah.”] There are many cases like this.
The purport of the verse is to tell of the honor that Isaac bestowed upon his mother for from the time that Sarah died they did not take down her tent because they said, “Let not another woman come into the tent of the honorable mistress.” But when he saw Rebekah he brought her into that tent in her honor and there he took her as his wife. This is the meaning of the words, and he loved her, and he was comforted, indicating that he was deeply grieved for his mother, finding no comforter until he was comforted by his wife through his love for her. Otherwise, what reason is there for Scripture to mention a man’s love for his wife?
But Onkelos explained: And Isaac brought her into the tent and, behold, she was like Sarah his mother. It is for this reason that Scripture mentions the love he had for her because it was on account of her righteousness and the aptness of her deeds that he loved her and was comforted by her. And so the Rabbis mentioned in Bereshith Rabbah, “Before Sarah died there was a blessing of miraculous increase in the dough. [After her death it stopped, and when Rebekah came the blessing reappeared.”]