GEN1182 Even when planning to do a substantial act of chesed, say little and do much. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch points out that Rivkah did not immediately say that she would also draw water for the camels.   She waited until Eliezer finished drinking.   Had she mentioned all of her intentions immediately, she would have been a conceited gossip who likes to make a big talk about her good deeds.  This would have shown a lack of Avraham’s trait of saying little and doing much.   When three stranger s appeared to Avraham, he said to them that he would fetch a morsel of bread, but in practice he fetched meat and cakes for his guests (Genesis 18:5-7).   We should follow the examples of Avraham and Rivkah not to needlessly boast about our plans to do good deeds. (Rabbi Hirsch’s Commentary, on this verse).  PLYN 91

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GEN1183 The rabbis pointed to God’s kind to animals as a model for man to follow. “Just as the almighty is merciful to man, so is he merciful to animals” Tanchuma, Noah 5.  “He who shows mercy to animals will receive mercy from God” Shabbat 151b Kindness to animals was considered the ultimate test of a noble character. Rebecca’s fitness to be the wife of Isaac was proven by her offer to fetch water for Abraham’s emissary, Eliezer, and for his thirsty camels [this verse]. Moses proved himself qualified to led the Jewish people by demonstrating his tender care for the sheep in his herd. Exodus Rabbah 2   Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi (2nd cent.), the eminent editor of the Mishnah, was once afflicted with a painful illness. After a prolonged period of distress, the sickness finally disappeared. A Talmudic anecdote seeks to shed light on the background of this painful episode. It seems that a calf, which was being led by a butcher to an abattoir, tore loose and ran to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, who had witnessed this scene, as if to plead for his protection. The rabbi looked at the calf and commented: “Go, my little creature. This is what you were created for.” Heaven was displeased with his callousness and inflicted a punishment upon him. Years later, the rabbi stopped his maid from sweeping out some young weasels which she had discovered in his study. “We must be mindful,” he said,” of the biblical verse “and his [God’s] mercies are over all His works.”  Heaven took note of his concern for the weasels and decreed an end to his illness. Baba Metzia 85a. BLOCH 80-1

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GEN1184 Every ordinary act of kindness can be exalted. … Rabbi Isaac Sher commented that even a seemingly minor action such as giving someone water, can be spiritually elevated when prompted by the proper motivation.   When Rivkah gave water to Eliezer and his camels, she did it with a love for chesed which was manifest in her speed.   For this deed she was deemed worthy of becoming the mother of the Jewish People.  Rabbi Sher encouraged people to elevate the level of their chesed.   Most people perform many acts of kindness daily by mere habit.  If we were to consider these seemingly insignificant acts not as automatic behavior responses, but rather as opportunities to do the will of God, we would succeed in transforming the mundane into the sublime.   (Leket Sichos Mussar, pp. 338-40). PLYN 92

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GEN1185 Seven things are [typical] in a clod, and seven in a wise man; [The Wise Man] speaks of first things first and last things last. Pirkei Avot V:9 … Avoth d’R. Nathan (A37, B40) give examples from Scripture.   When Jacob sent a gift to his brother Esau to appease his wrath and achieve a reconciliation, he told his servants, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, To whom do you belong? and where are you going? and whose are these before you? – then you say, To your servant Jacob; this is a present sent to my lord, to Esau; moreover, he is behind us.” Genesis 32:18-19   Expecting a multiple question from Esau, Jacob taught his servants to reply in order. Again, when Rebekah passed the test t the well which Abraham’s servant Eli’ezer had devised to find a suitable bride for Isaac, we read that Eli’ezer asked her two questions at once; “Whose daughter are you? Pray tell me. Is there room in hour father’s house for us to lodge in?” And she said to him, “I am the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.” And she said to him, “We have both straw and provender aplenty, and room to lodge in.” [this verse and v. 25] To his first question she gave her first answer; to his second, her second answer. This is the way of an orderly mind.   The commentary MaGenesis Avoth adds a further example. At the burning bush on Mount Sinai, when the Almighty bid Moses go to Pharaoh to have the Israelites set free, Moses protested, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” Exodus 3:11 Moses had two separate objections: First, how could he, a mere shepherd, confront the mighty Pharaoh? To this the reply was, But I will be with you Exodus 3:12 – have no fear of him. And he also asked: how could he lead the Hebrew people out of Egypt they would not believe in him. In response, the reply continued: “and this shall be the sign for you that I have sent you: when you have brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain” Exodus 3:12 – and then they will believe in you.  SINAI3 106-7

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GEN1186 “I will not eat” – From here it is to be derived that if food is set before one, he need not wait to be told to eat, for Eliezer said: “I will not eat until I have spoken my words” – and he had not yet been asked to eat.   But since food had been set before him, asking was not necessary. MaGenesis Avraham 107:18 TEMIMAH-GEN 111

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GEN1187 Rava said to Rabbah b. Mari: “Whence is derived the folk-saying: ‘If there is something that might lower you in men’s eyes, mention it [before others do]’”? He answered: “From the verse: ‘I am Abraham’s servant” Baba Kamma 92b TEMIMAH-GEN 112

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GEN1188 See [[EXOD540]] Exodus 21:10 withhold BLOCH 214-5

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GEN1189 [T]hat compassion for animals is a quality inherent in the righteous person, is articulated most famously in the book of Proverbs: “The righteous person knows the needs [nefesh, literally [“soul”] of his animal” Proverbs 12:10. The same conception seems to be operative in [this verse], where Abraham’s servant Eliezer determines that Rebecca—a paradigm of the good wife—is a suitable spouse for Isaac when she provided water not only for him, but also, without prompting, for his camels. We also find it in rabbinic texts, such as Midrash Tanhuma (Noah 5), where both Noah and Joseph are deeded righteous man “because they nourished creatures.” Perhaps most strikingly, Exodus Rabbah 2:2 relates that both Moses and David--the paradigmatic male leadership of Israel—were tested by God through how they functioned as shepherds. (By Aaron S. Gross, "Jewish Animal Ethics") OXFORD 423

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GEN1190 People appeal to us all the time to trust them, hoping that we won’t dig too deeply to discover why we shouldn’t. So many scam artists abound in today’s world that we are more likely to suspect someone who comes right out and says “trust me,” then to grant that person our confidence. In most cases we base our judgment on our estimate of that person’s general character. The final arbiter often is no more sound then “gut instinct.” The Bible provides two cases of women whose wise judgment led them to put their lives in another’s trust.   Abraham’s servant Eliezer wants Rebecca to accompany him to Canaan to marry Isaac, a cousin she’s never met.   Her father Bethuel and her brother Laban want Rebecca to stay with them a while longer, so they “call the maiden and ask her to speak for herself.” In response to their question, “Will you go with this man?” Rebecca replies, “I will go” [this verse]. Rebecca thus relies on an indefinable intuition and judges Eliezer so trustworthy that she leaves her family to go with him, traveling for several hundred miles to begin a new life in an unknown land. After Naomi’s husband and two sons die in Moab, she decides to return to her people in Israel. Naomi urges her Moabite daughters-in-law to return to their father’s homes.   Orpah obeys, but Ruth will not abandon her mother-in-law: “Entreat me not to leave you or turn back   from following you. For where you go, I will go; and where you lodge, I will lodge.  Your people will be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, there will I die, and there will why be buried. Let Adonai do what He wants with me if anything but death parts me from you” Ruth 1:16 – 17 Trusting Naomi, Ruth offers to her this classic gift of self. We can’t explain why; the biblical authors provide these stories to show us that sometimes we must give ourselves to that component of emunah we call faith, as Rebecca and Ruth did. And we hope to become the kind person who deserves such trust. We can’t program ourselves with a specific set of behaviors to elicit such feelings, yet we sense that, if our basic characters are worthy enough, they will shine through and speak for themselves, as Eliezer’s and Naomi’s did.   BOROJMV 30-31

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GEN1191 behind the man, and not in front of him.   This teaches us that a man should not walk behind a woman. Berachot 61a TEMIMAH-GEN 113

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