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GENESIS — 24:2 charge

GEN1165 You do not know mattan s’charan, the rewards given for mitzvoth. Pirkei Avot II;1  This can also denote what you would have to give and pay to acquire the privilege of performing the mitzvah. Many things which we have without effort are not fully appreciated. You may waste the meals your mother prepares for you. But if you went to a restaurant and had to pay five dollars [1964 dollars; equivalent $40 in 2018 – AJL] for a similar meal, you would undoubtedly value it more.   We are born Jews. The mitzvoth are here for our taking and doing. However, we do not value them properly because we are unaware of the “price’ they have cost in the blood, sweat and tears of history. We rarely think of the twenty generations that angered the Lord before the advent of Abraham. Avoth V, 2-3.   How many of us consider what Torah and mitzvoth have cost the Jewish people throughout our long and martyr-filled history? Be heedful of all the mitzvoth, for you have no idea of what they have cost us. Blood was spilled, lives were given, that or people should not abandon or forget our commandments from Sinai. Indeed, we should be most grateful that these Divine precepts, with their unique and transcendent importance, are as accessible and available as they are. The Torah tells us: “It [Torah] is not in Heaven, that you should say, “Who will go us for us to Heaven and bring it to us …?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us …?’” Deuteronomy 20:12-13 To a least one Sage this means, quite simply, that were it indeed in heaven, we should have to go there to acquire it; and were it beyond the sea, we would indeed be obliged to travel there to get it. Talmud Erubin 55a.  If our entire journey to salvation and eternity depends on these mitzvoth and this Torah, we would be justified in scaling the Matterhorn to reach it. How fortunate we are that this unique Divine word is in our midst, within the reach of everyone – “in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.” Deuteronomy 30:14  Suppose that a person tells you he wishes to buy merchandise from you on credit. You ask him for references, you consult his bank, you “look him up” in Dun and Bradstreet. After you are fully satisfied that everything is in order, you may give him credit up to $100. [1964 dollars; equivalent $800 in 2018 – AJL] Should we have a doubt about kashruth, though, what might the procedure be? We might decide to stay at a certain hotel because there appears to be a vague rumor that the food is kosher. To give $100 of credit we will likely explore every avenue, check and double-check to make sure. Het, when a mitzvah is involved, we are satisfied with hearsay, with a rumor with a minimum of investigation. Consider Abraham and his dealings with Eliezer his servant. Scripture states that Eliezer was in compete charge of Abrahams’s affairs. [this verse] Presumably he bought and sold, kept the books, and had access to all the wealth. Yet, in the matter of arranging a marriage for his son Isaac, for whom he wanted a pious daughter-in-law, Abraham insisted that Eliezer take an oath! Here the emphasis is on the values that truly count. In material matters, Eliezer enjoyed the full confidence of Abraham. When matters of the spirit, of Torah were involved, Abraham took greater caution: he insisted on better assurances and exercised stronger control. Rabbi Judah haNasi reminds us that there are no unimportant mitzvoth. If we cannot be as Abraham and give them more care and attention than we devote to our business affairs, let us at lest treat them with equal regard. They are stepping stones to eternal life. SINAI1 124-5

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GENESIS — 24:4 go

GEN1166 The generation of the flood always fought with each other, and there is no hope to build a society once that occurs.   While it is true that the Babel generation sinned and was misguided, a society that can unit has the hope of building for the future and correcting its mistakes. [See also Genesis 11:1 AMEMEI 211]   This may also explain why Abraham sent his servant Eliezer back to his homeland to find a wife for his son Isaac.   Since at that time everyone was not Jewish, what difference did it make if Isaac married a local Canaanite girl or a woman from Mesopotamia?   The answer may be that Abraham witnessed the debauchery and deceit of the people of Canaan, in the city of Sodom, and later, in his dealings with Ephron when he tried to buy a burial plot.   In his homeland, on the other hand, despite the idol worship, there were basically good people who dealt properly with each other.   He preferred a daughter-in-law from this society to help build the Jewish people over the wicked locals of Canaan who dealt treacherously with each other.   In fact, it was the quality of goodness towards strangers that led Eliezer to select Rebecca to be Isaac’s wife. AMJV 160

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GENESIS — 24:14 camels

GEN1168 In addition to biblical laws, several events depicted in the Torah underscore how important a person’s treatment of animals is in assessing his character.   When Abraham dispatches his servant (assumed to be Eliezer) to find a suitable wife for Abraham’s son, Isaac, he give him no explicit guidelines, other than that the woman should come from the areas in which Abraham was raised.   Eliezer promptly departs for the city of Nahor with ten camels.   He decides, perhaps along the way, that kindness—to both human beings and animals—is the most appropriate first criterion to look for in a spouse.  TELVOL 2:305

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GENESIS — 24:14 her

GEN1171 Now God, Who is great in counsel and mighty in deed, arranged that the marriage of Isaac to Rebecca should result from her approaching a traveller [this verse].   … We can see from this incident, how high a person can reach through performing this mitzvah [i.e., hospitality] properly with a willing heart, like Rebecca, who in many respects did no] more than the servant requested.  AHAVCH 190

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GENESIS — 24:14 her

GEN1172 Procreation is essential to the continuity of life. In the animal world the perpetuation of the species is generally achieved without the benefit of a familial relationship resembling matrimony. The character and behavior of animal herds are mostly predetermined by fixed laws of nature, with the role of parents limited to the physical preservation of their offspring. A young animal does not need a “home” in the moral sense which this term is assumed in human society. Man, endowed with a free will, does not develop his character by a predetermined pattern of evolution. The influences of the home are essential to the transmission of moral values and perceptions. The spiritual dimension of a human being, and to a large extent of society as a whole, is based on parental guidance and instruction provided in the home. Hence the Judaic stress on the importance of background as determining factor in an individual’s qualification as a good mate. The importance of background is emphasized in the Biblical account of the choice of Rebecca as a wife for Isaac. Abraham entrusted his loyal servant Eliezer with the task of finding a proper wife for his son. He ruled out any choice of a local Canaanite girl because of the immoral environment of Canaanite homes. Abraham was convinced of the lingering effects of the undesirable influences of one’s youth.   He therefore instructed Eliezer to go to his native land to find a suitable girl of a Semitic family. Genesis 24:3-4.   Eliezer’s choice of a bride is highly illuminating.   The decisive consideration was not her wealth or the prominence of her family but her character. Standing at the well, he prayed: “So let it come to pass that the damsel to whom I shall say: ‘Let down thy pitcher, I beg of thee, that I may drink,’ and she shall say: ‘Drink and I will give thy camels drink also,’ let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac” [This verse]. Such a response, he felt, would qualify her to marry Isaac and would also be a token of G–d’s approval. BLOCH 213-4 (Continued at [[EXOD540]] Exodus 21:10 withhold BLOCH 214-5)

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GENESIS — 24:14 her

GEN1173 Someone who loves to do chesed will do more than he is asked to do.   … Eliezer, the devoted servant of Abraham, had learned from his great master to appreciate the profound significance of helping others.   Chesed is not merely a kind act, but a manifestation of one’s belief in God.   Doing chesed is an act of emulating Him whose kindness is without bounds. Eliezer realized that the woman who would be deemed worthy of becoming a mother of the Jewish people must be the paragon of chesed.   … Rivkah ran (verse 20) to water the camels – an act which she was not even asked to perform.   On her own volition, she offered to draw enough water for ten thirty camels.  This act of chesed indicated that she was worthy of being Avraham’s daughter-in-law.   (Rabbi Isaac Sher in Leket Sichos Mussar, p. 38-39).  PLYN 88-9

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GENESIS — 24:14 replies

GEN1174 Mercy is so strong a part of our tradition that a substantial body of Jewish law and practice prohibits any kind of cruelty to animals, a duty that the rabbis said was commanded by the Torah Shabbat 128b The acts forbidden because they generate tzar ba’alei hayyim, the pain of living things, have their source in the narratives as well as the legislation of the Bible. Rebecca tended to Eliezer’s camels as soon as she saw that he had slaked his thirst. This so impressed Abraham’s servant that he knew she was the right woman to be Isaac’s wife [this verse]. “R. Judah said in the name of Rav: A man may eat nothing until he has fed his animals. For the Torah the first indicates, ‘I will give grass in your fields for your cattle,’ and only later says, ‘You shall eat and be satisfied’ [Deuteronomy 11:15] Berachot 40b.   A related law prohibits a person from buying an animal unless he first has enough food to feed it adequately. Yerushalmi Yevamot 15:3 “It says something about a person’s goodness when his animals are well fed and satisfied” Sifre Deuteronomy 43.  A Talmudic tale about Judah ha-Nasi, the Patriarch of the Palestinian Jewish community in the late second century C.E. and the chief compiler of the Mishnah law code, stresses the importance of these laws. “The sufferings of Rabbi came because of an act he did that lacked compassion, and left because of an act that he did that was full of compassion. One day a calf was being taken to the slaughterhouse. It broke away and hid under Rabbi’s robe.   ‘Go,’ said Rabbi, ‘for this you were created.’ Because of this hardheartedness, sickness came upon him. Sometime later, Rabbi’s maidservant was sweeping his house when he saw that she was about to sweep away a nest full of weasel pups. ‘Let them be,’ he said to her, for it is written, ‘And God’s compassion is over all God’s works’” [Psalm 145:9] Bava Metzia 85a.  The detailed laws of the kosher slaughtering of animals, shehitah, rest upon this compassion for animals, requiring that when we kill them for food, we make sure that they die instantly and painlessly. Thus we must use a perfectly sharpened knife, one free of any nicks or rough edges Aaron, Sefer Hahinukh [The book of instruction], 451. To this day the shohet must test his knife before using it. Should he find an imperfection, he must immediately sharpen it away or set it aside and use another knife. In the same spirit, citing the negative example of the biblical hunter Esau, the rabbis prohibit killing merely for sport.  Avodah Zarah 18b. BOROJMV 75-76

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