Chaye Sarah 5764
In Parashat Chaye Sarah, we read about Avraham telling his servant Eliezer to go down and try to find a wife for his son Yitzchak. The Torah introduces to us this Parasha by saying, "Vayomer Avraham El Avdo", and Avraham tells his servant, "Zekan Beto" who was the elder of his household, "Hamoshel Bechol Asher Lo" who was the one that controlled all that he had, "Sim Na Yadecha Tachat Yirechi", to please place your hand under my thigh and make a swear that you are going to be loyal to me and find the proper wife for my son Yitzchak, and that you are not going to go to the girls of Canaan, and bring back a wife from there.
Chachamim ask why do we now need a lengthy introduction about who Eliezer was? The Torah is telling us that Eliezer was Avraham’s manager of finances. The Torah is telling us that Eliezer was the one in control of all that Avraham had. He was the elder of his household. And then the Torah is telling us that even with all that, even with all the trust of Avraham’s money and wealth, that Avraham still made Eliezer swear. It seems inconsistent. Avraham was a wealthy man. Rabbi Hillel Zaks (grandson of the Chafetz Chayim) said the other day, that Avraham Aveenu in his time was even wealthier than Bill Gates. So if you trust him with all your money and you trust him with all your assets, then how can it be that you don’t trust him to find a wife for Yitzchak? How is it possible if you are giving the keys to your vault to Eliezer and you have such trust in him, so why now do you have to make him swear? Who do you make swear? Only somebody that you do not trust.
The explanation they say, is based according to a story that is told of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter (Rabbi Yisrael Ben Ze’ev Wolf Lipkin of Salant). Rav Salanter was in a hotel once, and the person in charge, a Jewish fellow, asked the Rabbi, not knowing who he was, if he knew how to do Shechita, (how to properly slaughter animals). The Rabbi then said, ‘why do you ask? So the fellow answered that he had an animal that needed to be slaughtered for dinner, and instead of taking it to the slaughter house, he hoped that Rav Salanter would be able do it right there. So Rav Salanter answered that he was sorry but he was not an expert in Shichita. Later that day, Rav Salanter went to the same fellow and asked to borrow 5 rubels (money). So the fellow looked at the Rabbi and said, ‘how can I lend to you 5 rubles for I don’t know who you are? I never met you, so how can I lend to you 5 rubles? Who says you are going to pay me back?’ So Rav Salanter said that when it came to asking about Shichita, the fellow didn’t know him, but trusted the Rav anyway simply because he had a beard. But now when it came to money, he didn’t trust the Rav at all. His money was more important to him than his religion. From here you see that people have their priorities all skewed, all backwards. When it comes to religious things, we trust anybody. A guy tells you it’s kosher, so we eat it. But when it comes to monetary things, then already we don’t trust anyone, and want an investigation.
The Torah is coming to tell us that Avraham Aveenu was the opposite. When it came to money and his assets, he trusted Eliezer. Take my keys, "Hamoshel Bechol Asher Lo". Money was not important to Avraham Aveenu, so therefore it was easy for Avraham to trust Eliezer. But finding a wife for Yitzchak, this is already a spiritual matter. This is already religion. When it comes to religion, Avraham Aveenu says, "Sim Na Yadecha Tachat Yirechi", that now you are going to have to swear. If he would steal some money, so big deal, but if he made a mistake over here in this match-making, this already it will affect all of Israel.
So the Torah is coming to contrast, that it was "Avdo Zekan Beto Hamoshel Bechol Asher Lo". But that was with his money. However, when it came to spiritual matters, Avraham Aveenu had the right priorities, which we have to have also when it comes to our religious needs, and when it comes to our religious observance. We must be more vigilant. When it comes to other things that are less important, we have to let them slide, and not take them so seriously and so firmly.
