Blogs

You’ve all seen this flash across the screen while streaming whatever show currently has your attention.  As the credits start, it will often than say “special appearance by ________.”  This person is often a recognizable performer who has used all of his or her gifts to inhabit a single episode, or a limited arc.  Well, if Torah portions had opening credits, our special appearance this week would be made by Eliezer, the head servant in Abraham’s household.  And he would definitely win an Emmy!

Allow me to explain.

In the portion Chayei Sarah, Eliezer is entrusted with the task of a lifetime: going to Abraham’s birthplace to find a wife for his son Isaac. Along with an entourage of camels, Eliezer does Abraham’s bidding.  He arrives at twilight and articulates a heartfelt prayer to God that his errand will be met with success.  “Let the one who offers to water these camels be she who will become Isaac’s beloved.”

No sooner had he finished speaking, the text goes on, then the townspeople appear by the spring, and Rebekah does exactly as Eliezer had hoped… allowing him to drink his fill, and drawing water for his camels as well.

Eliezer gazes at her in silent wonderment.  I like to imagine him standing in that twilight hour, itself a transitional, in-between time, realizing that his mission has come to fruition just as he prayed it would.  Rebekah will indeed step into our story now, continuing the line and making her mark.

Can it really happen this way?  Does it ever?  That we connect with the courage to articulate our dearest hope and in the next second it unfolds before our eyes?  Perhaps.  Far more often though, it is a longer and rockier process.  The beauty of Eliezer’s “special appearance,” is in his intent.  His ability to articulate what he wants more than anything else.  Rebekah’s entrance makes Eliezer’s task successful.  But the intensity and audacity he brings to the moment makes it beautiful.

From Shabbat to Shabbat, may we too find our own ways of embodying Rebecca’s grace and strength, and Eliezer’s courage, which became an ability to call those qualities in another person forward.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Gutterman