"Bigdei Kahuna" Parsha page by Rabbi Yehuda Katz

CHAYEI SARA

"And Abraham said to his servant,the elder of his household....................."(24:2)

After the death of Sarah ,Abraham was now entrusting his faithfull servant ,Eliezer, with the task of finding a proper wife for Issac , Abrahams son and heir..........The Torah then fully elaborates in detail the entire story relating to how Eliezer ultimately discovers Rebbecah as a suitable mate for Issac........There exists a famous question as to why the Torah spends so much time elaborating on this episode,while there are many practical laws found in the Torah that are only hinted too........(Refer to Bereshis Rabbah 60:11) I would like to perhapes answer this question in the following manner,Bezrat Hashem......................: Eliezer was Abrahams must trusted servant, and fulfilled all of his duties with the utmost of care.Nothing was lacking in how Eliezer went about doing his task down to the very detail,as elaborated in the Torah.......The Torah is in essence teaching us by Eliezers example what true service is......We need to have a paradigm of what true service is,so that we can relate that to our own service to G-d Almighty....... Learning by example is very powerfull indeed.......Eliezer went about his task to serve Abraham with so much deliberation ,care and thought....that the Torah itself testifies to it in great detail.............We must therefore also serve G-d in the same manner..........The Mitzvahs of the the Torah must also be performed with great detail,not haphazardly and careless......The care and love that we put into the Mitzvahs is what trully reveals our inner attitudes towards the Torah........Eliezer trully revealed his love for his master, Abraham.........This is what took Eliezer from just being Abrahams servant to making him an example to his masters future descendants ............Its is for this reason the Rabbis of blessed memory have stated the following in Beraishis Rabbah (60:11): " The conversation of our forefathers servants is more beloved to Hashem than the Torah of their descendants." Let us all take a clue from Eliezer and his approach towards his master and thereby learn how to properly serve Hashem......Have a good shabbos.......................................................