‘Speed’: Parashat Chaye Sarah 5787

When Abraham sends Eliezer to find a wife for Isaac, he gives him very specific instructions [Bereishit 24:4]: “You shall go to my birthplace and to my family, and take a wife for my son Isaac.” Abraham does not tell him to find a nice girl, a kind girl, or even a particularly religious girl. He tells him to find someone from his family. And yet, Eliezer devises a different test. He will ask a young woman for a drink and the one who offers to water his camels as well will be the woman he seeks. Why does he introduce a criterion Abraham never mentioned?

Let’s zoom into the Torah’s description of Rivka’s response. Eliezer asks for water. Rivka gives him to drink and then volunteers to water his camels. At this point, she has already passed the test as Eliezer formulated it. She has offered precisely what he requested. Yet Eliezer does not immediately announce that he has found the woman. Instead, [Bereishit 24:21] “He stood watching her silently, wondering whether G-d had made his journey successful”. What is he waiting for? Does he think she’ll reconsider her offer[1]?

But perhaps Eliezer is interested not only in what Rivka is prepared to do, but in how she does it. The Torah repeatedly emphasizes her speed. She hurries to empty her pitcher, runs back to the well, draws water for all the camels, and continues until they have finished drinking. She springs into action. Her alacrity is the defining feature of the encounter. The connection to Abraham is difficult to miss. When Abraham sees three strangers approaching his tent, he runs to greet them, he hurries into the tent to tell Sarah to prepare food, and he runs to select an animal. The Torah emphasizes Abraham’s urgency.

Now, at the well, the same language appears in connection with Rivka. She runs. She hurries. She anticipates needs and acts without delay. Eliezer is not simply witnessing a young woman who happens to be kind. He is witnessing someone who behaves exactly like his Master. Rivka possesses the instinctive urgency that characterizes Abraham’s hospitality. This is what Eliezer is waiting to see. Her offer establishes that she is generous but the speed with which she carries it out reveals something more profound: She has internalized the very characteristic that defines Abraham.

A rocket science analogy can illustrate this distinction. Iron Dome and David’s Sling are both missile-defence systems but they employ very different interception approaches. Iron Dome’s Tamir interceptor uses a proximity-fused warhead to destroy an incoming threat without requiring a direct collision. David’s Sling’s Stunner interceptor employs hit-to-kill technology, destroying its target through direct kinetic impact. Hit-to-kill imposes demanding requirements on the interceptor’s performance: It must achieve the extreme speed, precision, and manoeuvrability in order to strike the target directly. For Stunner, speed is not an option – it is an essential part of the capability. Rivka could have agreed to water Eliezer’s camels, taken her time, and eventually completed the task. The mission would have been accomplished, as with a proximity-fused interceptor. But Rivka does more. She acts with an urgency that reveals a higher level of capability. She does not merely achieve the desired result; she demonstrates performance that makes her response distinctive. Eliezer is looking for more than someone who can perform an act of kindness. He is looking for someone whose instinctive response to another person’s needs is to act immediately and completely.

This brings us to an idea developed by Manitou[2] concerning the three forefathers. The forefathers were not simply three individuals who happened to stand at the beginning of Jewish history. Their role as founders of the Jewish people could not be taken for granted in advance. Each had to demonstrate the capacity to continue the process of bringing the nation into being. Had any one of them failed, the chain could have ended. Being the son or the grandson of Abraham was not, by itself, sufficient. The ability to generate the Jewish people had to be demonstrated through action.

This offers a framework for understanding Rivka’s test. She is about to become the wife of Isaac, the next link in the chain. Her suitability cannot be measured solely by ancestry. She must demonstrate that she possesses the qualities necessary to continue Abraham’s mission. Building a nation requires more than being an ethical person or having good intentions. Judaism demands that values be translated into concrete action. Rivka’s speed is therefore not simply evidence of kindness. It is an essential part of the quality that makes her capable of continuing Abraham’s legacy.

Wait a minute: If Eliezer’s assignment is to find a woman from Abraham’s family, why does he not begin by identifying the women who belong to that family? There were surely far more kind women in the general population than there were women who were cousins of Abraham. If kindness is merely an additional qualification, the logical approach would be to start with the smaller group: First identify Abraham’s relatives and then filter them for character. Instead, Eliezer reverses the process. He tests for kindness first and asks about family only afterward. Why search the much larger population when the smaller population is precisely the one Abraham instructed him to find? I suggest the answer is that Eliezer is not using kindness as an independent qualification. He is using it as evidence of lineage. He is not looking for a woman who happens to be kind and happens to be related to Abraham. He is looking for a woman whose behaviour is so unmistakably reminiscent of Abraham that it reveals where she must have come from. When Rivka runs, hurries, anticipates Eliezer’s needs, and does far more than he requested, he sees something extraordinary. He sees Abraham. Eliezer may not yet know her genealogy, but he has witnessed a spiritual family resemblance so striking that he is absolutely certain he has found the woman he seeks.

Her answer about her father and grandfather will provide the official genealogical confirmation. But the more important discovery has already been made. Her actions have revealed her ancestry before her ancestry has been established. This may explain why Eliezer gives Rivka jewellery before asking whose daughter she is. The jewellery is an expression of recognition – the question that follows is just a formality. Eliezer is effectively saying: “I know exactly who you are. Now tell me where you come from.” When Rivka identifies herself as the granddaughter of Nachor, Abraham’s brother, the two pieces of the puzzle fall into place. Her genealogy confirms what her actions have already demonstrated.

Abraham did not send Eliezer to find someone who merely shared his blood. A family connection, in and itself, is not enough. Ancestry does not guarantee shared qualities. If Rivka were merely related to Abraham, that might have established her genealogy but it would  have told us little about her capacity to continue his mission. Eliezer needs someone whose actions reveal that she is genuinely cut from the same cloth. Her behaviour must demonstrate the family resemblance before her family identity is established. Manitou’s understanding of the forefathers reminds us that the Jewish people did not emerge automatically from a family tree. Each generation had to demonstrate that it could carry the project forward. Rivka’s actions show that she can carry that chain forward. Abraham’s mission was never meant to remain an idea locked inside one individual. It had to become a living pattern, reproduced in the next generation and expressed in deeds.

That is also the challenge facing us today: Heritage is not simply something we receive; it is a responsibility we must make visible through what we do, in our homes and communities. Eliezer’s test unambiguously identifies the character he requires and the family from which she has emerged. Rivka’s example reminds us that Jewish continuity will depend not merely on the heritage we inherit, but on the urgency with which we turn its values into action.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ari Sacher, Moreshet, 5787

Please daven for a Refu’a Shelema for Rachel bat Malka, Yiftach ben Adi, Iris bat Chana, Sheindel Devora bat Rina, Esther Sharon bat Chana Raizel, Meir ben Drora, Golan ben Marcelle and Hodayah Emunah bat Shoshana Rachel.

[1] Some of the medieval commentators suggest this but I do not find it compelling.

[2] Rabbi Yehuda Léon Ashkénazi, better known as “Manitou”, rebuilt the French Jewish community after World War II.