Chayei Sara answers

Chaye Sara 5720

Alef.

1. √1) To impress Rivka’s family, Eliezer emphasizes how wealthy Avraham is.

√2) Avraham’s belief in HaShem not mentioned because perhaps Rivka’s family are not monotheists.

3) From Avraham’s words, would be possible to choose a Canaanite woman who is not from Avraham’s immediate viscinity. Eliezer to make it appear that Avraham needed someone who was from a foreign land changes the account accordingly.

4) Eliezer makes the instruction from Avraham more specific in order to impress upon Rivka’s family that this is the only place that Eliezer was to go to find a wife for Yitzchak.

√5) Eliezer emphasizes that Yitzchak is Avraham’s only son, implying that he exclusively stands to inherit all of his father’s wealth.

6) From Eliezer’s presentation, the choice is not so much up to the girl as to the girl’s family.

√7) Eliezer does not want to give the impression that Avraham has something against the land in which Rivka’s family lives, or for that matter the family itself with respect to where Yitzchak will ultimately reside.

√8) Eliezer deemphasizes the implication that Avraham’s following God was a rejection of his homeland.

9) Eliezer makes his instructions sound more specific, as if the only place from where he can bring a girl is Avraham’s family home.

√10) Eliezer wanted to avoid saying anything derogatory about either Rivka’s homeland or her family with respect to where Yitzchak will ultimately live.

11) Eliezer in order to emphasize his own importance casts the successful passing of the test as a favor to him, rather than to his master Avraham.

12) Eliezer presents the passing of the test as an objective fact indicating that Rivka is the match for Yitzchak, as opposed to a favor for either Avraham or Eliezer.

13) Eliezer did not want to imply that perhaps he had stated the conditions of the test out loud and was somehow overheard by Rivka, thereby invalidating the test.

14) הגמיאיני according to the commentators connotes a small amount of water, while השקיני suggests a more abundant amount. Eliezer wished to demonstrate to Rivka’s family that his test was completely passed by Rivka who generously gave him water to drink. It is more unexpected for someone to willingly work that much harder to provide a great amount of water than only an insignificant amount.

15) In the original version, Rivka refers to Eliezer as אדוני, something that Eliezer does not mention when he recounts the events to the family. Perhaps he did not want to provide the family with information that they might find objectionable with respect to Rivka’s interaction with a stranger. With respect to the order of things—did she tell Eliezer to drink and only then lowered the pitcher or did she first lower the pitcher and then tell Eliezer to drink—perhaps the difference is with respect to how quickly after her offer she was able to satisfy her words. There would obviously be a longer time between the offer and its fulfillment, if she first has to lower the pitcher in between.

16) In the original version she offers to give water to the camels only after Eliezer finished drinking, as if it was an afterthought, while in Eliezer’s version, right from the outset Rivka says that she is going to not only give Eliezer water, but also his camels.

√17) In Eliezer’s version, it is more seamless with respect to giving the camels water to drink. There is no mention of her having to go again to fill her pitcher in order to have enough water for both Eliezer and his animals.

√18) + 19 (According to most commentaries, this is the key difference.) In the original version, Eliezer gives Rivka jewelry even before he determines who she is. When Eliezer recounts the story to the family, he says that only after he determines her genealogy did he give her the jewelry. In the latter version, because Eliezer wishes to impress the family with how fatalistic this entire situation is, he wants to make clear that someone from the family was the only realistic choice and therefore they will have to agree to allow Rivka to go. If one looks carefully at Avraham’s instructions, it is unclear that the only acceptable choice would be someone from his family:  24:4 “But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son, even for Isaac.” While the English translation supports the idea that Eliezer was to go to Avraham’s family, the word in question is מולדתי which could be understood as “homeland” rather than family/relatives. See Ibn Ezra and Akeidat Yitzchak on the one hand, as opposed to RaShBaM and RaMBaN on the other, in part Gimel.

20) In the original, Eliezer offers a prayer to HaShem for Dealing kindly with Avraham. When he describes what happened to the family, he emphasizes how HaShem Led him to find a wife for his master. The family would not be interested in necessarily pleasing Avraham. However, they might be impressed if the story sounds as if the entire matter is “BaShert”.

2. Regarding the common denominator with respect to the changes that Eliezer makes to the story, he wishes to present a case that will be most inviting to Rivka’s family to allow their daughter to accompany Eliezer back to Canaan in order to marry Yitzchak.

Beit.

1. 24:1-9 What Avraham originally told Eliezer.

           10-14 What Eliezer did and said to HaShem prior to Rivka showing up.

      15-28 What transpired between Eliezer and Rivka.

  29-51 Eliezer’s successful presentation to the family of all that had happened previously.

2. a) With regard to the Egyptian plagues, the Tora does not mention each time that Moshe and Aharon went in to warn Pharoah.

b) We are not told when and how Adam conveyed to Chava that she was not to eat from the Eitz HaDa’at Tov VeRa.

c) We are not told what Kayin and Hevel were discussing in the field prior to Kayin’s killing Hevel.

d) We are not told how Noach managed to gather the pairs of the various animals.

e) We are not told in the biblical text why Avraham was originally chosen by HaShem for Blessing and inheriting the land of Canaan.

f) We are not told what happens to Yitzchak immediately after the Akeida.

Etc.

3.  Perhaps the Tora is offering Musar regarding how one must take into consideration his audience when he is retelling a story with the aim to realize a certain goal. There is nothing in Eliezer’s alterations that could be categorized as an out-and-out lie; he merely “Varteiches und Varbessers” in order to advance his objective. With respect to Yitzchak, Eliezer has no particular agenda and therefore could tell things just as they occurred because Yitzchak would understand the references to HaShem’s Chesed to Avraham as well as to him.

4.  On the one hand the Tora is prepared to go into detail if there are significant changes and nuances that emerge from a comparison. However, there was nothing in particular to achieve with respect to informing Yitzchak of what had happened. Since the changes would be insignificant, why should Eliezer burden him with what he had done and said? The changes are only meaningful vis-à-vis getting Rivka’s family to do something that they might otherwise not be interested in doing.

Gimel.

1.  Ibn Ezra and Akeidat Yitzchak suggest that Avraham never insisted that Eliezer find a girl from Avraham’s family, just from Avraham’s homeland. RaShBaM and RaMBaN interpret Avraham’s instructions that Eliezer was not fabricating when he told Rivka’s family that his instructions were to find someone who belonged to Avraham’s family.

2.  Beraishit 43:7

(ז) וַיֹּאמְרוּ שָׁאוֹל שָׁאַל הָאִישׁ לָנוּ וּלְמוֹלַדְתֵּנוּ לֵאמֹר הַעוֹד אֲבִיכֶם חַי הֲיֵשׁ לָכֶם אָח וַנַּגֶּד לוֹ עַל פִּי הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה הֲיָדוֹעַ נֵדַע כִּי יֹאמַר הוֹרִידוּ אֶת אֲחִיכֶם:

Clearly within this context, ולמולדתנו means family, since the brothers are trying to justify why they disclosed intimate details about their family situation to Yosef, i.e., he asked seeming to know everything about the family, thereby precipitating the demand that Binyamin be brought down to Egypt.

3.  According to RaMBaN, Eliezer made change #4 from מולדתי to בית אבי to indicate that Avraham was not interested simply in a non-Canaanite, but rather someone who was part of his family.

According to Akeidat Yitzchak, the point that Eliezer was making was that Avraham sent him to the place of his birthplace not because he couldn’t stand the local girls, but because he revered those who were associated with his birthplace and family.

4. Given the other changes that Eliezer makes in order to convince the family, it makes more sense to me that he changed this aspect of Avraham’s original mandate as well in order to win over Rivka’s family and get them to agree to send their daughter with him to marry Yitzchak.

Daled.

If the Ohr HaChayim is correct, and I adopted a similar approach when I explained the change in section Alef, then this change is qualitatively different from all the others. Whereas the others were intended to make a positive impression upon the family, in this case, Eliezer might have wished to emphasize how this is truly a sign from God since there was no way for Rivka to have known what Eliezer was looking for.

Heh.

See my answers to 15) and 16) in section Alef.