Musar zu Bereschit 14:23

Another important moral lesson to be learned from our פרשה is that one should not derive material benefit from miracles. We have several examples in the Talmud, such as Taanit 24 and Shabbat 53, of people either rejecting sudden wealth due to a miracle, or criticism of someone who needed to accept the miracle in order to nurse a baby who had lost its mother in childbirth. The very fact that G–d needs to interfere with natural law to provide sustenance for someone implies some criticism of the person for whom such a miracle had to be performed. This is why Abraham rejected the spoils of his war against Kedarlaomer. Did Abraham prefer that G–d would make it rain silver and gold for him from heaven that he rejected the "gift" of the King of Sodom as not befitting to him? Of course, nothing is further from the truth. We know that Abraham had previously accepted gifts from Pharaoh (12,15). When the cause for sudden wealth is plausible, it is perfectly acceptable to accept and use such wealth. Abraham considered his victory in that war [with his 318 men against the four mightiest armies of that era] as so miraculous that the spoils were not a plausible way for G–d to provide for him.

4) A fourth level of מצוה performance is performance of the commandment for the sake of G–d, not for the securing of any kind of advantage on this earth. Abraham was a prime example of this when he risked his life to liberate Lot and incidentally all the people of Sodom, etc, and refused as much as a shoelace of the loot which was legally his (Genesis 14,22).

While I am on this subject I shall also deal with the unusual fact that in 24,50, Laban pre-empts his father by speaking up before his father. Rashi comments that it was because of Laban's wickedness that he tried to forestall his father Bethuel. Assuming that Rashi is correct, what advantage did the clever Laban hope to gain by answering first? I have already written that the patriarchs and matriarchs represented the whole of mankind, and that they repaired the spiritual and physical damage inflicted on the universe by Adam (Adam and Eve combined). G–d's whole purpose in the creation of the universe had of course been none other than Adam. We have learned in Avot 4:28 that "jealousy, greed and thirst for honor drive man out of this world," i.e. cause his death. Adam's sin involved elements of all these three negative traits. The serpent was jealous of Adam as Eve's husband and wanted to "marry" Eve himself; hence he tried to seduce Adam. It had thought that Adam would be the first to eat, Eve offering him the first bite, and that thus Adam would become the victim of G–d's warning not to eat from the tree on penalty of death. The serpent would then have been free to mate with Eve. The reward that the serpent held out to Eve (Genesis 3,5-6) was gratification of her greed, "the tree was lovely to look at and good as food." The promise of becoming G–d-like was the additional honour that would result from eating of that tree. Regarding the lives of Abraham and Sarah we find that they practised the very opposite traits. It is natural for a woman to be jealous of another woman's ability to have children when she herself is unable to do so, but Sarah offered Hagar to her husband in order that Abraham should be able to have a child with her instead (Genesis 16,2); she was free of that kind of jealousy. Abraham, who was offered material wealth by the King of Sodom, exclaimed that he would not even accept a shoelace from the booty he himself had captured when he defeated Kedor-Leomer and freed Lot (14,23). Not only did Abraham not display traits of greed, his entire life was filled with acts of generosity towards others. He practiבed humility to the point where he – who had been the recipient of several revelations by G–d – even described himself as being merely "dust and ashes " (18,27).