Comentario sobre Génesis 24:14

אתה הכחת HER THOU HAST APPOINTED — She is fit for him since she will be charitable and will therefore be worthy of admission into the house of Abraham. The word הכחת means selected; old French approuvest; English thou hast selected.

HER THOU HAST APPOINTED FOR THY SERVANT, EVEN FOR ISAAC. Rashi comments: “She is fit for him since she is charitable and worthy of admission into the house of Abraham. And thereby shall I know — this is a petition: ‘Let me know through her that Thou hast shown kindness unto my master.” If so, Eliezer is saying, “I know for certain that You have appointed her for Your servant Isaac.” But in that case [his petition, which still indicates a doubt as to whether she was the appointed one,] does not connect well.
Its interpretation however is as follows: “Make it happen to me this day that the girl to whom I will speak be the one that You have appointed for Your servant Isaac, and with this, show kindness to my master Abraham for with this I will know that You have shown kindness to him if she be of his family and of good mind and of beautiful appearance.” And so he said [when recounting the events of the day]: And let it come to pass, that the maiden, etc., let the same be the woman whom the Eternal hath appointed.¹¹²Further, Verses 43-44.

אותה הוכחת, she is the one whom You have appointed to be Yitzchok’s wife. The word אותה excludes the possibility of any other girl being the proper wife for Yitzchok.

She You have proven for Your servant, for Yitzchak. Rashi explains, she is worthy for him that she is a doer of chessed. This topic is juxtaposed with the topic of Ephron the Chiti, because he too was from the family of Cana'an, and Ephron was begrudging of eye and therefore he [God] commanded to stay far from the Cana'anim, for they were begrudging [lit. evil of eye], because money will answer and testify to all, and every person is recognized through his pocket, if his actions are pure and straight, and there is no better test or "crucible" for a person than gold and silver. And thus said Shlomo (Mishlei 17:3) "A crucible for silver and a furnace for gold..." because one who wishes to test a person will go to the money and see what his nature is. For if he will remain in his righteousness in the business of money, then in every insight it will be revealed that he is complete [honest], and vice versa. And from here Eliezer learned that he didn't need to check Rivkah except with this trait--if she is generous [lit. has a good eye] and does kindness, and there he said "I will not demand from her anything but that she give me to drink, and if she responds, 'drink, and I will also give your camels to drink' then certainly she is a doer of kindness, that she will give me more than what I ask, and if so she You have proven for Your servant, for Yitzchak, for his entire household is garbed in salvation for other creatures"

והיה הנערה אשר אמר אליה, this was not a statement but a prayer that things should develop in this fashion. He did not rely on any magic, i.e. that the signs he stipulated would determine his actions. We find a similar occurrence with Yonathan son of King Sha-ul in Samuel I 14,10, where he does not rely on the אות which he had stipulated, but where he asked G’d in prayer for help, saying that if certain things were to happen he would regard this as a sign that his prayer had been answered favourably (compare Ibn Ezra there) When the Talmud Chulin 95 כל נחש שאינו כאליעזר עבד אברהם ויהונתן בן שאול אינו נחש, the meaning is that “any divination which is not like that of Eliezer or that of Yonatan ben Sha-ul is not a divination,” i.e. is not permissible, but is akin to relying on witchcraft [Unless the person requesting a sign does so as a prayer directed to G’d it is forbidden. Ed.].

והיה הנערה, seeing that the subject matter had already been introduced, the definitive article ה is in place, as opposed to Deuteronomy 22,23 כי יהיה נערה, where the subject had not been referred to previously.

אותה הוכחת לעבדך ליצחק, “her You have designated for Your servant, for Yitzchok.” Rashi understands the word הוכחת here as meaning “suitable.” Eliezer meant that a girl who would not only agree to draw water for him, the stranger, but would volunteer to also water his camels (although he was an able-bodied man capable of doing this by himself) had proven a fit successor for Yitzchok’s mother Sarah. Nachmanides explains that the words אותה הוכחת וגו' are all still part of Eliezer’s prayer which started with the words הקרה נא, (verse 12) He would consider what appeared like a coincidence מקרה not as such but as a sign from G’d that this was indeed the girl he had been searching for. This sign would prove that G’d had shown an special kindness to his master. If the girl were to be a member of Avraham’s family, this would be an additional sign. If you were to object, pointing out that even non Jews are forbidden to practice any kind of witchcraft or reliance on omens, so that Eliezer’s having given the jewelry to Rivkah before she had told him whose family she belonged to, you would have to answer that he did not give her the bracelets and nose-ring until he knew whose family she belonged to. We have a rule that the Torah is not obligated to report events in their chronological order, hence the fact that here the Torah has chosen to report Eliezer as giving jewelry to Rivkah on the strength of her having helped him, even before reporting who she was, is not so surprising. Another approach could be the fact that actually the Torah describes Eliezer only as ויקח נזם זהב וגו', “He took a golden nose-ring, etc.,” i.e. it does not state that he had already handed over the jewelry or put it on her hands as we hear in verse 47 when the servant recounted his experiences at the well, when he describes this as something he had done after having identified her as a member of Avraham’s family. Maybe, at this stage he showed the jewelry to Rivkah and asked her about her family before giving it to her and placing the bracelets on her hands. The words על ידיה would then describe the function of the צמידים, the bracelets. A third possibility is that the whole question of ניחוש, reliance on magical devices, omens, subjective criteria, etc.’ to establish the truth of something, is not an issue either with Eliezer or with Yonathan, David’s friend. It is only when one bases one’s course of action exclusively on coincidences, magic formulas, etc., that one violates the Torah’s commandment not to do so. Eliezer used the criteria he had set himself to examine the character of the girl as a guideline, but not as determining the issue to the extent of abandoning his own evaluation as to her suitability. Similarly, Yonathan used the arrows to encourage the lad to search further not to determine David’s course of action a fateful course. (Samuel I chapter 20) Ibn Ezra wrote that many people are astounded at Eliezer’s conduct, considering it as inappropriate. He does not understand how these people’s minds work. After all, it is quite clear that if the first girl who had agreed to Eliezer’s request and beyond that had turned out not to be a member of Avraham’s family, he would look further.

Die Weisen wollen übrigens (Thaanith 42.) Eliesers Verfahren keineswegs als eine mustergültige Weise, eine Frau zu wählen, empfohlen wissen. Wohl nur ein Elieser, den die Zuversicht eines Abraham auf einer solchen Sendung geleitet, dass Gott schon seinen Engel vor ihm hersenden und ihm das rechte Mädchen zuführen werde, durfte in einer solchen Zuversicht also handeln. Dass sein Verfahren, welches Chulin 95 b. formell als Beispiel für das verbotene ניחוש aufgeführt wird, nicht eigentlich unter diesen Begriff falle, hat schon ר"ן zur Stelle erläutert. ניחוש ists, wenn Entschlüsse von Vorgängen abhängig gemacht werden, die in keinerlei vernünftigem, natürlichem Zusammenhang zu ihnen stehen. Allein das Merkmal, an welchem Elieser die für Jizchak geeignete Frau erkennen wollte, gehört ja den Charaktereigentümlichkeiten an, die noch heute das charakteristische Kennzeichen der Nachkommen Jizchaks und Rebekkas bilden, und die wir unter dem Begriff von גמילות הסד zusammenfassen. Diese überall hülfreich beizuspringen bereite Menschenliebe, die erst durch die Sendung der Abrahamiden mittelbar und unmittelbar auch in die nichtabrahamitische Welt sich allmälig Bahn gebrochen, hatte Elieser in Abrahams Hause kennen gelernt, sie war das charakteristische Merkmal des Abraham- zeltes, sie mußte den hervorstechendsten Zug in dem Charakter der künftigen Frau dieses Hauses der rechten Gattin Jizchaks bilden, und wohl durfte Elieser glauben, dass nur in der Familie Abrahams sich noch eine solche Gemütsanlage finden dürfte und darauf sein Verfahren gründen. Sie muss doch jedenfalls eine seltene gewesen sein, sonst hätte sie überall für ihn kein Kennzeichen abgeben können. — לעברך ליצחק, mit großer Feinheit sagt er לעבדך וגוי, nicht לאדני oder לבן אדני; eben der Gedanke, dass Jizchak, für den er eine Frau sucht, ׳עכר ד ist, lässt ihn ein solches Merkmal wählen, und zugleich hoffen, dass Gott ihm die rechte zuführen werde. Ist es ja der dem Dienste Gottes Geweihte, dem er eine Genossin sucht. Die Förderung der Gottessache selbst ist durch die glückliche Wahl bedingt. —

ובה אדע, “and through her (conduct) I will know, etc.” according to Rashi, this wording is a kind of plea by Eliezer. This presents an apparent conflict with a statement by Rabbi Sh’muel son of Nachmeni in the Talmud, tractate Taanit, folio 4, according to which the Bible names three people whose requests from G–d were considered as inappropriate, Eliezer’s request here being one of the three. When we examine Eliezer’s request, if a blind girl had performed the tasks he had requested as proof of her worthiness to become the wife of Yitzchok, he would have had to choose her. According to Rashi’s interpretation, there was nothing inappropriate in Eliezer’s request.

והיה הנערה, Eliezer now refers to how he will test a girl who at first glance appears to him as a suitable prospect, seeing that he cannot ask all the girls to draw water his camels; The use by Eliezer of the masculine mode in connection with the word נערה, is most puzzling. The word therefore must refer to some word or subject the Torah has omitted. This is not as unusual as it sounds, as we have another example of something like this in Deuteronomy 22,23: כי יהיה נער בתולה מאורשה לאיש, “when there will be a young girl who is a virgin betrothed to a man, etc;” in that line also the word יהיה, which is in the masculine mode, cannot refer to the girl in question but to the subject matter. In our verse here, Eliezer addresses a subject matter he has not spelled out, such as such, his examination of the girl’s character.

ובה אדע This is a petition: “Let me know through her”.

... And the Sages, may their memory be blessed, said, "Any bride whose eyes are beautiful does not require examination of her whole body." But this is something that the senses contradict; as how many ugly women are there in the world who have beautiful eyes? And there is another difficulty: Why did the Sages, may their memory be blessed, see fit to give advice to ascertain this external beauty - is it not that 'charm is false and beauty is vanity?' Rather it is certain that they gave advice to ascertain her deeds. And this is the advice that was advised: That he check if she has a kind eye and purveys acts of loving-kindness. For if her eyes are kind to the creatures, then she is, without a doubt, perfect in all of her character traits.

I will also water your camels. A supplicant should ask for less than his needs and the giver should provide him with all his needs or more.

אשר אמר אליה, by this qualification Eliezer freed himself from the obligation to address a blind or lame girl. However, he still did not free himself from the obligation of speaking to a slave-girl. or someone born from an incestuous relationship, etc., seeing that such girls have no exterior marks by which one can immediately identify their status. Seeing that this was so, he prayed that G’d would do a kindness to his master and arrange that the girl whom he would approach to offer water would be a girl suitable as a potential wife for Yitzchok.

ואמרה שתה, and she says: “go ahead and drink!” Eliezer is not engaging in ניחוש, divination, but he was looking for an omen, something permitted by Jewish law. He did not rely on this as a reason to give Rivkah the jewelry as he had first enquired about her immediate family history and it had turned out that she was a member of Avraham’s family. He had only made the jewelry ready in the event that it turned out that the girl offering him water to drink should turn out to be a member of Avraham’s family.

כי עשית חסד THAT THOU HAST SHOWN KINDNESS — if she is of his family and a fit companion for him I shall know that thou hast shown kindness to my master.

Whom You have determined. Hochachta in Hebrew can also be rendered “whom You have rebuked” — You admonished and instructed her until she was worthy of marrying Yitzchok.

אותה הוכחת, after passing this test, I will know that she is the one which You, G’d, have selected for Yitzchok, and I will take her as a wife for him.

ובה אדע, if she will be good, and the daughter of good people I will know that You have indeed performed a kindness for my master.