As Heard from Rabbi Avigdor Miller ZT”L

“And she shall say: ‘Drink, and I shall give drink also to your camels’. She is the one that You have appointed for Your servant Yitzchak.” (24:14)

A kindly person would have assented to the request for a drink of water. It would be quite extraordinary to volunteer to give water to the wayfarer’s camel, for this would require a number of trips between the well and the watering-trough. One camel drinks much more than thirty men. To propose, without being requested, to give drink to 10 camels (24:10), was an extremely queer and unexpected form of behavior. Even had the request been made, to give drink for over 300 men would border on the insane, especially when a young girl undertakes such a task while the group of grown men to whom the camels had belonged stood by and did nothing. “Insane is the man of the Spirit.” (Hoshea 9:7)

Ribka was chosen not merely for her kindliness but for her flaming idealism that transcended all her contemporaries and caused her to be so far above them that she was viewed as mentally irresponsible. Even Eliezer was amazed at what he saw. (24:21).

From where did Ribka learn such behavior? Such extreme and even fanatical devotion to the services of kindliness to wayfarers could have been learned solely from one model, Abraham (18:2). We know there was communication between the family in Canaan and in Mesopotamia, and that they were familiar with details (22:20). The caravans brought tidings of Abraham’s behavior, and the fame of this “prince of G-d” as the Canaanites called him (23:6) had spread far and wide.

The idealistic soul of Ribka had absorbed with eagerness the stories of her exalted great-uncle, and this young girl had learned to serve G-d by deeds of unusual kindliness. Thus Abraham’s example was able to cause “this rose to bloom among the thorns.” (Beresheet Raba 63:4) The prelude to greatness is Kindliness, and thereby Ribka was chosen to be the mother of Yisrael. “Derech Eretz preceded the Torah.” (Vayikra Rabbah 9:3) The chief element in Derech Eretz is Kindliness, and thus Ribka became eligible to be the mother of the people of G-d’s Torah.

Quoted from “The Beginning” By Rabbi Avigdor Miller ZT”L

Shabbat Shalom

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