Why would she answer him regarding something about which he didn't even ask? He asked to stay the night, so just answer that. Don't offer additional information.
There's a very interesting explanation given by רבי שמואל לעוו . The Ramban explains the previous posuk which states, " And it was when the camels had finished drinking, the man took a golden nose ring, its weight a beka, and two bracelets on her arms, ten gold shekels their weight.” It seems, says the Ramban, that there are words missing here. It should have said,"the man took a golden nose ring, put it on her nose & then the two bracelets on her arms. Therefore, he argues with Rashi & explains the posuk to mean: "the man took a golden nose ring and two bracelets 'to be' on her arms. ויאמר לה בת מי את , and he said to her, whose daughter are you? Only after she answered, the daughter of Bethuel, did he place the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her arms.
Now even according to the Ramban who believes that Eliezer knew that Rivka was from Avraham's family before he gave her the jewelry, why would he jump the gun with the first girl without first seeing if there were any other girls in the family that might have been better? What convinced him that this was the one?
Answers רב שמואל, it was from the fact that she changed what he asked ללין, to stay one night, to ללון, many nights. How did he know? There's a gemara that states, if one is going on the road & an unsavory character asks were he's going, he should tell him a destination further than he's going. Rashi explains: if he's going a mile, tell him two; for perhaps the fellow will want to ambush him & will wait at the end of his route. If one tells him a little longer, he will escape the danger.
Here, too, in his naiveté, Eliezer didn't suspect Lavan & Besual to be wicked people capable of murder. This is what Rivka wanted to warn him about. He should say that he wanted to stay for many days so that, even if they wanted to try to hurt him, they would wait thinking they had plenty of time. Eliezer would therefore be forewarned. From her answer, Eliezer saw that she would do the right thing even if it went against her family & which was needed in the wife of Yitzchok.
There's a story told of a man who was going to a different town and wanted to be treated with respect. So he went to the rabbi for him to write a letter of recommendation. After talking to him for a while, the rabbi saw that he was really void of all knowledge. Not wanting to turn him away empty handed, he wrote as follows: "If you want to know the worth of the one holding this letter, know that had he been in the time of Elisha Hanavi & stood by the wife of Ovadia the oil would never have ceased. The man was ecstatic with the letter that he thought said he was such a Tzadik that the oil flowed because of him. When he got to his destination and gave the rabbi of the town the letter, he was surprised when there was no grand gesture of respect for him, so he asked the rabbi if he had read the letter? The rabbi said that I read & understood it. The man asked what did you understand? The wife of Ovadia had one pitcher of oil & the Navi blessed her that the oil wouldn't stop as long as she had empty vessels. At the end, she ran out of empty vessels & the oil ran out. Obviously, your rabbi felt that your head was an empty vessel; had you been there, the oil never would have ran out!
There are times when we think that we are doing the right thing, that we are even getting affirmation from our friends that all we do is great. However, sometimes it's the total opposite. We don't realize what's happening. We have to take the lesson from Rivka; even when it means going against your family & friends, doing the right thing comes before all!
No comments:
Post a Comment