After the events of the Akeida, Avraham, realizing that he almost lost his son with no heirs, decides it's time to find a wife for his son. He sends his servant, Eliezer, back to his old home town to find a wife from the family of Avraham. He comes to the well and sees a girl coming to draw water. The posuk tells us וירץ העבד לקראתה, the servant ran towards her, ויאמר הגמיאיני נא מעט מים מכדך, and said, “let me sip, please, a little water from your jug."
Rashi tells us he ran specifically to her because he saw the water from the well going up toward her. The Ramban explains how we see this from the pesukim. When the posuk tells us that she went to draw water for the camels it says, ותשאב לכל גמליו, "and she drew for all his camels," inferring that she had to draw the water. However, here it says ותמלא כדה ותעל, "she filled her jug and ascended," with no mention of drawing the water. Therefore, we know that the water came up to her which is what Eliezer saw; therefore, her ran to her.
The sefer Kedushos Levi asks, “What's going on over here? If she's a tzadekes so the water comes up to her to alleviate the trouble of drawing it, then why when she went to draw the water for the camels which was much more work, didn't the water come up to her? Why did she have to draw all that water?
He explains that she originally came to draw water for herself, so the water came up to her so she wouldn't have to work too hard. However, when she was drawing water for the camels to do chesed for someone else, the water didn't come up to her, for when a person works hard to do a mitzva and it doesn't come easy, then the mitzva counts so much more. Therefore, the water didn't come up to her so that she would gain the most from the mitzva.
There's a story told about the Bardichiver Rebbe who had a stingy miser in his town who died. The chevra kadisha decided that they will at least get some money from him now, so they charged an exorbitant fee for the burial plot. The family came running to the Bardichiver to complain. The Bardichiver agreed and told the chevra to charge them a cheap price and tell him when the funeral would be so that he could attend. Then he told them about three court cases when this miser was brought to him. In the first case, a wine merchant had come into town to buy his stock of wine for the year. He made a deal with the seller, loaded up all the wine, but, when he came to pay, realized that his money was gone. The merchant was devastated; this was his whole livelihood for the year. The miser happened to be walking by, heard the commotion and then said, “Hey, I found your money," and gave him all the money that he lost. The real thief saw what happened and felt guilty, so he wanted to give the miser back his money, but the miser refused. The second time, a man in town couldn't support his family so he decided to travel to try his luck elsewhere. He left town and told his wife to go to the miser for a check every week. The wife went to the miser telling him that her husband said he would give her a check every week until he gets back. The miser, sensing that this family would have no other means of support, gave her a check every week for close to two years. When the husband returned, he was shocked to hear that the miser had taken care of his family. He went to pay him back, but, again, the miser wouldn't take it. The last time, a poor man came to him for a loan. The miser asked who the guarantor would be and the poor man answered, “Hashem," so he gave him the loan. A year later, the poor man went to pay him back and he wouldn't take it, saying that Hashem had sent him a few big deals and he was paid up.
Rabbi Fischel Schachter told over this story with an interesting take on this from his Rebbi. One would think that the Bardichiver was saying this man was really a tzadik and these were examples. He said, “No, really this man was a miser, but he would try to work on himself to change. Usually, he didn't succeed; however, these three times he overcame himself and that was his ticket to eternity. Even though it was against his nature and was difficult for him, he was successful." Rabbi Schachter says this teaches us never to stop trying, for no matter what our struggles, as long as we try, even if we're just successful a few times, it's worth it. The harder it is and the more we work, the greater the reward will be!
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