Kevin Bemel ·
How to Act in Haste Without Regret
“ . . . and she hurried, and lowered her jug to her hand and gave him to drink.” (Bereshis/Genesis 24:18). Rebecca is carrying a jug of water on her shoulder when Eliezer approaches her and asks for a drink. Rather than telling him to get water from the well himself, unhesitatingly she serves him. Didn’t her mother teach her not to talk to strangers, let alone wait on them?
The parsha for this Sabbath is Chayei Sarah. Sarah dies and devotedly Abraham mourns her. Then he purchases a burial site for her and his family and orders his servant to search for a wife for Isaac. Next, Abraham marries again. The narrative concludes with his death and the death of Ishmael.
Abraham sends his servant, Eliezer, to find Isaac a wife. The Torah relates that Eliezer prays to G-d to identify the right woman by her giving him water when he asks for a drink and then offering to water his camels without being asked. Enters Rebecca, who quickly lowers her jug so he can drink. Then only after he is done does she hurry and empty her jug into the trough for his camels to drink and keeps running until they are finished. A huge task for a young girl, especially for camels that crossed a desert!
Note two things about her actions. First, when she had an opportunity to a chesed she did so quickly. This is the sign of a tadekes or righteous woman. In Midrash Bamidbar Rabah 10:7 it says,
“All of the deeds of the righteous are done quickly.”
By being eager to perform a deed, a righteous person elevates that deed from an everyday action to a mitzvah, thereby improving her relationship with G-d.
But note that in her haste she did not stand tapping her foot while Eliezer drank his fill. Rather she patiently waited for him to finish then hurried to water his camels and again patiently did so until their thirst was quenched. By subsuming her pace to that of the person or animal she was helping, Rebecca demonstrates for us the very essence of chesed:
Kindness is determined by the receiver of the action
So the challenge of being a kind person is to be sensitive and empathetic enough to perceive how a person really needs assistance. Our foremother Rebecca gives you a clue – be the kind of person that people will ask for favors and be sensitive to the plight of all of the Almighty’s creatures. Then, when you identify a need, take care of it yourself, quickly.
Question – How do you determine how a person actually wants to be helped?
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Every year beginning on Simchas Torah, the cycle of reading the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, ends and begins again. Each Sabbath a portion known as a sedra or parsha is read. It is named after the first significant word or two with which this weekly reading begins.
