Parshas Chayei Sarah 5786
Clearly nervous and fidgety, Rav Yisrael Salanter asked the innkeeper if everything was alright.
“No, actually,” he responded. “The shochet we use is sick and I’m afraid we’ll run out of meat. We’re expecting a large crowd of guests in the coming days.”
“Not to worry,” Rav Yisrael assured him. “I know how to perform shechitah. I’d be happy to help.”
A sense of relief visibly washed over the innkeeper and he thanked Rav Yisrael profusely. The next morning, the Rav made his way to the innkeeper’s desk.
“Sorry to ask. But I need a loan. Might you be willing to lend me 50,000 kopeks?”
The innkeeper was completely taken aback. So was Rav Yisrael Salanter.
With the passing of Sarah, Avraham turns his attention to finding a wife for his son, Yitzchak, tasking his trusted servant Eliezer with this critical mission. Eliezer takes an oath to seek out a wife for Yitzchak only in the region of Avraham’s homeland, and to steer clear of the local Canaanite population.
If Avraham will not undertake this mission, and if Yitzchak will not go find a wife for himself, then Eliezer is the likely man for the job. We already know Eliezer, know him to be Avraham’s servant, the one who looks after Avraham’s affairs.
Yet in relating Avraham’s selection of Eliezer for this task, the Torah acts as though we don’t know Eliezer at all, feeling it necessary to provide a description of who exactly Eliezer was.
וַיֹּאמֶר אַבְרָהָם אֶל־עַבְדּוֹ זְקַן בֵּיתוֹ הַמֹּשֵׁל בְּכׇל־אֲשֶׁר־לוֹ שִׂים־נָא יָדְךָ תַּחַת יְרֵכִי׃
בראשית כד:ב
And Avraham said to his servant, the elder of his household, who had charge of all that he owned, “Put your hand under my thigh”
Bereishis 24:2
If the description of being in charge of Avraham’s household is necessary to identify this servant as Eliezer, rather than some junior member of Avraham’s staff, why not just refer to Eliezer by name? We are, after all, already acquainted with Eliezer and his position in Avraham’s household (see ּBereishis 15:2).
The Be’er Mayim Chaim, Rav Chaim Tyrer, explains that the Torah is doing far more than merely identifying Eliezer; it is highlighting the priorities of Avraham Avinu.
Eliezer had Avraham’s full vote of confidence in running his household, managing his assets, and generally overseeing all his earthly affairs. But finding a wife for his son—the next matriarch of the nation they would build—was no earthly affair. The Torah is emphasizing that for Avraham, the management of those matters that fell in the realm of the finite was one thing. Here, Eliezer’s virtue was unimpeachable. But for matters that pertained to the infinite, greater assurances were necessary.
For many, sadly, the exact opposite is true.
When Rav Yisrael Salanter asked for a loan, the innkeeper stammered. “I don’t know anything about you!” he exclaimed. How could the rabbi be so presumptuous as to request such a large sum of money without so much as offering any proof of his character or trustworthiness?
Rav Yisrael pressed on, “If you know so little about me as to be suspicious of my repaying a loan, how can you consider me reliable enough to trust my shechitah and feed it to all your guests?”
What makes Avraham Avinu special is not that he could answer correctly when asked if proper shechitah is more important than 50,000 kopeks. It’s that he acted on it. That the primacy of the spiritual over the material, of the infinite over the finite, was not only a philosophy that existed in his mind, but in his deeds. For Avraham, any care or concern extended to his material assets would not only be replicated in the spiritual realm, they would be magnified.
If posed that same question, we’d likely respond correctly as well. The efficacy and quality of shechitah impacts us eternally. A few thousand dollars does not. And we know it.
But a more important exercise is in considering the actions we take in protecting our various assets. Are the material and spiritual at least on par? Or is there a gap?
What do we do to protect our material assets? We have conversations with experts to identify how to receive the best returns. We follow their growth carefully to ensure that they’re performing the way we’d hope and expect. We create objectives to determine success and optimization.
The same can be done for spiritual assets. Seeking out advice from experts—those who know us well and who have achieved a measure of spiritual growth that we are envious of—who can help us manage our portfolio. Devising ways to track our growth in Torah study, in daily habits we wish to inculcate, in punctuality in tefilah. Adopting formal goals that ensure that our accounts aren’t flatlining, that we continue to surge towards new benchmarks in avodas Hashem.
It is a wonderful thing to protect our wealth. But if we’ve learned how to do so, can we copy those skills, those insights, those abilities, and apply them elsewhere? If we know how to protect our kopeks, do we similarly protect our shechitah?