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Sefer Bereshis
Parashas Chayei
Sarah
And the girl was very fair to look upon,
a virgin, neither had any man known her; and she went down to the well and
came up. And the servant ran to meet her, and said: "Please give me to
drink a little water from your pitcher. And she said: "Drink,
sir" and she hurried and tilted her pitcher upon her hand and gave him
to drink. And when she had done giving him drink, she said: "I will
draw for your camels also, until they have finished drinking." And she
hurried and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again to the well
to draw, and drew for all his camels.
The
Torah tells about Eliezer, the servant of Avraham, who was sent to find a wife for Yitzchak. he made up a test to see if the woman was righteous
enough to marry into the family. When Eliezer
made up the test, there was no mention of a need to run, but we see that
when Rivka left the well, he ran up to her to ask
her for water. Rashi explains that he ran when he
noticed a miracle of water rising up towards her.
The
Ramban here tells us how Rashi
knew that water rose towards Rivka. Look
carefully at the verses: She went to the well two times. The first time the
Torah does not tell us that she DREW water from the well, but the second
time (v. 20) the verse specifically mentions that she DREW water for his
camels. The Ramban says that this is proof that Rivka did not draw water from the well the first time
because she simply did not need to do so! The water "jumped"
miraculously into her pitcher. The second time, when she went back to the
well, she drew water for the camels.
The
book Kedushas Levi asks what is the difference
between the two times she went to the well? If she merited a miracle, she
should have received it both times!
He
answers that the first time she wanted water for her own family needs, and
for that she was willing to accept "special" treatment from
heaven. But when she wanted water to fulfill a mitzvah of helping another
person, she intended that every part of the mitzvah should be done by her
own personal effort. This should remind us of what is written in Pirke Avos at the end of
chapter 5:
"According to the effort we put
into a deed - that is how much reward we will receive for doing it."
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