Chaye Sarah: Divine Destiny

Such a strange story.  The trusted servant is sent to find a bride for  the young master.  He wonders: How would he identify the right woman?  What criteria would he use?  He constructs a fantasy.  He will ask for water. She will give him water  and offer to water the camels, too. Beautiful  Rivkah  appears. He asks the planned question.  She gives the answer he had dreamed.  That seals the deal.  When he retells the story to her kin in detail, they declare: The matter was decreed by the LORD; we cannot speak to you bad or good. Reality coiincides with the dream.  That means it is from the Lrd, the maker of reality ... and dreams

How does one decide?  Looking at a young woman, a girl, and trying to find a spouse, a mother, a matriarch.  So much will change through the years and decades.  She will need to adapt to so many circumstances.  Perhaps he was looking for  qualities that would be useful  for this long endeavor, or behaviors  that reflect the right stuff.

The desired, and delivered, response is sympathetic , class-blind, ambitious and efficient  resolution of the entire problem. Once she is made aware of the problem, the human need for water, she undertakes to solve it.  She understands the request for water as an expression of need, not an attempt at dominance.  She does not presume that the requester can do it for himself, she takes this request for water by an able-bodied man with a retinue, as evidence for a hidden issue that validates the request.  She does not look at their relative social states ( he is a servant, she is the daughter of a prince) . She grasps the possibility of a larger problem in getting water, and solves it for the stranger.  These are all fine qualities, immediately revealed by her response: Drink, and I will water you camels,too."  This is a fine test.

The Rabbis criticize the servant for immediately presenting Rivkah with the jewelry, selecting her as the bride.  The servant failed to ask any more questions.  He took the positive response to his test as a sign, he had changed  the test  from a source of information to a revelation.  The question was a Tarot card.

When the servant retells the story in detail, he recognizes  the problem and changes the tale accordingly, falsely reporting that  he interviewed Rivkah prior to the  gifting
 Rivkas's (idolatrous) relatives  also confuse Gd and fate and the incidental when they say: The matter was decreed by the LORD; we cannot speak to you bad or good.
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 When Rivkah  returns she observes something special about Isaac.  He is meditating, per Onkelos, he is praying.  This is a man who does more than work, consume and enjoy.  This is a good sign.


May we all find the god signs.  May they steer us correctly .  May we show good signs to others.