Chayei Sarah: The Test

The test devised by Abraham's servant seems easy.  

וְהָיָ֣ה הַֽנַּעֲרָ֗ אֲשֶׁ֨ר אֹמַ֤ר אֵלֶ֙יהָ֙ הַטִּי־נָ֤א כַדֵּךְ֙ וְאֶשְׁתֶּ֔ה וְאָמְרָ֣ה שְׁתֵ֔ה וְגַם־גְּמַלֶּ֖יךָ אַשְׁקֶ֑ה אֹתָ֤הּ הֹכַ֙חְתָּ֙ לְעַבְדְּךָ֣ לְיִצְחָ֔ק וּבָ֣הּ אֵדַ֔ע כִּי־עָשִׂ֥יתָ חֶ֖סֶד עִם־אֲדֹנִֽי׃

let the maiden to whom I say, ‘Please, lower your jar that I may drink,’ and who replies, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels’—let her be the one whom You have decreed for Your servant Isaac. Thereby shall I know that You have dealt graciously with my master.”

 It looks like a test of hospitality to strangers.  Yes, it calls for an extravagant generosity, but the servant was tasked with finding someone appropriate to the masters favored son, someone who deserves to spawn the next step in an eternal legacy of kindness and concern for strangers. . 

But imagining the scene, especially in the context of the other well stories, reveals something of how difficult this test was. 

Here is this caravan of 10 Lexus camels, laden with finery , accompanied by a retinue. The able bodied leader asks the young girl for a drink of water. Why isn't he getting it himself?  Perhaps there is some physical or mental handicap that is not visible  and she is applying  Hanlon's razor  ( a mental model that teaches us not to always assume the worst intention in the actions of others.)  Serving a servant, under these circumstances, requires an extraordinary degree of magnanimity. 

Alternatively, since he and his group, are foreigners, and well water is a very precious resource, he did not have access to the well, while Rebecca, the local girl, did.  This situation is suggested by the preceding conflict between Avimelech and Abraham, in which they resolve a conflict over wells with the treaty of Be'er Sheva.  From its placement in the narrative, I speculate that Hagar's lack of water may have resulted from the actions of Avimelech's minions on wells that Abraham expected her to encounter.  In the next parsha, we have further conflicts over wells causing Yitzchok to move . 

Yaakov's encounter with Rachel takes place at a well, possibly the same well in Charan.  In that story, the well is generally not opened until the entire community is present, but Yaakov opens it for Rachel and her sheep.  Needing a well for sheep implies a shortage of available water and makes the well a precious community resource.   How could Rebecca allocate water to a group of strangers... and their camels? 

When Moshe meets the daughters of Yithro at the well in Midian, he is the hero who chases  away the molesting shepherds. The well is dangerous place for young women.  How could Rebecca endanger herself for  these strangers? 

Monday is the yahrzeit for my mother.  She was also tested in the extreme.  When the escapees from Treblinka, including my father, appeared to her while she was hiding from the Nazis it was quite the test to share the family that helped her survive with them.  She also passed.